Hi guys I was just wondering what a good 29"er speed is and also how to record my speed.
Currently I have been using Strava. Is that accurate? It says I have achieved 24.6mph on my 29" hatchet and don’t know if that is believable.
Thanks,
John
I would trust average speeds from Strava, top speeds not so much. Sometimes the top speed reading is in a reasonable range, but other times it spits out clearly unreasonable speeds 
For live speed readings on my 36er I use a relatively inexpensive magnet-style cycle computer (I use a Bontrager GOtime to be specific). As long as you’re fairly accurate with measuring the wheel circumference the readings should be pretty close to actual speed. As for where to put the computer on the uni, before I had bars on the 36er I just put it just under the saddle on the seat post. Couldn’t see the readings obviously, but I could check average speed and mileage after the ride was done.
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Thanks that’s really helpful I’ll look into the computer.
that seems incredibly fast! I use a $30 cycplus gps speedo on my touring bar in conjunction with my garmin watch. the speedo is very accurate and gives me the info I need at a glace. my watch is not visible with my wrist guards on but provides me with all the data I’m interested in to review after my ride on my phone
see here
Those are quite high speeds. I generally only do 13-14kph on my 29". I prolly ride like a grandpa 
With the 36" Im around 17 kph on average, but I don’t care much for high speeds to be honest.
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A few years ago when I was riding my UDC trainer with 125 cranks and the 700 c x 52 innova tire I was hitting 10 mph but averaging 8.5 mph. These days I’m a bit slower in spite of upgrading my equipment significantly. I am a bit older I’m sure that has something to do with it . I’m going to have to throw that innova tire back on the old UDC trainer one of these days and give it a rip and see how fast I can go. These days I go for comfort more than speed.
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A few years ago I had a 29" with carbon rim, 100/75 cranks, lightweight everything, and did fast paved and gravel road unipacking.
I could get up to 20 kph under 10km in the city but found my average was about 16-18kmh after years of practice with it.
It’s the only uni I’ve done a metric century on, but can do 15kmh on my 20" with a similar set up. You can go fast on a 29, and I found 100mm cranks to be the sweet spot if you dont live in a super hilly area. Multi hole cranks are also a good option for long distance becuase the ability to swap them out gives you more versatility.
As others have mentioned, strava and most phone tracking app are good for your average speed, but something on the uni itself will be the most accurate.
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24.6 mph is possible on a 29er but Strava GPS can sometimes give random speed spikes. A wheel sensor or bike computer will usually be more accurate.
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Thanks a friend has a b!ke computer he might lend me so I’ll see what speeds I’m hitting
I recently bought a 29 nimbus tour with 28x1.75 tyre. Before bying it, I tried to estimate how fast i would be.
So i tried different crank lengths on my 27,5 muni and counted and compared my revs per minute (rpm). I realized that even with short cranks the maximum revs where i still feel comfortable is around 100 rpm and most of the time i am around 80 rpm.
So a 29 inch uni with tyre
29x1.75 ETRTO 44-622 has diameter roughly: 622+88=710mm and the circumference 3.13x710~2.230m.
So at 80 rpm: 80x2.230x60=10704 m/h this roughly gives 10,7 kmh.
So depending on the wheel circumference and a given speed its easy to compute the rpm necessary to achieve the speed. Then you can estimate if this number is realistic.
E.g. if i wanted to reach 20 km/h with my above setup i would need 150 rpm, which is not doable for me.
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For a bike the 80 to 100 rpm is common however for me on a uni the average rpm seems to be 100 to 110 rpm. That range is comfortable cruising speed. On my 36er I max out at 168 rpm (about 29 km/h) but that is is just for a short time.
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why is your RPM on a uni higher than on a bike? On a uni I feel I always need to focus on staying in balance as well. There is always that forward-backward sway. Also when I try to sprint, I start hanging forward too much and have to regain balance. On the bike this isn’t needed at all.
I think the main reason is the usually different crank lengths. For bikes 170 cranks are pretty common.
Other then the difference in crank another reason for the higher rpm on a uni is compared to a normal bike, an un-geared uni is in low gear all the time. It takes less torque to maintain a uni speed compared to a bike in a higher gear.
An important factor for building up and maintaing a high RPM is the ability to stay in a sweet spot of being leaned slightly forwards.
Another factor is the amount your wheel wobbles. Wheel wobble will depend on your Q factor. The less the better. But most important is keeping your frame straight, either with both hands firmly on the saddle, or with handlebars.
A third factor is general fearlessness. Confidence that you will outrun, or even outroll, a UPD.
I am very sensitive to the Q factor when doing high RPM. And at a given frequency I will just start to scream, which is somewhere around 180 RPM on a 16" and 140 on a 29/36". 
When playing with speed I always accelerated smoothly, thinking in terms of spinning up the wheel and increasing the frequency rather than putting more force into the pedals.
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100% - nearly had a nasty UPD a month ago consciously trying to unweight my feet closer to the point it used to be when i rode clipless - accidental upstroke into 1 foot riding at 12mph (18kph) is not a great idea. Putting weight into your feet is needed for getting going, climbing and handling obstacles, outside that it’s spin to win…
In terms of rpm, i seem to sit around 120 most of the time on 117s. Haven’t really had the time needed to work on higher cadences and seem to cap out at about 160 at the moment.
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Hi since posting this thread I have bought a garmin and after recording several rides worked out strava was telling me my Kph as Mph but have now achieved 25.3kph on the 29inch unicycle.
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That’s on a non geared 29er, right? If so, that’s around 190 rpm, which is very mpressive.
My record speed is about 2km/h faster - but on a geared 29er…
When I was still riding ungeared, I went around 33 kph, and held 29.2 kph for the whole 10k of unicon 21.
Since riding geared, I’ve went over 40 kph last week.
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