a new Muni

General
1

hi guys

well, i have decided to get a unicycle. After about 6 months, of going on a friends for a short while at weekends, i am going to get one of my own (now that my parents will let me). I would consider myself as O.K, i am level 3 i think, currently trying to learn to idle and then ride backwards.

I have decided that a 24 would be best, so i can use it for everything, Muni is probably the main use, followed by trials. I cant decide what to get though, as my budget limits me. Ideally the unicycle needs to be as cheap as possible.

My ideas so far are:

either Nimbus 1(£23) or 2 (£32) frame. What are the advantages of the nimbus 2 over the 1, is it worth the extra £10?

Bicycle euro cranks (150mm) (£10)

halo inner tube (up to 3inch) (£6)

halo contra tyre (3inch, £23) or ception (2.6inch, £20) Which would be better???

seatpost, standard, 300mm (£5)

seat, donated by my friend , until birthday when i’ll get a Velo.

the wheel is the problem. Definately a susue hub(£36), 36 spoke, but which rim?

i had thought about several, the combat/doublewide/ryhno lite/mammoth (or bfr). Which would be better. On the unicycle.uk.com i only see the combat, but i believe roger can order in sun rims.

from www.chainreactioncycles.com the doublewide is £35, and the others £25, is it worth the extra £10, bearing in mind my current biggest drop is 2feet.
This also means i would have to get the wheel built, at further cost. So it would be preferably to buy everything(bar seat) from unicycle.uk.com

does anyone know how much the sun rims cost from roger?, and if there would be an extra charge for building.

thanks for reading, please reply with your thoughts and ideas

mark

2

Mark,

I’d go for the 3.0" wide tyre although I don’t know anything about the brand…I’m just thinking that a wider tyre would generally be better.

Also, what’s turning you off the Alex DX-32 rim? If you were considering the Doublewide,I think the Alex is cheaper.

Good luck,
Andrew

3

In answer to the specific question, the Nimbus II is a noticeable nicer and more versatile frame than the Nimbus I.

Whether there is any genuine difference in quality or strength is an open question. They look pretty similar from that point of view.

However, the Nimbus II has flat fork crowns, which are well designed as foot rests for one footed idling and so on. The styling is also more businesslike.

I have a Nimbus II 20 inch, and a Nimbus I 24 inch. Both have stood up to a fair amount of use (although I don’t do 2 foot drops).

I’d gladly pay the extra for the Nimbus II.

4

Sorry this isnt in answer to your question, but instead of starting a new thread I thought Id throw it in here - it is on topic, at least.

Ive been riding a 20" basic uni around for about 2 years now.
Ive upgraded from a viscount to a miyata, put metal pedals on it, new shimano diore cranks, and a 2.5 inch knobbly tyre.

I live in a reasonably big country town in australia, and do lots of in town riding - stairs, gaps, drops, crank slides and the like, but also a lot of stuff on forestry trails with a bunch of guys on their downhill mtb tracks…

I’d like to upgrade to a 24" - but don’t know whether or not I should just wait until I break something on my 20 inch. Ive beaten the shite out of it, bent the cranks beyond recogntion (since then ive got the diores’ and they are great) but otherwise its fine.

The 20 inch is fine at the moment…basically im just trying to justify in my mind the actual need to buy another uni - once i get it, will i ever ride my crappy 20 inch again?

5

Samuel,

Did you get that Miyata seat from juggleart.com? As for the possibility of a 24", I think as long as you ride it all the time it doesn’t matter whether or not you ride your 20" anymore. It sounds like you’re doing some interesting sort of riding…have you got any photos or videos. Also, are you planning on going to UniNats this year (or was it you who I’ve already asked?)? And, were in Australia do you live?

Andrew

6

mark

what do you think about this muni it’s nearly that what you want and I think it’s a good price.

adrian

7

thought about that one, but i have worked out i can actually get better components by building it up with my own choice components.

I hadnt thought of the alex, because there doesnt seem to be anywhere in the uk that sells them. Otherwise i have heard they are very good.

I will give roger at unicycle.uk.com an e-mail about rims.

8

Roger should be able to sort you out with a custom machine.

Mine has just arrived (basically a max traction with a few upgrades: alloy cranks, chris holmes saddle, nimbus II frame) for £222 (I think).

Don’t foget the price includes wheel building, spokes and seat clamp and pedals. You can upgrade whatever you fancy. I did the maths and the price is about the same as buying all the bits.

I doubt there will be an extra charge for building a wheel onto a different rim but there will be a time delay.

9

yep that max traction sounds good i love those wheel i’m gonna get one myself when i can afford it! :smiley:

10

A 24 isn’t an upgrade on a 20. They’re different beasts.

A 20 gives you supreme manoeuvreability, idleability, portability… it is the ideal size for riding in a confined space, performing in public, learning ‘skills’, and generally knocking about on. Good size for hockey. Bad size for mud plugging.

A 24 with identical cranks to the 20 will go about 20% faster - that’s top speed, cruising speed and journey time. With slightly longer cranks a 24 can be a versatile off roader, and will fly up hills which would bog down a 26. With short cranks it will hit about 14 mph in short bursts, and sustain about 8mph for a distance. All round, it has ‘longer legs’ than the 20. Many people believe a 24 is the best all rounder.

