29er I have gone through all the sizes and the 29er is the best for what you want.
I would not personely get a qu-ax the 48 spoke wheels are heavy and overbuilt imho get a nimbus and pay a tad more to swap the venture cranks to some 150/125mm spirit cranks so you can add a disc to them later. You will find it will be cheaper overall to just get a 29er oracle which has a fitted hub disc set up and is ready to go rather than the hassel of getting the crank based setup working
I started learning on a 20" Qu-Ax Luxus and soon bought a 24" Qu-Ax Luxus (had a more superior feeling over the 20") but i had no idea of Muni at that moment.
So after learning to ride better, trying my first meters offroad and finding this forum (and all teh pics and videos) i bought a 26" Muni which is now my main transport.
It’s sitting in the trunk of my car ready to be used everywhere i go, it can easily be transported by train and subway so i can use it to commute from and to work.
A 29" would be nice (or even a 36") but those would be too big to transport by train or subway easily (at least for commuting) and take up too much room in the car (so they would sit in the garage, probably collecting dust).
Greetings
Byc
P.S.: My 26" is Nimbus Muni Frame, Qu-Ax wheel and saddle, KH pedals, someone built it from used/new parts and sold it, and i am quite happy with this combination.
I’ve got a 24x3 nimbus, a 26" Qu-ax and a KH 29-er. I’ve settled on the 26" Qu-ax (the others are in a cupboard) and find it the most suitable for the riding I do, which is mainly road/pavement with occasional mild muni. That said, i do live in an exceptionally hilly place, and so prefer the slightly lower gearing of the 26 over the 29-er.
Concerning Qu-ax- some are bothered by the 48 spokes- personally, for me, they are not a problem, any extra weight is negligable- and I speak as someone who runs smaller tyres cos they’re lighter, which, again, in an area this hily, is a big factor.
in part because it was on special offer and the price was very good, but it quickly became my prefered unicycle, and, where I to get one in the future, quax would be high on the list: most definitly, IMO, equal in quality to both nimbus and KH.
Note that with quax, the yellow hubs are stronger than the red- though that’s only important for those planning to do big drops/extreme muni.
I have a 20" Koxx, 24" Nimbus, and 29" Nimbus so I’ll chime in with my experience.
I often feel that the 24" is too small and slow (I almost immediately wished I had gotten a 26" instead).
I haven’t taken the 29er offroad much, just on easy XC trails, but I would definitely feel nervous taking it onto anything techy.
It seems like a 26" would be the perfect compromise for me at least.
For on street use, the climbing ability of a 26 vs 29 is a wash. Ultimately they climb about the same on regular streets. The 29 is going is going To get you around faster. The 29 wins for street use.
For Xc off road use, dirt roads, walking trails, jeep trails it is pretty much a tie again between the 26 and 29. More tires available for the 26. 26 wins? Some will disagree with me on this and also give this to the 29
For more tech muni I’ll give it to the 26 since a 24 lost the other two for sure.
So based on the above if your going to do more street and Xc riding get a 29. If the majority of your riding is off road Xc and tech muni get a 26.
U could climb just about any hill, but that’s dependent on the steepness, length, your fitness & climbing skill.
For example in prob the toughest road climb race in the US is Whiteface. If I remember correctly the largest wheel that riders did well on is 29.
I think some riders often do the Mt Diablo race in Oakland, Ca on 36ers w/ smallish cranks.
OP- if u want to eventually do fairly tech Muni I’d get a 26 Muni w/ a variety of cranks. W/ small cranks its decent on the road, w/ longer cranks and it’d be good for hill climbs, and Muni.
If cost is no object, then a 26" with geared hub would appear to tick all the boxes - both off road and speed on the flat.
I have a 26 Muni and swapped the cranks from the original 165mm to 115mm and it FLEW along at great speed! So, if cost is an object, then be aware that a quick change of cranks can open up the capabilities of the wheel you have. Albeit with a bit of learning curve to know how to handle the new crank configuration.
Pretty much the same here, the last time I rode a 26" was last summer, I took out the Large Marge with a “skinny tire”.
Any wheel can serve your purposes, even a 36", the quesion is what will be the most fun; I assume you are like the rest of us and unicycle for fun not for efficiency
So you have one year on a 20"? Well, the easiest thing to do would be to get a 24", that would be the least akward adjustment, but then you wouldn’t be that much further along the size continuum, so it wouldn’t be long before you were back asking the same quesion.
The real question is how much wheel can you handle with your current skill level without beating yourself down?
I would never ride anythg smaller than a 29" on the road, it’s just far to slow, so you know my answer there. I ride serious muni on a 29" and XC on a 36". However, when I tried to transition from a 26" to a 29" after a year of riding, it was such a struggle that I gave up; it took another year before I started back on a 29".
I think you should get a 29", start riding it on the road, then gradually take it off road, it will give you the most bang for your buck without making your life too hard. A 36" would be another option, but most people would not consider it an off road uni, as well it would be a big learning curve.
As to which one to buy from your list? None of the above!
Get an 29" Oracle and be done, don’t buy old tech excpet as a trainer to teach your friends
If it doesn’t work out, the Oracle will have the best resale or trade potential, whereas like you said: “there are a lot of used 24/26 for sale”.
Thanks for all the advice guys, very much appreciated!
Sadly money is very much an object and at £255 the Nimbus Muni is at the top of my current budget, if it wasn’t I’d definately be building from scratch but sadly I haven’t the money or patience to wait and build my dream ride yet. The current idea I have is to go for the 26" Nimbus and then in a few months when I’ve had some proper time in the saddle on some flat trails upgrade the cranks to some KH disc 110/137’s and whack a disc brake on. Then I’d have a pretty good length for going off road (at least I think so from what I’ve read on here) and a shorter option for when I just fancy a quick bomb on the roads.
Further down the line I may well end up buying a 29" or more likely 36" specifically for road use which means I’ll be able to run this one purely for off road use and could easily turn it into a 24" if I wanted with just a change of rim and tyre. This is what is currently making me lean toward a 26", we all know that no one can manage with just one uni so I’m just trying to plan ahead a bit to save me money I don’t need to spend and cover all my options.
