I’ve been working on a few FAQ’s about the new varieties of unicycling and one of the issues I want to explore is whether the 20” wheel is still dominant for non specific use and the first choice for beginning unicyclists.
If a beginner asked me to recommend a first unicycle I’d not automatically suggest a 20”-er.
Obviously, if they know for sure they’re into Muni, or into freestyle, then the choice is clear.
I’m thinking of the situation where it’s not clear if they’re going to get into tricks, or muni, or just riding round the streets.
In that case, isn’t the 24” as good, or better, choice as a 20” i.e. whereas a 20” is good for trials, hockey, tricks, freestyle, the 24” is good for muni, street riding and most tricks aren’t massively more difficult.
I also consider that a 24” isn’t more difficult than a 20” to learn on.
These are my opinions, if you have experience that agrees with it or conflicts with it, I would appreciate your comments (for example if you’ve seen a variety of beginners learning on 20” and 24” and formed a opinion based on what you’ve seen)
I agree. MUni is impractical on a 20" as well, though it seems to be popular in some areas.
For general purpose indoor riding, a 20" is probably your best bet for learning. But the choice of the unicycle should be based on riding it, not the learning process. If you intend to ride indoors, 20" is great.
Outdoors, 20" is great for kids, but for general riding I’d also recommend a 24" for anyone tall enough to fit it. You can still do all sorts of tricks (look at Teresa and Sem), and it will also get you somewhere at better speed than a 20".
If nothing else is being considered, 20" is probably the better size to learn on. But it usually isn’t the only consideration. There is not much difference between 20" and 24" for people who are tall enough. When asked, at beginner workshops, what size is better for learning, I always tell the riders “the size you have.” If you only have one, it should be fine. If you’re shopping for one, base your choice on the kind of riding you think you will do.
That said, if you’re a total beginner and you know you want to get seriously into MUni, you might think about starting on a 20" because you know you’ll be buying a different uni later. Aggressive MUnis are not great for learning on, especially with grippy tires and long cranks. Of course you can learn on one, but if you start with the 20", you’ll have something to bang around on, learn tricks, and lend out to all your friends so they can learn.
Nowadays, when people ask me, I always suggest they buy the cheapest 24x3 muni Roger sells, which is actually an alright one and then bung a cheap slick tyre on it for a week while they learn to ride a little bit and then learn the rest offroad. With a slick tyre, the 24x3 munis are pretty similar to a normal 24" and then they don’t need to go through the buy a cheap 20/24 and then break it phase of learning to unicycle.
Also, I tell people to go offroad as soon as they can ride at all, because I reckon it means you learn quicker and get less bored. I certainly don’t think people need to spend like a month or more of learning before heading onto easy trails. There are often more trees to hold onto offroad too which is good for beginners.
Obviously pretty much everyone who asks me is interested in muni riding, I don’t get to talk to people much when road riding and I don’t do much other riding.
Hehe, one day I came flying down a hill on my coker when some old guy stepped out of his car, looked carefully, then asked “how do you stop??” By which time I was already 20m past him and I just shouted “I don’t know!!!” in a worried tone of voice as I sped off into the distance.
I think we should remember that people who take sufficient interest in the sport to post here are probably in the minority. I believe that most unicycles sold are bought as novelties, are ridden a few times, if at all, and end up languishing in the garage or shed.
From the point of view of recruiting people into the sport (IF we agree that that is important) I think the biggest consideration has to be ease of learning.
It is definitely easier to learn to freemount and steer a 20, compared to a 24. So if someone with only a passing interest in unicycling asks me, I recommend a 20. There is a greater chance that it will be used.
If someone already has some experience, or is a keen BMX/MTB/Trials bicyclist, I would probably recommend the 24 as a first uni.
I started unicycling just over 5 months ago and first tried to learn on a 24" without much success. I then purchased a 20" Torker Unistar and found it much easier to ride.
After learning to ride on the 20", I soon found riding the 24" was much easier. I would definately say (that in my case) a 20" was the way to go.
Since then, I’ve moved up to a 24x3 Muni and just recently purchased a 28" to play with
I started unicycling just over 5 months ago and first tried to learn on a 24" without much success. I then purchased a 20" Torker Unistar and found it much easier to ride.
After learning to ride on the 20", I soon found riding the 24" was much easier. I would definately say (that in my case) a 20" was the way to go.
What was most difficult about the 24"-er?
And, has anyone had the opposite experience of finding a 24" easier to learn on than a 20"?
The fact that my 24" was a no-name piece of junk with 170 mm cranks may have had something to do with the difficulty. I think the shorter cranks on the 20" may have been a plus. I also think the “intimidation factor” is a lot less on a 20" being as you don’t seem so high up and less nervous about falling.
Learnig to freemount was definately a lot less intimidating on the 20" making it more “beginner-friendly”
170mm cranks and a nasty seat / tyre might do more damage to your learning speed than a difference in wheel size?
I learnt on a 24 with 150 cranks, which is the same wheel & crank size as a lot of people use for muni in the UK. I didn’t have any problems, although I’m medium-tall, so maybe that makes a difference. I didn’t try a 20 first though. I’d never recommend a 20" to people simply because you can’t use them for transportation, whereas a 24" is actually vaguely useful as well as being a novelty. That was why I chose the 24", I wanted something to ride around town.
Also important is where they’re likely to be learning. When I’ve taught the kids round here, down the end of our road, which is flat, but not a perfect surface, they’ve actually made much faster progress on the 26x2.6, 150mm crank Gazzaloddi wheel, with great spiky pedals, than on the 24" DM with a narrow hard tyre. They reckoned it was because the big fat gazz went in a straight line whereas they twisted too much and fell off the side of the 24". Also with the 24 they came off on any bumps, which doesn’t help. I’d suspect if you’re not going to be learning in a gym on a flat floor, or in a tennis court or something similar, a bigger wheel may actually be an advantage.
As for difficulty, I’m unconvinced that there’s any difference in how hard it is to freemount a 20 and a 24 unless you’re 4 foot tall. I reckon riding a straight line is easier on a bigger wheel, simply because it isn’t so flicky.
>I also consider that a 24” isn’t more difficult than a 20” to learn
>on.
Adults on a 20" or smaller wheel learn 30% quicker than adults on a
24" or larger. This is based on the first batch of responses in the
“How long did it take you to learn?” thread.
But there are more issues than just learning time as John Foss
explained so well.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“No two crotches are alike. If they are, I don’t want to know about it. - John Foss, on seat comfort.”
Reposted on the forum because it got not forwarded from the newsgroup.
>I also consider that a 24” isn’t more difficult than a 20” to learn
>on.
Adults on a 20" or smaller wheel learn 30% quicker than adults on a
24" or larger. This is based on the first batch of responses in the
“How long did it take you to learn?” thread.
But there are more issues than just learning time as John Foss
explained so well.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“No two crotches are alike. If they are, I don’t want to know about it. - John Foss, on seat comfort.”
Obviously, if they have any real interest in unicycling, they’ll
wind up with three or more different unicycles. The first one should
be cheap and easy to learn on. The ones that come after will be
specialized to Muni, trials or whatever.
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Gardner Buchanan <gbuchana@rogers.com>
Ottawa, ON FreeBSD: Where you want to go. Today.
