Okay, I’ve had enough of all the discussions of which unicycle components are lighter and how much does a particular model weigh and “I can’t hop 'cause my unicycle is too heavy”… Granted, these issues make for great excuses, but they just don’t cut the mustard with me.
So here is the official thread on making your unicycle lighter. As a guide, let’s incorporate all ideas that are plausible (not completely impossible, like anti-gravity devices) and can be incorporated into a unicycle without making it unridable or turning it into a fancy BC wheel (sorry Evan).
Here’s a list of things I came up with to help “lighten your load”… Please add your thoughts, comments, questions etc.!
Scrape off all paint, plating, etc. until you're at bare metal. A single coat of "Rustoleum" is all one needs to avoid frame damage.
Cut all but a few knobbies off your tire. If you're sliding around, you've obviously got poor technique.
Throw away your handle. People can hop JUST FINE holding the seat between their thighs. Everyone knows SIF hopping is better, anyways!
FERCHRISSAKES cut the extra laces hanging off your seat cover! Do you know how much that fat double-knot weighs? Better yet, use fishing line!
Foam seat cushion? Gel? Airseat? Throw it all out, you sissy. You're obviously rabid if you think unicycling could ever be made comfortable.
A fatty rubber inner tube is unnecessary... we've some tubeless Coker riders who can attest to that. In the case that it is absolutely necessary, go with a mylar balloon. And fill it with hydrogen, of course.
Who cares about your fancy stem cap that looks like a skull or a die or a missile or whatever? Throw it away. Don't you know the whole reason a beginning unicyclist "wobbles" is from that stem cap?
Aluminum frame? Titanium cranks? Carbon fiber, baby! (Even the spokes and rim!) It's the future of unicycling! Scott Wallis is our prophet!
Who said greasing your threads was a good idea? Do you know how many ounces of grease can hang out in the nooks and crannies of your uni? Get some solvent and clean it all out!
Splines, tapers, threads, bah! Weld your cranks, pedals and seatpost in place and you won't have all those heavy bolts and nuts on your unicycle.
Okay, that’s all I’ve got for now. Perhaps an enterprising young uni rider with too much time on his hands can Photoshop us a picture of the “ultimately light unicycle”… or not.
break out your drill and start putting holes in your frame and seat post.
This is a serious proposal, and if done right, will not have a drastic effect on the strength of the frame. Harper (amongst others) will be able to back me up on this (or make a total fool out of me).
Another idea is to make sure your seat post isn’t any longer than needed. I’m not sure what the minimum length that needs to be inside of your frame needs to be. I’d guess two inches? one even? cut it to that, but don’t take my word on the two inches.
lets cut the BS and think of some real stuff, if you did that stuff people would lauph twice as hard at you than normal.
Cmon, cut the nobbies off your tire? are you nuts? lol
some reall thing would be to get a light aluminum(sp?) frame, light hub and cranks, like the KH 05 hubs, light peddals like Jim C or those $122 titanuim i think it is peddals. can’t do much for the tire, but get like a Gazz or Duro, light seat like Miyata or KH Gel, aluminum seat pose, carbon fiber seat base, light rim like KH rim, or DX-32,
Yea that would be a pretty light machine there, o yea and this stuff would be for a Muni
screw modding your unicycle just get ripped then you dont have to worry about spending a fortune ona unicycle and maybe people wont laugh at you as much b ut i dont kno y they do in the first place:p
If someone is that concerned with weight then they should ditch the splined set up and get some cotterless. Sure, they suck but really light. Also, plastic pedals…
Or you could just buy a torker lx or some cheap uni, it won’t be good for much of anything but its light.
become anorexic…just stop eating and drinking anything. you’ll only last for a week or two before you die, but until then, you could lose, say, thirty or forty pounds!!
man, who needs a tyre? Seriously… just ride on the air-chamber.
or, for the really hardcore people… only use about a forth of your tire to cover the bottom of the wheel when you hop. The trials people’ll know what I mean.
Reduce spoke count, of course. Once you get down to 4 or 5 spokes, you’ll really feel the difference.
Remove all pins from your pedals.
Cut off the parts of your seat that you don’t actually sit on. You don’t need the very edge of your seat, come on.
Drill holes in everything.
Take out any unnecesary bolts/ screws on your unicycle. leave 2 for your seat, take out the pinch bolts on the cranks, and just toss out the seat post clamp.
-Ride barefoot, Shoes are for losers and sissies.
-titanium, 18 gua. spokes with “alloy” (al.) nipples
-a hub with more holes than Bush’s economic policy
-pedals that only extend out 1/2 as far as normal. It’ll knock down on pedal hits, aswell.
-titanium, smaller diameter pedal spindle
-screw a seatpost clamp, use epoxy.
-babbitt plain bearings, none of this newfangled steel stuff going on.
-2" dia. legs for the frame, with 0.002" wall thickness. material? Magnesium. if you still need more stiffness, compress 200 PSI of H into the thing.
-no pads in seat, but no seatframe, either. Just two curved tubes.
Then, when you’re done, go whine about how it’s still not light enough and after all that money you spent, your riding still sucks.
As for drilling, i get the feeling that people who have never drilled a frame are the ones who advocate it. Harper’s muni frame is solid freakin’ aluminum, one of the most easily milled and drilled materials in the industry. It’s designed around drilling. Tubes are designed to be tubes, not swiss cheese. If drilling holes helped so much, why don’t we see trials bikers with drilled forks? They have been known to go so far as to chop knobbies off the tire, so I’m sure they’ve thought of this one. Any weight savings by hole drilling could easily be done by thinning wall thickness initially.
A drilled seatpost will lose a ton of torsional stiffness, among other things.
i think that wanting to have a lighter uni is a legitimate thing
rotating mass, like you talked about jason, doesn’t matter for trials
and losing body weight doesn’t matter either
to prove this, take a look at what you can do without the uni
go stand next to a 3-foot ledge and “sidehop” up it, tucking your legs
then try it with a uni, can u do it???
u have to pull up the uni and the weight does matter, rotating or not.
a different kind of concern is rotating weight on a coker, which is why people go tubeless
