Yes the Stout isn’t great on the road but of course that’s not what it’s intended for. The smaller Big Apple model is quite a bit better on road crowns.
Kris
Excellent! Still too skinny ( 
), but it would be great to finally have a near-ideal 29er setup for the local trails.
Cool- glad you like the idea.
I actually have a 50 mm wide prototype rim at the moment, in 19", 24", 26", and 29" sizes. I am not convinced that it’s better. Of course wider = more stability, but there’s the weight tradeoff. In the 24" size I do notice the larger rolling weight. So far the 47 mm width still seems like a good compromise.
Kris
with 20 PSI you wont go for a road or track race I think 
I measure my WTB 2,3 on a 29" KH rim with 38 PSI and it has 756 mm. For me it works fine on the road but our road is not that good so maybe that is the reason. Of road it is a great tire!
A wider rim would be great, it looks really a bit strange for me when I get the WTB and mount it on the rim, a wider rim should fit better and as you wrote it also makes the tire more stable. The 29er is that crazy light so a bit more weight should be acceptable.
Hey Kris, thanks for the opportunity to give input.
I’m a fairly new rider, but I ride a lot, almost all muni. I have gone through a succession of munis including 24, 26, and now 29. Each size certainly has it’s advantages and disadvantages. I replaced my 26 with a KH 29, which I ride most of the time. So what’s holding me back from riding it all of the time? I need more volume and width in my tire.
When I was riding a 26, I was on a Ringle Doublewide and a Gazz 2.6, this made for a heavy wheel, but it was a good ride. My KH 24 rides on a Duro 3", which is an optimal size for that muni as it gets dual use in trials and trail.
I don’t think folks would shy from a true 29er muni, one with a wider rim and higher volume tire. For a start I think the wider rim would be cool, I would certainly like to see what width increase we’d get with a 42 or 47 when using the current crop of tires, though without an equivalent increase in tire volume the potential woudn’t be maximized.
The KH 24 comes with a 47 wide rim, the Nimbus 24 comes with a 42.2mm wide rim which handles a Duro 3", so even a 42 would be worth having. It looks like my WTB Laserdisc29er rims are 30mm, the widest WTB makes is 32mm (Laser Disc DH). So I’m sure the MTB world would be open to a wider 29er rim if it was cross marketed. I know some folks who run the KH 92er rim on their Mmtb cuz it’s one of the toughest.
I’d snap up a wider tire if one became available. Only now I have to figure out what to do with all my extra 29er tires cuz I only have three wheels
Kris, how much wider is is the cross section of a WTB Stout on a 47mm rim?
Sounds like great feedback. I don’t have the tire on the rim so can’t check at the moment on the different profile, except that obviously it is a lot wider, flatter, and slightly less tall. I do think that the wider 29’er rim will do OK in terms of popularity; I posted about it on the 29’er forum and also got a positive response there. That setup may be the ideal choice for DH racing on a uni.
Kris
I think a wider KH29 rim could be good, but I wonder if 47 mm is overkill. I’m still running the narrower non-drilled rim on my KH24, and I don’t see changing it anytime soon. I’d rather stay with the lighter rim. Granted, I’m not much for going really big–I start to shy away from drops when they exceed 2.5 feet for fear of tweaking an ankle.
The two things that are really holding me back from getting a 29er are the availability of wide rims and tires. I noticed a massive improvement in the ride of my 26 when I went from a DX32 to a echo 47mm rim. Mind this was with a 3" tire, not sure if going much wider than the current 38mm is really necessary with the 29er tires now available.
With the wider 29" rims would they be drilled like your smaller rims?
You mentioned a 26" rim, are KH26s on the drawing board? I would love to be able to get a 26" KH frame.
The 29" rim would have the same oval drill pattern and offset spokes as the current 24" rim. A Stout tire with this setup looks really good. Given that the existing rim is great for XC use, I’m not sure about doing something only slightly wider (e.g. 42") because it would be heavier than the current 38 mm rim without the huge stability of the 47 mm rim.
I do want to do a KH26 but the market just has to get a little bit bigger before it’s possible. I’m hoping that will be possible late in 2009 but will have to see how it goes. Likely I’d release a 26" rim before that, though.
Kris
Would it be super expensive to just release a KH29 frame with lowered brake mounts? I guess there’s some engineering complication in doing that?
26" rims, tyres etc. are easy to get hold of good ones, but there’s no nice, light, easily available 26" frame that has brake mounts fitted. The people who’ve stuck a 26" wheel into a KH29 frame seem like they have nice setups, but it’s hassle to get the brake in the right place.
Joe
A good compromise would be to market modified brake clamps to fit to a 29er frame (like a couple of people have made as one-offs).
I’ve just done some upgrading to my muni and bought one of the new Nimbus 26" frames with brake mounts and machined bearing holders (which is very nice BTW). If there had been a KH26 frame available I would very likely have shelled out the extra money for one of those.
Rob
Yeah, a 47mm would be sweet, drilled would be lighter and look really nice. If you offered a 47mm 29er rim I’d buy it now and build a new wheel.
I think the 26er is fine because there are lots of rim and tire choices, but I’ll stick with the 24 for tech, hoping of course that in time there will be a decent fat tire for the 29er. If the 29er scene doesn’t step up, I might go back to the 26, which would be sad since the 29er really does roll stuff better..
A wider rim would be good. That would probably lean the 29er more to Muni than road.
I prefer a flatter profile tire over a rounder one w/ more volume. (In my case a Kenda Kinetics 2.6" vs. a 3" Arrow on my DX rim).
I didn’t know Kris made a uni that big:p
+1
Less expensive and the frame could be switched between 26 and 29" wheels. It would save the need to get the adapters custom made for significant $.
Kris - I think a wider rim that spreads out a 29" tyre, giving it a cushier ride has got to be a good thing. The closer it can get to the feel of a 24x3" for offroad the better, IMO.
As Rob Northcott pointed out the Nimbus Muni 26" frame now comes with brake mounts and with machined 42mm bearing holders. As does the complete Nimbus Muni 26" unicycle.
Ken and Jamon - you probably had different versions of the Nanoraptor. The older, better version had a wire bead and was excellent. Then WTB “improved” it to a kevlar bead which resulted in tyres popping off rims, spectacular blow-outs and increased susceptibility to pinch-flats.
I assume the Nimbus frame is a bit heavier than the KH though - I think that’s what Joe was implying. I don’t know how much heavier though, or whether it’s really noticeable overall with the weight of a big DH tyre. So far I’m really happy with the new Nimbus.
To keep on topic: The reason I’ve stuck with 26x3 rather than just buying a KH29 (which I thought about) is because of the very rocky sections on the routes I normally ride. Most of my riding is definitely suited to a 29er, but those rocky bits are just bad enough that I’d have to be really careful not to prang a 29er rim. A 29er with a bigger, stronger tyre and/or rim may well convert me, but for now it’s 26 for rocky or steep routes, and coker for the really easy fast stuff.
Rob