About 3 months ago I bought my first muni, a used Onza. I love it, though I don’t have much to compare it with.
Does anyone else out there own an Onza Muni and/or actively ride it?
Or did you used to own one?
I’m just curious.
I used to have one, and I really liked it. I was running it with magura’s, and a 3" tire. The only reason I sold it recently was that I built up a wheel with a wider rim, and the brakes no longer had enough space to work.
I ended up getting a Nimbus 26 MUni frame and right now I’m running my 24" wheel in it, but eventually I will build up a 26 and mount my brake on it.
It’s a bit late for you now, but might be useful to the other guy, but Tensile (who I seem to think are the same people as Onza) sell special offset brake mounts designed for exactly this problem. I have them on my old nimbus, they work great.
Joe
I tried to find the tensile offset brake mounts in the U.S. I don’t think anyone sells them in this country, and when I looked at getting them shipped here from the UK the cost seemed outrageous.
I really liiked the Onza, and if I hadn’t had that little problem I would still be happily riding it.
My Nimbus frame is a little more crudely welded and a little heavier, but very similar.
This was my first Uni nearly a year ago (bought new from the manufacturer in the UK). I really liked it but when I got my KH 29" I sort of forgot about and only used the 29" - often the way with new toys…however a couple of weeks ago I started using it again for some proper Muni (as oppossed to XC) and really loved it again. Except for the seat which I just could not get a good position with or comfy on so I’ve upgraded the seat and post to a KH rail and Fusion seat setup. The difference is fatastic, as I new it would as it’s the same as my 29", and is well worth the expense.
This is how it used to be be:
I really like the Onza hub and cranks, but one of mine has recently developed some slop. Leo managed to ride Snowdon on it with the slop present, but soon it’ll get so bad it’ll be unrideable.
I remember reading about this problem a couple of years ago so its always been at the back of my mind. Hmm, might have to do a bit of searching.
I have an Onza muni, bought as my second unicycle in 2003. I has had a good 1000 miles or more on it, but gets sadly less than an annual outing at the moment (and as my smallest unicycle, does duty as my loaner).
It has the famous ‘creak’, which can be avoided mostly by doing the cranks up as tight as a gorrilla with a six-foot allen-key. It currently has a 3" Duro tyre, and has been through a couple of broken aluminium seatposts.
It’s pretty out of date now, but still works fine.
Sam
I don’t think I have the creaking problem.
Not to derail my own thread, but…
But I’ve had a spoke pinging noise for a while. I think lower tire pressure makes it worse. My spokes don’t feel particularly loose, but I might try tightening them sometime.
But it doesn’t bother me much.
You can hear some in this poorly made video, specifically at 0:46 - 0:47:
I got a used Onza 24 w/ maguras after using an oldschool NimbusII/Profile setup for years, and the main complaint I had was that the frame was “flared” wider at the crown than either the NII or KH frames, and I kept banging my knees under stand-up climbing cadence. The rim is a little narrower than the Alex DX32 (which is, itself, a little narrower than the current KH muni rims) but the brake mounts and using the same seat post size as the KH frames are both big positives.
I was also jaw-on-the-floor impressed with how easy the self-extracting cranks were to deal with, as well, when I replaced the 165s with 127s later (“the better to 24x2.5 Fireball cruiser you with, my dear”), especially after years of dealing with Profile cranks which don’t even have a standard puller mechanism at all.
All in all, my impression was a good solid muni.
oh… hey… I let this sit unposted for 24h and I guess I’ll fix that now.
billnye
John M
We have 3 Onzas at the house (for 3 riders). One 24" and two 20". Love them. Light weight, tough and very ride-able.
Sadly, I don’t think Onza makes munis anymore. Last couple of times I was on the Onza web site, no munis were shown. However, Onza is still making their great trials bikes.