29" trainer

I have been considering getting a larger wheel uni than my 24
I really like my Torker LX 24" but it’s tough to keep up with my wife when we ride around the neighborhood. I’m still in the learning stages but am improving every time I ride. My question really is about the Trainer 29" at unicycle .com
would this be a decent uni to buy for just riding around on the streets
I have been doing a little off road on the 24 but don’t really see myself getting heavy into muni riding as I have a mountain bike for that. Well and I don’t heal as fast as I used to :roll_eyes:

any way what says you guys

This question has been discussed here before, even quite recently, so if you search you will find many threads to answer it. Most of the threads you find will probably resemble this one.

A stronger unicycle is generally worth the extra money, but that depends a bit, not only on what sort of riding you want to do, but also on how much you weigh. Another option is to wait until something good shows up on Craigslist, Ebay or here. Oh well, good luck!

YEP, just being lazy and didn’t search. Thanks for the link to the thread
I think I may just keep looking, still not sure if I want to go with 27" or 29" anyway
my thoughts for it are for mostly just paved type roads and paths
I am around 5’7" and under 170 lbs

For paved roads and paths, and especially if you are trying to keep up with someone on a bike, a 29 (or larger) is better than a 27.

My 29"/700c unicycle was built up from parts I found online but ended up very close in spec to UDC’s 29" Trainer, and that’s the one I’ve wound up riding the most. So yeah, I think you could have a lot of fun on it. It’s a great size for casual neighborhood rides and sidewalk cruising, especially with pedestrians to avoid or on routes that call for frequent dismounts and remounts. It’s my lowest-effort option for relaxed road riding, and I enjoy riding it off-pavement on jogging paths and well groomed trails too.

With a pretty narrow rim you can usually find a variety of closeout tires (touring/townie/comfort bike/tandem sized) that will fit for really cheap, and it’s been fun trying out different tires on it. Local bike shops even have a box of super discounted “mounted once” tires sometimes, and it doesn’t matter to us if they don’t have a matching pair!

I put 137 mm cranks on mine initially then switched down to 125s when I my confidence grew. I’m too lazy to go check but IIRC the Trainer comes standard with 150s, which would be waaaaaay too long for the type of riding that suits it.

Good luck with whatever you decide to go with.

I own or have owned all the common sizes. i’m also 55 and roughly the same height and weight as the OP. However, i do have 30 years of riding under my belt so it’s not a perfect match.

I mainly use the 36 for roads and easy trails. I can average 11 mph for extended periods (e.g. over a 20 mile ride) which is still slower than a bike unless the bicyclist is dawdling. The disadvantages of the 36 are size and weight (storage and transport) and it can be hard work to remount when you’re really tired and/or on rough ground.

My wife and I have occasionally done short rides (10 - 20 miles) with her on bicycle and me on the 36. I was riding flat out and she was taking it steady.

The 29 is a good all round size. With dual hole cranks, I can do moderate muni on the long holes (150-ish) and road and trails on the shorter (125-ish). I did a lot of experimenting a year or so back and found the 29 on shortish cranks the best all round option for a short commute. It is easier to store and transport, and safer when mixing with pedestrians on a crowded path. However, it’s good for less than 10 mph for extended periods.

I used to know a guy who could ride his 29 faster than I could ride my 36, but he was younger and fitter than I was at the time — and he probably still is. Definitely still younger!

I have a 28. That’s a 700c with a 32 mm section general purpose road tyre. It has square tapers and I have a big box of various cranks. I generally ride it on 114mm cranks and it is fast on road and easy trails. However, it is soon stopped by mud or by rough terrain.

Long way round saying 29 is the best all round size, but will not keep up with a well ridden bicycle. Far better to teach the missus to ride a unicycle!

I’ve been unicycling for 9 months now. I’ve had a 24", 26", 29" and 36" (Mike’s old Nimbus).

I find myself using the 29" most of the time. It’s easy to mount, stash in the car and can travel at a reasonable speed etc. My partner is a runner, and I use it to accompany her, as we are reasonably well matched speed wise. The 36er is great for faster longer rides.

I think that the 29" uni is about the most versatile in my experience so far.

Go for it.

thanks for all the great replies

so at least that helped me make up my mind as to the size I want
I’ll keep my eye out for a good used one, as for finding one on craigslist
I feel like I’m the only person in south Ga that rides a uni
only thing I have ever seen around here are 20" from time to time

again thanks for all the responses

Glad you’re enjoying the 36. I did 15 miles on my KH36 this evening, averaging just under 11 mph despite a section of unmade/ballasted track and a ferocious headwind for part of the ride.

