Hi madc-ccc,
It looks like you can order the Big Apple liteskin today:
http://www.schwalbetires.com/big_apple
Has anyone tried it?
Good luck on that climb! You should at least try to beat Sheryl Crow’s bike time (1:37).
That new Big Apple sounds very promising.
Well, having had several rides since my original post, using the Kenda Klaw- I’m able to say that it’s definitly considerably better on hill climbs than the WTB Stout.
I do feel that the unicycle is a bit more ‘skittish’ and more affected by road crown, however, currently I’m feeling that the price is worth paying if it means I can get up the hills without dying 
With the heavier Stout I found myself occasionally UPD-ing on long hills, for no other reason than that my legs were so weak from fatigue- with the Klaw I’m not having that problem.
Shame it doesn’t have the stability of the Stout- I guess I’ll have to continue trying out other tyres and see if there’s something that’s both stable and light.
Fwiw, off road on the 29er I’ve enjoyed both the Panaracer Rampage and the Schwalbe Racing Ralph. Prefer the Rampage in wetter conditions (rode it over Winter) and the Ralph over summer. Both are light tires, and imo anyway a huge improvement over the Kenda Klaw.
I just put a Marathon Supreme 28 (29) X 2.0 tire on my 29" Nimbus. The tire goes on easily and has a smaller volume than the stock Big Apple 29 " X 2.3. I have only ridden it a short distance, but it appears to handle turns very well and climbs well. It has a smaller rotating mass (duh!) and is not quite as stable as the BA tire. So far I am pleased with it–it looks like a nice road tire.
I picked it up on Amazon from Niagara Cycle Works:
Glad to hear that others have been experiencing the camber problem with the 2.3 BA, here I thought I was just a terrible unicyclist I’m not really a road rider so I quickly swapped it out for a WTB Exiwolf foldable tyre. While it’s a great tyre for general cross country and manages very well uphill, well for me at least where I manage to ride it as well as my 24x3 … for downhill MUni it is absolute rubbish. Even the smallest of drops cause the tyre to fold making it so unstable in managing any techincal terrain.
I would dearly love to switch to the WTB Stout as I don’t really care to much for the weight for riding uphill, it’s just one of those things I’ll have to get used to. I want a stable tyre to do technical downhill MUni on. Unfortunately, locally the Stout is not available yet 
and personally importing them costs a packet…
I never once had a problem with road camber with the Big Apple 2.3 on my geared 29. I like the tire, but I have yet to try out the 2.0 version (even though I own it). I did have problems with camber with the Nanoraptor tire on my Yuni 29" years ago.
The BA 2.3" is a lot better on camber if you pump it up well; it doesn’t like being below 50psi.
But even so, I find the 2.0" worlds better.
Did they get back to you? Are they going to stock the tyre?
I’ve been thinking of getting the smaller of the two currently available BA’s, as several posters here have said it’s not as affected by road crown.
However, it’s still a relatively heavy tyre compared to my current Kenda Klaw, so I’d be interested in trying out the BA ‘liteskin’
No news so far…
But it should now be a matter of a couple of days, not more (I hope).
Well, what I actually hope the most is that they will come back to me with a positive answer.
In case of a negative answer, I currently wonder whether I’ll try to get the BA Liteskin tyre from another shop - or just decide to go with the normal BA tyre.
I’ll keep you posted!
I mounted the Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 29X2.0 on my KH 29 and have been really happy with the results. Doing all my riding on the road this tire allows for up to 70psi of pressure which results in fast riding. My 150mm cranks seem waaay too long now even on steep roads.
I have the Big Apple but it’s just too heavy. I don’t see a good reason to pick the Big Apple over the Marathon Supreme for road riding.
Has anyone tried 700c tires on the stock KH 29 rim?
Today, during a gap in the wet and windy weather, I managed to get out for my first ride on the 700c.
Rim is the old style, narrow, non-eyeletted Nimbus rims, tyre is a 700c 40mm, cranks 150mm- tyre pressure was 45 psi (tyre states range of 50-85 psi, but I wanted to ease myself in gently)
Years back, when I went for a ride with such a set-up (my 29-er tyre had died), I vowed never to use such a tyre again, as I found myself thrown off by minor road imperfections.
Today I went out with a good attitude and the understanding that a 700c shouldn’t be ridden like a 29-er- road imperfections are to be spotted in advance and avoided, not ridden over with brute force.
Even so, i was expecting more UPD’s than usual (on the 29-er I’m usually at zero UPD level)- so I took the unusual precaution of putting knee-pads and elbow pads on under my clothes.
I was very pleasently surprised- the uni tracked well (possibly better than the 29-er Kenda Klaw I’ve got on the KH29) with no road crown issues.
A total of zero UPDs on a ride of (guessing here) around 40-60 mins.
As expected, it’s really good on the uphills- I was tired before I started, but ended up seeking out climbs more than I tend to on the 29-er.
Obviously this set-up isn’t the kind of hardcore super skinny set-up like Mikes ‘Road Razor’ and ‘Bacon Slicer’, but, it’s also definitly not a 29-er- certainly a good first step to moving to a narrower tyre and, IMO, quite a practical vehicle.
It felt, overall, not as fast as the 29-er (apart from the uphills of course) but, that’s purely my perception (I long ago gave up on the hassle of using speedometers on unicycles)- and, I fully expect that speed will increase after more rides.
I decided to follow Mikes example and (a first for me), name the unicycle- I choose ‘Close shave’, partly cos it seems like a appropriate name for a uni in the ‘slim 700c’ tradition, but also because I recently came very close to selling the nimbus at a super-low price, purely cos it wasn’t being used and was just taking up space.
After todays ride, I’m glad I didn’t- the ‘Close Shave’ lives to ride again
Liteskin version available (upon order) from UDC UK
Hi guys,
I got yesterday the answer from UDC UK => they confirmed they could source the Liteskin version of the Schwalbe Big Apple 28"x2.0, at the high price though of 53 pounds (vs 20 pounds for the standard version)!
I guess I will respect my commitment and go for it anyway - and let you know what I feel about it after I will have received it, built the complete wheel around it, and experienced it a little in mixed road and dry trails environment.
The limit of my tests will of course be that I do not have a standard version of the BA tyre to compare… but I hope it will still be worth.
Regards, MadC.
That’s an expensive tyre!
(Though everywhere on the net seems to have it as £50+ as well).
I’ll look forward to your report when you’ve ridden it.
That’s an expensive tyre!
(Though everywhere on the net seems to have it as £50+ as well).
I’ll look forward to your report when you’ve ridden it.
If tires that are more square handle poorly on road camber, how do the XC MTB racing tires work? I am talking about the tires with very little/low tread through the centre and knobs along the edge? Do they feel square and react more to road crown?
For example
http://www.wtb.com/products/tires/29er/vulpine29er/
I was thinking that these tire would be good for someone who likes to ride both trails and road but I am beginning to think I am incorrect.
I would probably avoid that tread pattern. The worst tire in the world on camber is the Surly Endomorph, which has a similar tread pattern:
Now, the Endomorph is also 3.7" wide, which contributes to the problem. But I’m definitely coming to the opinion that the rounder the tire is, the better it is.