Hey I was wondering what the difference was between having a 24" or 26" wheel on a MUni. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Nathan
24" Muni’s will give you a little more versatility on technical parts than a 26". But i ride a 26" and a Coker Muni. Once you master the wheel size the bigger the more speed,distance and fun. I don’t feel going from a 24" to a 26" will feel much different after a short ride. But your speed and distance will both increase.
Have Fun, I do
24"
pros:
more durability
more flexible (extreme trials, freestyle, urban, downhill)
3" tire (with less weight)
what the best riders ride
matches the 26" in speed
cons:
small selection of tires
less local availability (LBS)
26"
pros:
seems lighter
WIDE selection of tires
wide selection of rims
??
cons:
less durable
more weight with a cushy 3" tire
26" is faster than 24". I can just about keep up with Roger Davies on a 26" until it gets super-technical and he certainly is a bit faster than me on an equal wheel size.
26" is nicer for riding most mountain bike trails, riding singletrack etc., 24" is nicer for riding big drops, hopping up things.
I like 26" with a 2.6" tyre because I don’t have a car, so I’m often riding long distances from train stations or from home. The extra 10% or so (the difference between a fat 24" and a fat 26") does increase the distance you can do in a day, which makes a bit of difference if you’re wanting to do a lot of riding (40+ miles of trails in a day).
Joe
crank length plays a role.
skill plays a role
24" and 26" can easily be equivalents in speed.
Except for the fact that tires and rims are common, I see little use for the 26" size. If you’re not going to do much hopping and such might as well run the 29" 
I have a 26" Yuni.
I think the question really comes down to riding style. The 24 will be better at hopping and gapping; the 26 will be better at rolling obstacles. I roll. I use a 26".
The comparison to a 29er is ludicrous; there is no similarity at all between a 29er and a 26x3.0".
Think before you attack people. The rolling diameter of a 26x3 tire is usually somewhere around 27.8-28 inches. A 29er is about 29 inches. A 29er will often feel a lot better since the wheel is so much lighter.
I own both a 26x3.0" (Gazz) and a 29x2.1" (NanoRaptor); there is no similarity at all between the two of them in terms of ride characteristics. The fact that the tires are similar in diameter is almost completely irrelevant.
You’re an overly defensive idiot, who is mistaken. CL said that if you’re going to be just rolling you may as well go for a 29er, and I see merit in his point (I am aware of the smiley).
A 29er is a decent option for XC and light to mid level muni with little hopping. The more technical the riding gets, the smaller the wheel needs to be to make the riding easy.
So really a 26x3 is only 1 step below a 29er with a 2.35 tire.
Your claim is that they share no ride characteristics. That is purely subjective. They obviously share some ride characteristics (one wheel etc) but you are eliminating the ones you think are insignifigant. This is where discretion comes in. You may think they ride nothing alike, but they are more similar than 29er and coker or 29er and 20’'. It’s just that your opinion is different from everyone elses.
The original poster is asking for the difference between a 24" and a 26" MUni. Therefore, at least he believes that those things are similar enough to want to choose between them. It is realistic to expect so, since they are in the same category on unicycle.com, and they are viewed in the same way by the riders. At Moab, 80% of the riders are on 24" wheels, 20% are on 26" wheels, and maybe 1% will be on 29" wheels or Cokers. (OK, I rode Moab on a 29er in 2003, but I bent a crank and taco’ed the wheel). For 24 Hours at Laguna Seca, all the riders are on 29ers or Cokers; you won’t see 24" or 26" wheels, except perhaps for night laps.
Obviously you can ride a 29er off-road, and it’s just great for some things. The things it is great for are totally different than the things a 26x3.0" MUni is good for. Again, I’m speaking as someone who has put in hundreds of miles on both.
So I am trying to correct some advice that is not only bad, but is ignorant of the question being asked and the distinction being made.
Wow! This has got a few people going hasn’t it?
Calm down Guy’s
Anyway, to the question:
I have a 26" Pashley, and I am planning on getting a 24" Kris Holm hopefully next month (If they are in stock by then).
I am planning a change for a few reasons; one is that I am climbing steeper hills now, so I want a better climbing ratio. I also wanted an upgrade, and 24" seems to have more choice of number of unicycles to choose from than 26".
I am planning the Freeride Kris Holm 24", for the bigger tyre, and longer cranks, and the Kris Holm will give me the option of fitting a brake. Not many 26" unicycles give an option of brake mounts.
I am hoping that the 24" with a 3" tyre will still roll over bumps and tree roots.
Innes
Thanks everyone for the info. Also Tholub check your math skills, 80% + 20% +1% = 101% that doesn’t work right 
24" vs 26"
You know how a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, riding one of each would be worth a million. If you come to Moab, I’ll let you try out my 24" Wilder and a 26" Yuni. Both are great for certain things, but they’re very different.
Most experienced riders agree, however, that a 24" MUni works better in most MUni situations. I certainly do feel that way. But, it’s a personal decision that should be made with consideration given to where and how you tend to ride. Good luck!