Another advantage of the 29: riding at night, a decent USB rechargeable light mounted directly to the fork crown is near enough to the road to be good enough at the speed you’ll be doing. My 29 is my weapon of choice for nighttime rides along country lanes.

On thing with the 29" that may be an advantage to some is that you are noticed less. You are only a little bit taller than on a bike and many bystanders can just glance past you and not really take in that you are on a unicycle.

A 36" by comparison really stands out as you are much higher up and the wheel is so much bigger.

I realise that most here (myself included) don’t care if they get looked at or might actively enjoy it but for someone who is a little more shy, this is another consideration at least.

This is actually a very interesting point, and now that you mention it, I think some people have definitely not noticed that I was on a unicycle when I was on my 29. If you are on a 36 or a 20, it really is much harder for them not to notice. Oh well, something to keep in mind for the days when i am not in the mood to have people screaming and pointing at me!

Hi Mike,

I love the 36er. It ups the pace when the boss is running, as its that bit quicker than the 29er. She prefers that I ride the 29er when we were together.

I need to give the 36er a try on some gentle off road to see what it is like.

if the consensus is the 29 is better with 125 cranks why does it come with 150
also as I’m still kind of in the beginner stages would it be better to start with the 150 and then move to the shorter cranks or just get the shorter from the start

I don’t like 125mm at all. Now after 2.5 years of riding I found that 140mm is very fine for me, but for offroad, I still prefer my 150mm. I find 125mm way too short. Braking is harder, mounting is harder.

You should get some dual hole cranks to more easily experiment.

There is no consensus across all unicyclists about crank length. There are opinions, specialised needs, and fashions.

I have ridden my 28 on cranks from 80mm up to 150, my 24 on cranks from 102 to 170. I ride my 29 mainly on 150s but at the moment I have my 36 on 125s.

150 mm on a 29 is a good all round size for control on and off road, easy mounting, idling,and reasonable speed. Shorter cranks will cruise faster, but with some losses in the other things on the list.

There is also a macho aspect to riding short cranks.

I look at it this way: you may need the long cranks on a steep hill, and you can always learn to spin faster on the flat. Racing cyclists in the Tour de France etc. spend tens of thousands on a bike and could have any cranks they wanted and I think they all have cranks somewhere around 165 - 175 mm.

OK maybe I said it wrong, consensus may have been a bit strong :o
I just want to make an informed choice when I am ready to get one
I don’t see myself as ever being one to switch out cranks for different riding
so I look for the best overall performance that meets my needs as close as possible then I adjust to it.

that’s an interesting point about the racing cycle crank length

Bicycles as a rule always have longer cranks than unicycles. It’s easier to use your legs’ full range of motion on a bike where you aren’t also using your feet to maintain balance, and where you have a widely space pair of wheels and very stable handlebars to keep your body steady while pedaling.

I was simply sharing my experience with my 29" unicycle, and I don’t think of myself as being especially macho about my riding. There sure isn’t much there to justify that. :slight_smile: I’ve never had a handlebar on that unicycle or on any of my smaller wheels. When I’ve tried 150 mm cranks on a couple of them I found that I wobbled around too much and just felt there was too much herky-jerky motion going on for it to be enjoyable.

I could climb 10% grades on pavement just fine with the 137 mm cranks I put on first, and with a little more experience I did just as well when I switched down to 125s. There weren’t any cases where I needed more “control” (actually it’s more work for me controlling 150s on pavement with a small-to-medium wheel because of the amount of leg motion and wobble) or where I wasn’t able to easily navigate anything I encountered.

I do have 150s on my serious muni and on my 36" with a handlebar. They feel better there.

But decide for yourself. Switching cranks is common and easy to do. You’ll know more about unicycling and your own preferences after trying different lengths than any of us could ever tell you.

The imagined “consensus” is between enthusiasts who talk to each other online instead of being out riding. :astonished:
In other words, not necessarily representative of the average buyer of a unicycle. So it comes with 150s as they offer good control and confidence for someone new to riding a 29". I will ignore the fact that 36" unicycles also come with 150s as the default.

Based on what you’ve written so far I would say start with the 125s. Depending on your tastes you might want to go shorter, but if you’re riding on mostly level ground, you are less likely to want to go longer.

