At the last NYUC meeting I had the opportunity to ride a fellow Unatics Radial 360 36” unicycle with a “Wheel TA 36-inch Street Tire.” I immediately noticed a considerable difference with the street tire as opposed to the standard knobby tire.
My first impression was… “Wow, now this is what a street unicycle should feel like when riding on the street!” Going from the standard Coker tire to the TA Street tire was almost like the difference in riding a (Moto X) dirt bike on the street and then riding a street bike on the street… ok not quite as drastic, but you get the idea.
I ordered my TA Street tire from uni.com today and can’t wait to get it onto my airfoil Coker. I hope I don’t have a problem finding a qualified bike shop to put it on for me. If you ride a Coker on the street, I highly recommend this tire… even though it’s $17 more expensive than the already outrageously over-priced standard Coker tire!
I’ve been enjoying my Radial 360 with the TA, it is a smooth ride.
I’m a lightweight (strength) rider and so have ordered a 29" tube to reduce the weight of the coker wheel by ~300 grams from the std coker tube. I’ve never ridden the standard coker tire but I’m sorta looking forward to wearing out the TA tire so to change to the standard coker tire and reduce the weight by another ~100 grams.
the weight will probably increase by ~100 grams when you go from a worn down TA to a new coker tire. i have the radial. i think it’s great, but i’ve never tried the coker.
I had the chance to ride Lottrup’s TA recently, and really liked the way it felt on the street. I’m not sure I do enough offroad cokering to justify the “knobby”, so my next tire purchase will likely be the TA. Unfortunately, since I just replaced my Coker tire, that next purchase won’t be for another 1000+ miles.
Andy, how much should these tires cost? Same as tires made by the thousands? The production runs on these tires must be pitifully small by comparison. But because they are rare, and expensive, it’s important they can take a lot of abuse and go a lot of miles. This is true of the Coker tires, and I hope it’s equally true with the TA tires.
My Coker’s tire is all bald down the middle; maybe I should try one of those tires too!
True. My Coker tire performed great…no cuts or flats…for exactly 1,300 miles, at which point it had a bald strip down the center but wasn’t down to the threads yet. It could have made 1,500 I think, but I changed it because I didn’t want to risk having it go out on me in the middle of the MS-150.
You are correct, John. Given the amount of use I got out of the tire, the price really isn’t so bad… and the point you make about the production run is a good one and would seem to justify the high price. It would have been nice if the street tire were priced more in line with the stock Coker tire, though - which seems reasonable. I guess the price just seems painfully high to me because I’m painfully poor at the moment :(. The stock Coker tire does hold up incredibly well… I hope my new street tire holds up as well or better.
I’m about to make an order with Unicycle.com and I’m going to include a new 36" tire in the order. Right now I’m trying to decide whether to get the Coker tire or the TA tire. I have to make up my mind soon cause I want to place the order…
Which tire to get should be fairly easy to figure out… do you ride your Coker more in the street or on the trails? If the percentage is 50/50 then just flip a coin :D… or save a few bucks and stick with the standard Coker tire.
Or if it’s exactly 50/50, you may want to consider… will the knobby tire work better on the street than the street tire will work on the dirt? I would think the answer is probably yes… but I’m not 100% sure.
We’ll I’ve been swapping between the Coker and TA tires lately. You should know that I ride my ‘Radial 360’ with the 36" TA tire mostly on the street and decided to try the Coker tire for three reasons, to lower the weight of the wheel, get the knobby tire on so I can venture off the street, and I sorta want a ‘Coker’ name on my big wheel.
Starting with the TA tire seems to have spoiled me. When I swapped in the Coker tire, I was very disappointed. On the road, the Coker tire is squirrelly and I felt the crown of the road like never before. I put the TA back on, and the riding was easy and smooth as silk. After wards, I thought maybe I didn’t give the Coker tire long enough, so recently I put the Coker tire back on, but after a few hours of riding I had to return to the TA. I just love that TA tire.
Has any other street riders tried to go from the TA to the Coker tire, I’d expect you’d share a similar experience?
