Currently, The UNICON 10km Marathon and track match has been adapted 100mm crank as 20inches Standard Unicycle.
For elementary school students(Age 0-12) in Korea, as a standard 114mm crank has been applied for 20inch Unicycle.
In Korea Unicycling fedration will hold a 6th 10km standard maraton in March.
We are considering to adapt 100mm crank as 20inch standard.
Someone strongly proposed 100mm crank.
I would like to ask your opinion.
In your country, Which crank length adapted as standard for 20inch Unicycle?
If we adapted 100mm crank as standard,
Many unicyclist require to purchase 100mm Crank extra, because almost 20inch Unicycle selling with 114mm crank now.
What do you think about to adapt 100mm crank as 20inch Unicycle standard?
Thank you in advance for your comment.
See you in BRIXEN.
Jason Ahn
Representative of Korea Unicycling Fedration.
I like 100mm cranks on my 20" freestyle unicycles. The last two unicycles I bought have these cranks fitted as a standard specification, but I must admit they are relatively high end 20" cycles- Nimbus X and Nimbus Equinox Freestyle.
The 100mm size seems suitable for me on the 20" as it provides enough power to get up to speed and enough spin to ride smoothly. For some people they will not notice a benefit from changing to shorter cranks than 114 or 125 because of the slight lack of control or torque that the shorter ones give. Also what you are used to will be what you are best at.
I like the idea of including as many options as possible while keeping it fairly standard- 100mm cranks will be much less of a headache to attain than a 26x1" racing unicycle for the standard 24" race. In NZ a lot of riders use (19") 20" trials unicycles to race with- since there are not many freestyle riders here- so I clean up a lot of the NZUni races easily on my 20" with 100mm cranks.
If you allowed unlimited crank length, there would not be much of an advantage to go shorter than 100mm I imagine as there would be loss of control for most riders but I guess a few could make it work and seem unfair.
In our country we only have a handful of racers so we tend to just use what we have and try not to focus on the differences between the unicycles otherwise the races might not happen.
I don’t think riders with 114mm cranks will be at a great disadvantage to the riders with 100mm- there are so many other variables like skill and fitness. It is a bit annoying when standards are changed and you have to pay money to keep up to date with the latest rules.
Have fun at your 10km Marathon! Good luck agreeing on a standard.
Personally, I like 114mm cranks on a 20" for Freestyle. But that is irrelevant for racing.
Here’s the question you must ask for Korea: Are we more interested in using the most common crank size, or are we more interested in interesting unicycle racing?
Factors to consider:
Sticking with 114 is simple, but the industry may randomly start using different crank sizes. 114mm was not a common size in years past.
Riders who do well with 114mm will still have to switch to 100mm if they go to international competitions.
Racers are allowed to use longer cranks. If they only have a casual interest, having 114 won't be important to them.
The reason to propose 114mm crank is Unicon using 100mm crank.
A proposer says that if local match use same length as Unicon than it seems easier to compare and possible to efficient training for Unicon.