Think I’ve found the ideal 29er setup for a mix of road and XC. I decided to switch from the original Freeride rim to a much lighter and narrower Velocity “Blunt ss” alloy rim. The Freeride version I was using has an internal width of 40mm, making it far too wide for the (new) Continental 29x2.2 Dubnital Race Rapid, but with the Blunt ss rim, with an internal diameter of 26.6mm, it’s an absolute perfect match. I also swapped out the standard butyl tube for a 29x1.9-2.3 TPU with threaded metal stem. All told, the rotating weight has dropped significantly, and the total weight of the entire uni is about 11.8 lb. Here are the comparisons:
Original wheel:
KH Freeride rim: 793g
Maxxis Ardent 29x24 tire: 950g
Standard butyl tube 29x1.9-2.3: 250g
Total: 1,993g (4.39 lbs.)
Another big plus to this setup is that with the Continental race rapid’s round profile it’s virtually immune to even the most severe road camber even at 20 lb under its Max psi.
I uploaded the original photo to chat GPT and ask it to add the text that you see, and to place it to the various parts of the unicycle it describes, and then asked it to remove the background and insert a winding trail. Even though I asked that it not change the image of the unicycle it did modify it to some degree but what you see is pretty accurate except for some of the artifacts like those metal plates on the pedals. Have no idea what those are. Also the cranks are Spirit 137s but they look longer in the photo. The other parts of the uni are accurate to the original.
That sounds like a nice lightweight trail uni. How does it feel to ride and does it stand up to more technical muni or is it a flowy singletrack/climbing machine?
There’s a SW saddle on Ebay in the UK and strongly considering picking it up. Is the profile the same as the KH Fusion base or is it a little flatter?
The Scott Wallis saddle uses a Thomson style seatpost. While i think it’s added some more stuff under the saddle, the seatpost itself looks correct.
Shhh - you’re testing suspension pedals. One step closer to the full suspension muni dream!
It can handle moderately technical terrain much better than i had expected, but I use it mostly for my 6 mile out & back which consists of some steep road climbs and switchy singletrack of mostly hardpack composition, with some embedded rock in a few sections. I really live this setup and the 137s seem to be optimal for both the climbing portions and trail. The seatpost is made by crossfire.
Here’s a weight comparison between the New Continental 29x2.2 Dubnital Race Rapid and the Continental 29x2.2 Race King (Dubnital is the updated versio of the race king) and also a standard butyl tube and TPU.
