ok, so I know a ton of threads have been started about these, but I have some questions. I would be doing only muni on it, so I was wondering which would be better. The 2 1/2in. tire or the 3". I have been doing longer rides, and after going on a fairly gentil ride with 1 person on a old 24" kh and me and 2 others on 20"s, I realized how much easier it is to cover distance on the bigger wheel.
do the different size wheels change the abbility to hop/drop?
If you want to do non-technical long distance rides, you should consider getting a larger wheel than 24". For cross country riding, I’ve found that a 29er is great - it irons out the bumps well and is really fast. Even a 26 will be some of the way there.
If you’re not doing highly technical stuff the larger wheel will be an advantage (and if you’re not doing big drops / hops / etc you won’t need splined).
I’ve done a lot of riding on a 26x3" setup, and recently have been riding a KH XC, with the only modification being that I put 170mm cranks on it.
From the day I got the KH XC (which at the time had 150mm cranks), I found it to be at least as good as the 26x3" at hopping and dropping. The narrower tire doesn’t absorb the impact quite as much, but I found the lighter weight made it easier to control, even with the short cranks.
When riding it this year with 170mm cranks at Moab, I did and landed bigger drops than I ever had before, and was less fatigued at the end of the day, partly because of the lower weight.
The only situation where I’ve found the 3" tire provides consistently better performance is on loose surfaces like sand or scree. I prefer the lighter, nimbler setup.
I think I’ll get the freeride than, because I do quite alot of big drops(4 ft. and higher) and I have been doing muni on a kh trials so I think the 3" tire will be ann advantage.
I have a Torker DX, which “feels” like the KH XC as it has the same tire and crank length. I do tons of trials and drops on it, as well as north shore freeriding. (allthough nowere near as much as I’d like too)
Don’t forget that a 3" tyre will fit on an XC. The rim is a little narrower (38mm on the XC vs. 42.2 mm on the Freeride), but it will support the wider tyre according to Amy at unicycle.com.
