I’m just wondering whether there is any possibility of fitting a 26" wheel into a KH24 frame? Obviously, it’ll be a tight fit, and it’ll depend on tyre size, so the question is what’s the largest tyre that’ll fit, and/or what’ll the clearance be - is it a case of a 1" tyre (25-559) being the largest that’ll go, or is there room for a 2", or what?
If anyone has a KH24 frame and could measure it with a ruler/tape measure - e.g. distance from the axle center to bottom of fork crown, anything like that, that’d be very much appreciated. If anyone has actually tried then even better :-)…
I have the 2007 KH24 and although I don’t have it here in front of me I can tell you that my 24x3 Gazz fits in there with enough room to spare that I can pick my unicycle up by grabbing the frame from right above the wheel with plenty of room w/o my fingers getting pinched by the tire. And I do believe that my 24x3 gazz measures out at over 25" anyhow. So my bet is that a skinnier 26" tire may fit, but certainly not a 26x3 Gazz (I’ve got that too and it measures out at right at 28"). Good Luck.
A 26X2.0 should fit fine. Any larger might hit the crown.
But why would you do that? To have a road wheel you can switch out w/o having to remove the knobby tire or need two complete unis? I’d go w/ two seperate unis.
I have no clue if this will help your situation at all however I know a few people use a 26" x 3.0" wheel in the 29" KH frame instead and it fits very well.
Was this question for me? The Large Marge I got was a 24" wheel with a 3.0" tire. The only stock 24" frames which fit it comfortably are the KH and surly conundrum frames so I had to use a 26" nimbus x frame.
Sorry, for some reason I thought the whole thing was a 26".:o
Edit: How would you compare that rim to other 24’s you’ve ridden? I hear it’s great at absorbing drops, a bit more sluggish at turns, and less spring for hopping. Do you like it significantly better thatn say, a 07 KH?
I’ve never ridden on a 07 KH 24" rim but my old muni had the 24" alex rim and the LM is infinitely better. It’s certainly much better at absorbing bumps and drops because at that rim width the sidewalls of the 3" duro leopard are almost straight up making the tire very wide and incredibly stable at even the lowest pressures. I disagree about it being less springy, maybe thats just because people run it at a lower pressure than they are able to with a narrower rim? By far the most amazing quality of the wheel is that there is absolutely no fold over. I was able to sidehop up and down sheer steep rock faces which I could never have imagined doing on the alex rim.
Thanks for the itfo - if a 26*2" fits with adequate clearance, I may be ok. The suggestion that I’m thinking of having a road wheel and a muni wheel isn’t far out, tho:
Situation is that at the moment I’m running a 26*2.2 (52-559) “Halo Twin Rail” tyre (fwiw, on a Halo Combat rim) in a Nimbus 26" frame. I really like this tyre, it handles great on road, can be pumped up really hard, and is surprisingly good off-road (XC) at lower pressures - letting a lot of air out, I’ve even ridden it in snow. However, I’m now wondering about building the same rim/tyre up around a KH/Schlumpf hub, which means I have to have a KH frame to get the machined bearing clamps. The safe option is presumably to go with a KH29, but I’m attracted to the KH24 as it’s smaller and seems “neater” / easier to carry about when disassembled, etc., plus it leaves me the option of building a 24" technical muni at some point in the future if I want to…
It would seem odd to do that. If you built up a 26" wheel in a 29er frame, then rather than having the option of building up a technical muni by spending a fortune on a whole new wheelset, you could just stick a gazz 26x2.6 or 26x3 on your 26" wheelset, and you’d have a great technical muni for twenty quid. We went downhilling in the alps this summer on a mix of 24" and 26" wheels, and there’s not much difference between the two in terms of what you can ride, most people have 24 just because KH sells them.
In terms of the size of the frame for convenience when it is disassembled, there’s very little in it (see picture at http://www.unicycle.co.uk/Images/Shop/framekhtrials.jpg ), the wheel is always going to be the most inconvenient thing.
The only downside of going bigger, is that you might have to mess around to fit a brake to a 26" wheel, but whatever happens you’re probably going to have to do something about that, a brake is really very useful on road with a geared uni.
joemarshall may have it right - putting a 26*3 would probably give a good technical muni, yes, good idea, and hadn’t really thought of that. So thanks for the advice. But 'tis good to know the frame size - now I can apply my own tape measure too…
If you are giving serious thought to a KH/Schlumpf hub then it would seem that you’re not ‘financially challenged’. But you’re happy to compromise on the frame.
Why not take a look at the Triton/Sponge frame? They are custom made in whatever size you want (even with 2 pairs of Magura mounts for different wheel sizes), and would be lighter, stronger and cooler than the KH frame.
I think Alan’s primary concern here is that he wants a 26" and he wants to make sure his bearing holders are good enough for the KH/Schlumpf (which replaces the torque arm with a knurled sleeve help in place by the bearing clamps).
Obviously, the KH frames are adequate to hold the sleeve in places. So really, a related question is whether you actually need the super-accurate machined bearing holders of the KH in order to use that hub.
I hope Alan won’t mind me jumping in here and volunteering that he currently has a Nimbus II frame, which has stamped, not machined, bearing holders. So another pertinent question (and one that I’d be interested in too) is whether stamped bearing holders will be good enough for this hub. Does anyone know?
Given the cotterless Schlumpf hub is also supposed to be using the knurled sleeve (not a torque arm) in future, this is relevant to anyone who might use either version of the hub.
The intention is that they’re useable in any frame. If you’re going for the ISIS KHU hub you’ll need 42mm holders, the FSU cotterless hub needs 40mm holders or a shim.
For either (unless you have a 2006-onwards KH frame) you will need to grind down the inner lip of the bearing holder (and the same on the frame), similar to the diagram here (click on technical, then installation). It’s easy to do but I found it was even easier to give the frame to a pair of mad engineering students.
Mark has the right idea here - Roger (of unicycle.uk.com) tells me that I’d need machined bearing holders, not stamped, for the KH/Schlumpf hub, and the only frames I was aware that have those (possibly apart from some 20" trials frames) are the Kris Holm ones.
Whether stamped ones would really do, I don’t know; grinding down the inside shoulder [and still having a structurally sound bearing holder left over!) might be interesting, tho. Plus I’ve just had a bearing disintegrate on me, allegedly due to overtightening, and reckon that machined holders are the way to go - I remember that the holders on my old KH24 fitted so firmly that putting screws in to hold them together hardly seemed necessary at all :-).
So, FWIW - I measured up my wheel (26*2.2 Halo Twin Rail), and its diameter is 26 3/8". So it would fit in a KH24 frame, with 3/16" clearance under the fork crown…“enough”, one might say, but obviously there’d not be any option for changing tyre, and best kept for dry conditions…so a KH29 might make more sense, particularly given dual-length cranks’d give me a longer length that’d go better with a more serious off-road tyre…
The Triton Sponge frame, OTOH, does look really nice - though the bearing holder’d still need to be ground down - but it is seriously expensive. Yeah, obviously if I’m thinking about a KH/Schlumpf, then I’m not trying to cut corners, but at 10* the price of my Nimbus II frame, and 3* the price of a KH, it does seem to put the price of the whole hub+frame combination up significantly (I’m already thinking about doing my own wheelbuild, as I have some experience of doing such)…but it would make for one awesome uni, 'tis true!
Anyway, cheers again to everyone for all the info and ideas :-), Alan.
