24" slick tires: 3 Skinny tires for a smooth ride

Unicycles and Equipment
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I was encouraged by a simply fanstastic pavement ride today on my 26x1.25" slick. Smooth and easy to pedal, it feels like you’re floating on air. Even when I went on some hardpacked dirt the slick tire felt just great.

So I hunted for 24" slick tires and came up with 3 tires in addition to the Dyno Kruiser Fireball 24x3.0" (out of production) and the IRC Metro 24x2.0" (seemingly impossible to find unless you travel to Japan).

IRC Triathlon: 24x1.0", 125 psi, 220gm. This tire should get that rolling resistance down! If you pump it anywhere near 100psi it’ll certainly ache the ol’ behind. Air seat mandatory. I’m not sure tires get any thinner.
http://www.irctire.com/pages/roadprod.html

Panaracer Technova II semislick: 24x1.0", 94-123 psi, 200gm. When you compare this tire to the 24x3.0 Gazz at 1350gm you’ll simply forget you even have a tire.
http://www.panaracer.com/e03lineup/roadstradius.html#technova

Terry Fat Girl slick: 24x1.25", $24US. Terry makes custom bicycles for women. This tire, made by Vee Rubber in Thailand, is a copy of the Specialized Fat Boy which used to make a 24x1.25", but stopped. This tire has no specs on the Terry site, but looks pretty promising. If you purchase and use this tire please tell me if it’s good. It may even bring out your feminine side…
http://www.terrybicycles.com/BPA/2400000.lasso

Because these tires are very skinny, you should ensure that your rim is at least the same width as or skinnier than the tire.

Check out all my findings of 24" slicks as well as a large collection of 26" slicks. You’ll quickly notice that there is so much more variety of 26" slicks, and no, I don’t have MTB envy.

I’ll be hyperlinking tire prices when I have time, but remember, I don’t sell tires.

Don_TaiATyahooDOTcoDOTuk, Toronto, Canada

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don.tai

what size cranks were you using?i find with a skinny tire on my muni my 170mm cranks make my wheel yaw an flutter,so to be floating on a cloud i think i’d have to get smaller ones.

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I agree that shorter cranks will give you a much smoother ride, but with less torque/power. I’m using 130mm cranks. I also have 150mm cranks on my MUni with a 24x2.6" Kenda Kolossal, and no, it’s not like floating on air.

I agree that even with the 150mm cranks I feel the wobble.

Don_TaiATyahooDOTcoDOTuk, Toronto, Canada

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Re: 24" slick tires: 3 Skinny tires for a smooth ride

In article <don.tai.2ermb@timelimit.unicyclist.com>,
don.tai <don.tai.2ermb@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
)
)Check out all my findings of 24" slicks as well as a large collection of
)26" slicks. You’ll quickly notice that there is so much more variety of
)26" slicks, and no, I don’t have MTB envy.
)
)http://torontounicyclists.tripod.com/tire.htm

The Miyata Flamingo tire sold by unicycle.com is a 24x1.75 semi-slick.
-Tom

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Re: 24" slick tires: 3 Skinny tires for a smooth ride

[QUOTE]
[i]Originally posted by don.tai
and the IRC Metro 24x2.0" (seemingly impossible to find unless you travel to Japan).

Don,

John Drummond was able to get me a couple IRC Metro 24x2.0 tires recently, not sure if he still has any or not. I was looking for something with a bit more wearability than the standard issue “Fat Boy” wide white wall tire that came on my uni. I received the tires in the winter and tried them out in the gym during our club meetings. At first, the Metro was as slick as trying to ride on butter when trying to do spins or semi-tight turns. Lowering the air pressure seemed to help a bit but I still had problems. Now that the tire is wearing though, the slipperiness seems to have diminished a bit. Outside on the pavement, the tires are fantastic.

I need to find a 24" non-marking tire. I understand Miyata makes one but I’ve heard around the grapevine that the Miyata tires are not the best. I wonder if there is a white or other colored 24" non-marking tire?

Bruce

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Re: Re: 24" slick tires: 3 Skinny tires for a smooth ride

I got a 24" grey non-marking tire from Semcycle. I don’t see it in the Semcycle catalog but I think Semcycle has them. I think I got mine directly from Sem at the '99 NUC. It would be worth checking with Semcycle to see. Otherwise try unicycle.com to see if they can get the tire.

There aren’t a lot of 24" non-marking tires out there that I’m aware of. For 20" tires there are many choices. For 24" there are very few choices.

john_childs