Rather than argue back and forth about inches (especially since mine is longer anyway :o ) perhaps tholub will enlighten us all on the significant differences in riding characteristics between a 26" and a 29" while keeping in mind his quotes:
- “there is no similarity at all between the two of them in terms of ride characteristics.”
- “the 26 will be better at rolling obstacles. I roll.”
I think the root of this conflict is skill.
Even though tholub claims to have ridden hundreds of miles on both wheel sizes, I recall an observation:
For those who can’t ride very well, equipment makes all the difference. a carbon fiber seat, a millimeter in crank length, a single pound of weight, .4 inches of tire width, 2" of diameter, the amount of sh*t in the intestines and bloodstream, and the average heart rate on Wednesday.
For those who can ride . . . Well, let me stop right there: Observe several Kris Holm clips where he uses a 26" to do trials at a level beyond 99% of the 20" riders. In contrast, the better riders rarely (if ever) whine about minor equipment differences.
With that . . .
I retract my request for clarification from tholub. After reasonable consideration, I realize that his opinions about minor changes in attributes - simply don’t matter.
Back on topic:
Original weissnp question:
“Hey I was wondering what the difference was between having a 24” or 26" wheel on a MUni. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Nathan"
At MOAB I noticed that the the best riders were on 24".
The benefit to riding a 24" is obvious - you get to take advantage of the insight of the greatest riders. Otherwise, you may end up short (pun intended) and . . .
. . . posting comments and personal attacks like tholub.
Hey guys, you really need to take a breather before you respond with such scathing messages. Tom used the word ludicrious as an adjective to describe a comparison. …maybe a little strong of an adjective, but still nothing close to the downright hateful stuff you guys came back with.
You guys responded with personal attacks. That’s really not cool, and it happens way too often here.
Especially when you’re calling someone an idiot and insulting their skill for describing their personal experiences and riding style (just because you hop everything, it doesn’t mean you’re more skillful than someone who can roll the same obstacles), especially when you don’t even counter with your own experiences.
Having ridden all three styles of unicycles (yesterday actually), I can say that I would offer almost the exact same opinions as Tom. Of COURSE it’s subjective. Opinions always are.
A true debate would be interesting. Having differing opinions and experiences would help everybody see different perspectives.
Insults and name calling are base and have no place here.
Seriously people, raise the standard around here a little.
i ride a 24" muni and am switching to 26" for speed/rollover effect. i do not think that the weight will make that much difference when trying to hop, also since a 26" can weigh less that a 24" depending of what parts it has.
Also, i am going to side with Obie on the argument, because riding characteristics are purely subjective. ive ridding many wheel sizes, and for good comparison on this subject i would ride a 170mm coker like Mackenzies and a short cranked MUni, like frank brown’s 24" muni with 145mm profiles. similarities are apparent, as well as differences.
also, i’m poor. someone buy my stuff. for infinity munnies.
I’ll admit I was a little quick to jump into attack mode. I was just pissed off by the way his responses had an “I’m right and everyone else’s opinion isn’t worth my time” vibe. Oh wells, I disagree with what he said, I can move on.
In the future though, please note the disclaimer in my signature. That gives me free reign to say anything I wish without fear of the consequences. 
I ride a 26x3" (Nimbus). When I bought it I had never ridden with any other unicyclists, so had to make the choice based on what I would use it for. I would refer to most of my off-road riding as cross-country rather than technical muni, but there are some rocky sections where I ride, so I wanted something reasonably strong. I ended up going for the 26" because it would be (in theory) slightly faster on the easier bits of trail but still rideable when it gets rougher. And I’m happy with my choice, although I have still not ridden a 24" muni. I’m not a greatly skilled rider (yet :D) and I’m sure there are lots of people who could spin shorter cranks on a 24" and leave me standing, but I feel the 26" suits me better at the moment. As for the weight argument, I really don’t think it would be that noticeable - extra bits on a 26" are two 1" lengths of frame tube and about 6" section of tyre and rim, oh and 36" of spoke wire. I know it’s a heavy tyre, but I reckon the lot must weigh less than half a pound. When the whole unicycle weighs in at between 15 and 20 lbs it’s not that significant. I agree with the point that a smaller wheel may well be better for very technical riding though.
Not really on the original poster’s topic, but for my riding (which usually includes some road as well as the trails) an even larger wheel like a 29" (possibly with shorter cranks than the 165s I have at the moment) would probably be even better, but with my current skill level the extra speed would frighten me and I would be afraid of damaging the lighter wheel on the rocky sections of the paths.
Anyway, enough waffle… the point is that I chose a 26" and it suits my riding style very well.
Rob
I wish I could make it to Moab but I have no way of getting out there. Just to tell you all I have a 24" Qu-ax MUni (which is very nice ). The point of this thread was to get some info for a friend who is building his own muni, and since no one around here rides a 26" we were wondering what the differance was.
Nathan
Disclaimers are for used car salesmen, sketchy pharmaceuticals, weasels and lawyers.
What I’m wondering is the performance of a 24" vs. 26" on really steep stuff. Granted, I should probably get a brake, but sans brake, would one have more control with a smaller or larger wheel? I’m finding there are some sections of my favorite trails I just can’t roll 'cause my 24" gets a bit too squirrely…