I find my 29" with 140s great fun on trails that aren’t very technical or “climbey” but for more difficult stuff I would also use 150s.

My two main unicycles also have 150s. Those are a 26" KH Muni and a geared 36". Both have the dual-hole spirits, and the 125 hole can be really fun on “easy” trails, but hard work on technical or climbs. I doubt I will ever use the 125 holes on the 36" as long as the geared hub is there.

This is probably more true as you and your knees get older (the braking part), but can also be mitigated/eliminated by adding a brake. But you really don’t want to add a brake if you’re only riding on flat stuff.

For me, riding a 29" on pavement with anything longer than 125 is too much work. If you need to make a sudden stop, often a quick turn works better than jamming on the leg-brakes. If I want to get somewhere on a 29" I’ll opt for 102s, but if I’m learning, and just cruising around, those would probably be annoyingly short.

On an ungeared 36", I wouldn’t go any longer than 125 for pavement (mine has a brake). For my local bike path, my “sweet spot” was 114. But when it was new, I was happy to ride with the 150s until I built up some confidence on the beast. They ride very differently from the 45" wheel with the solid tire I’d had for 20 years before my first Coker (and my 45" has 165mm cranks!).

Setonix mentioned dual hole cranks, which make it easier to switch sizes, but if you go for the Trainer, or any other uni with square taper/cotterless cranks, I don’t think unicycle.com has any with dual hole. But at $15 a pair, it’s a much, much cheaper proposition to experiment with different sizes of cotterless! Yes, the cheap ones are steel, but that’s fine, especially if they’re short. Once you find your favorite sizes, you can then upgrade them to the lighter stuff.

Interesting – I never got that. Never felt the urge to boast that “Mine are shorter”… That’s right ladies, I once raced a Marathon on a 36" with 102s (and it was my fastest one ever!)… Nope, I’m still not feeling it.

This is true. I once tried to race George Peck (the grandfather of Mountain Unicycling) on a singletrack trail, him on 175s and me probably one 150s. I wasn’t quite keeping up, and his feet were making BIG circles! So you can definitely learn to spin fast, but it will still take a larger amount of energy. Call me lazy.

True but basically irrelevant because they have all the gearing they need to turn those cranks at the optimum cadence to climb the Alps or speed along the flats. We always have to pedal faster if we want to go faster. :frowning:

good post John, Thank you for that
I didn’t mean to start a fire with my comment about the cranks but I learned a lot in all the replies :smiley:

OK another question along the same
is there a real difference in a 28" and the 29"
other than the obvious wheel size, I don’t see a lot about 28" so it makes me think it’s not a popular size
I am ready to move up to a bigger wheel but have to watch $$$ so looking for the best bang for the buck
I keep looking, found a 29 trainer on CL and e-mailed with the owner but haven’t heard back about shipping cost so I don’t know if that will work out

The difference is tyres (US = “tires”). What is generally called a “28” is a 700c which will take a tyre of between about 19mm (ridiculously skinny for unicycling - I tried it!) and 35mm or so. It’s the size of wheel you might typically see on a road bike.

A 29 has a broadly similar diameter but with a wider rim and a fatter tyre, which makes the rolling diameter greater.

In terms of rolling diameter, 29/28 = 1.04, so the 29 is 4% “or so” bigger. Even if you say 10%, then the difference would be between riding at about 10 mph and 11 mph at a given cadence: negligible.

However, the handling and versatility are wildly different.

I have a 28 with a lightweight road bike rim and 114mm cranks. I don’t ride it often, but when I do, it’s like a fencing foil. It encourages (and needs) pinpoint accuracy of control on a rough surface. It is light, fast and responsive, but takes concentration to ride.

I also have a KH29. It is heavier, but the weight and cushioning effect of the fatter tyre makes it more restful to ride. It will cruise on a variety of surfaces, and its momentum will carry it over uneven patches that would slow down or stop the 28.

No doubt at all, of the two unis, the 29 is the most capable and versatile. The 28, though, has a special charm all of its own. The reason to buy a 29 is because it is a good all round size. The only reason to buy a 28 is if you particularly want a 28.

I own or have owned a variety of 20, 24, 26, 28, 29and 36 inch unicycles and ridden on cranks ranging from 80 mm to 170 mm. In terms of indefinable “character” the 29 leaves me a bit cold, but in terms of “if I could only keep one unicycle” then its versatility would persuade me to choose it.