I have found that the important thing when you have two or more unicycles is to differentiate them. Give each one a purpose, and bias it towards that purpose by choice of tyre, cranks and pedals. If they are too similar, you gain nothing by having two or more. If they are different, you add versatility and challenge to your riding.

To illustrate, at present I have
20 with 110mm cranks specially for performing, and doing ‘skills’.
24 with 89s for being silly on.
26 with 170s to play Land Rovers on.
28 with 110s for fast road work.
Coker with 150s for hooning around on.

All very different machines. when I had 150s on the 24, it was neither fish nor fowl: not as versatile as the 20, not as capable as the 26, and it never got used. Now it’s a real blast.

11

i have worked out some costs.

i do not require seat at the moment, or pedals.

Nimbus 2, contra 24x3, bike euro cranks, udc wheel, halo inner tube, seat post

this comes to £156, and a quick release comes with the frame, i have pedals and seat. £163 including clamp, although i may get this cheap from a bike shop later.

I think i will go for this, but see if i can swap the halo rim for something like an alex, or sun rim.

12

Andrew,
I got the uni (and the miyata seat) from juggleart.com - a Melbourne based juggling and circus shop which is famous for its wonderful mailing setup - it will post anywhere in australia postage paid, for most items…
Their range of unis is really dismal, and they have only recently got miyata seats in when I asked for them.
The uni I bought off them was a shitty 20" which many parts have died on - I snapped the seat post attachment to the seat attempting a 360 off stairs, popped the cranks on a big drop, and my mate (who bought one after he saw me riding around) bent his rim on a 2 foot drop.
We are both ready to move on to something a little more sturdy…
I live near Coffs harbour in the hols and Armidale in the term time (I’m a uni student) … I also spend a lot of time working at a port and rec instructor near toronto on lake maqaurie…
if your anywhere near those places, id love to meet up and go for a spin…

13

Re: a new Muni

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003 10:45:02 -0600, manic_mark
<manic_mark.ir7no@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

>thought about that one, but i have worked out i can actually get better
>components by building it up with my own choice components.

Looking through the components in the post which started this thread,
they’re almost all standard on the Max traction. Roger can do the Max
traction without seat (he did it for me too) and he’s generally very
prepared to discuss upgrades/custom jobs.

As is though, the Max traction is a great machine for the price.

Klaas Bil

"An anteater can flick its tongue 160 times a day, eating 30,000 ants a day. "

14

>"An anteater can flick its tongue 160 times a day, eating >30,000 ants a day. "

It’s not having the answers questions like that that keeps me awake at night. Thank you.

15

what does everyone think of the DM ringmaster for offraod use, fitted with halo contra tyre (or tire)(24x3) and halo combat rim, 8 flute splined dm hub(hardened) and cranks. (48 spoke), double seat clamp. Dont know yet what seat, i believe it has plastic pedals, but thats no problem, i have pedals.

Im awaiting a price at the moment.

Anyone got/had one and can review it?

16

I’m not sure about ringmaster, but I’ve got a ringmaster advanced and it’s terribly heavy, okay if you don’t hop at all, otherwise not a good thing at all. On the dm site it says the ringmaster advanced weighs 7.5kg (about 15 lbs I think), even before you add the extra 2lb or so for the monster crank set and the extra for the fat tyre and tube.

The DMATU has that splined hub and is even heavier, I suspect the crankset is much of the weight gain.

Ringmaster standard frame is no good for one footing if you wanted to do that at all. Looking at the site, it looks like his custom ringmaster is the advanced frame though so that might be okay.

Oh and unless DM has changed the seat since I got mine, you’ll probably want to avoid the DM seat, it’s a great big monster of a seat and mine didn’t last long riding around in a hall before the foam broke, I hate to think what it would be like outside.

Having said all that, DM stuff almost always doesn’t break, which is a good thing and he makes pretty much the best unicycles for riding around inside halls and circus performing.

So if you’re not wanting to hop and you want something unbreakable DM might be worth getting, minus the seat, just really really don’t get a DM seat.

Also I suspect it may be somewhat more expensive, unless DMs prices have gone down lots recently?

Joe

17

Re: a new Muni

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003 19:22:33 -0600, unisteve
<unisteve.irm8a@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

>>"An anteater can flick its tongue 160 times a day, eating >30,000 ants
>a day. "
>
>It’s not having the answers questions like that that keeps me awake at
>night. Thank you.

You’re welcome. But you make it worse by allowing the > sign (meant to
be a quotation sign) creep before the number, making it even more
ants! :slight_smile:

Klaas Bil

Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.

18

I have a 20" DM Ringmaster Advanced freestyle uni. As shipped it is a heavy unicycle. The frame itself isn’t heavy. The weight is in the seatpost and seat. The seatpost and seat are heavy (but probably very stong) which makes the uni feel much different than my other unicycles especially for seat out stuff. I ditched the heavy seatpost and seat and am now using a lengthend Miyata post and a Miyata seat. Much better now and the DM feels light and nimble like any other freestyle uni.

I love my Ringmaster Advanced, but it is rather expensive over here in the USA. The price in the USA is now $499 which comes out to 308 Pounds. And then add to that the cost of replacing the seat and seatpost with a Miyata seat. It’s almost the cost of a Wyganowski freestyle uni. But it’s a solid uni, great for one foot skills and fits a 2.1" or 2.25" tire.