I am stuck with my 24" cottered Schwinn. (and my 6’ giraffe, but I never ride it.)
Being a big boy (40 years old, 265 pounds at 5’11"), I need a uni that can take my abuse? I love my old schwinn, but I am amazed that the rim doesn’t just taco under me. Especially when I ride it off of curbs. I rode off a 8 or 10" high rock on Sunday and really expected it to fail. Then yesterday I was riding along railroad ties and kept running off the sides. I don’t want to kill my Schwinn, so I have to get a Muni!
So, what kind should I buy? I will ride it on trails, grass, fields, gravel and hills. Plus, down 12" to 18" drop offs. My body is too old for any taller drops than that. I also want to learn to hop, even if it is just up 6 or 8 inches, such as hopping up steps. Hopping up hills would be great also.
I like the 24" KH Muni, but will it take the abuse that a 265 pounder can dish out? I have considered buying a high end hub, rim and cranks, then building my own. (I have access to a couple of race car shops locally, so fabrication would be possible) My fear is spending $500 on the KH, and then it not meeting my needs. Or, should I just take that $$$ and buy a huge hub, indestructable rim and strong cranks and build my own? Again, learning to hop and riding off small stuff would be the uni’s major stresses.
There’s my case. Help me out, what kind of uni will meet the needs of a Big Boy? --chirokid–
I thought that too about the 40-year-old body thing, but then Harper keeps demonstrating to me that age and drop size are not inversely related. I’m not landing 18s yet, but I know once you get comfortable with a height, there’s always another inch.
On the durability question, I’m not up on the KH 24, but from what I’ve heard any decent frame should do the job…the key elements are really going to be hub/crank/rim, and these would likely fail before the frame does. There is a bit on this topic at the thread below: http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26944
It seems like the Profile and Sun Doublewide setup is generally considered to be the strongest (and costliest) combo. This is generally what you’d see on any of the higher-end frames like KH Pro, Hunter, or Wilder.
I'm weighing in at 255. Here is the configuration I've come up with that seems to support my weight well.
Yuni 24" frame
Sun 24 x 1.75 BFR double-walled alloy rim
Suzue 36-hole high flange hub
KH Velo Seat
Arrow Racing Savage 24 x 3.0 DH Tire
Primo Meat Tenderizer Pedals Important Kooka 170mm Cotterless cranks. All other cranks bent.
Now you may be able to find better unicycles for a better price but this is what I was able to come up with over time as I learned more about uni’s and it handles my weight well.
I think the KH24 Sig series could easily withstand your abuse. There are only two gotcha’s that you might want to consider…
Heel Strkes:
The bolt barrel that attaches the crank to the shaft on the hub bothers some people (me being one of them). Because it sticks out a bit I would strike my heel on it often unless I mounted the uni just right.
(Note: Kris Holm has addressed this issue and a new style of cranks will be released in the future)
Tighten Spokes:
The other less problematic thing is that you will want to take a spoke wrench and tighten all the spokes after you receive your new uni. My wheel was trued fairly well but the spokes were a bit loose. Although that isn’t much of a problem for me at 165 lbs, it could be a problem for you at 255 lbs. It takes about 5 minutes.
Other than than that the KH24 is a fantastic uni. Mine has been ultimately tricked out with all the options and it’s been a lot of fun to own and ride. You might like to read some of the reviews about this uni and others on the product reviews forum.
Thanks Tom, Matt and Jason, those are exactly the kind of responses for which I was looking. (Sorry Jagur ;))
Matt: Did you build up that Yuni yourself? Approximate cost? Also, so nice to know there is another BIG rider out there. If you head East to the Great Smoky Mountains anytime, make sure you let me know. We’ll go for some rides.
Tom: Lets choose to ignore Harper :D, he just wants to make all us “other older” riders look bad.
Jason: I really like the looks of the KH 24". I rode it at unicycle.com It was a super rad looking orange color! But thanks for the two heads ups about the cranks and spokes. What are the “ultimately tricked out options” that you have on yours? I will read the reviews, I had never even considered that. --chirokid–
Matt: I just built the uni you discribed at Unicycle.com for $426.00 plus shipping. Then, I assume, I would have to build it all up myself. But that would be rewarding in and of itself. Again, thanks for this info, it is EXACTLY what I was needing. --chirokid–
This was just because I was still a beginner. I then realized that big people can Muni too (and lose alot of weight learning how). So thats when I got the new tire and pedals. I found out about the kooka cranks after I bent the bicycle euro’s. My friend has the KH model and I’ve rode it around a little. I don’t think it would have any problems either.
Its the one on the right. Just wanted to show you what those monster cranks look like.
Wow, those are monster cranks. I assume those are the Kooka 170 mm cotterless cranks you wrote about above. Are the Cranks, Savage tire and Primo pedals your only upgrades to the stock 24" Yuni Freestyle from unicycle.com?
That pic looks like a fun place to ride. Did you like your uni with the smooth, yet fat, Hookworm tire? If so, does it work OK on the road, as well as for hopping and drops? Or do you recommend the Down Hill tire right up front?
BTW, you and I could pass for brothers. Me being the older brother, of course, with my hair out on top. Hopefully one day, we can ride together.
Well who knows, maybe we’re distant cousins. I moved out of the deep south (NE Texas) just six years ago.
Those were the only upgrades I made. I really like the hookworm on pavement. It was a little strange getting used to the Duro tire on pavement but you get used to it. It nice to have the hook worm around in case we try a parade or longer group ride around campus.
That picture was taken at a place close to my house called Ellwood bluffs. Its where I started to learn how to Muni. Its right on the pacific (well Santa Barbara Channel that is). Here’s a nicer picture below.
I went on what I would consider my first “hard core” ride yesterday. It was down San Ysidro Canyon. We left a car at the bottom and drove another to the top. The trail dropped 2900’ in 4.5 miles. WAY to steep for this newbie. My buddy Eyal rode most of the way. I waited until there weren’t 50 foot drops on the side of one foot wide trails formed by loose shale before I tried riding. It was still a blast! I took some really nasty spills but all my gear protected me nicely. The only problem was this morning trying to walk around work. My legs are as stiff as boards.
I left my KH24 at the Unicycle.com booth on Thursday,Friday and Saturday when I was doing indoor stuff at NAUCC. John Drummond said he could have sold it 5 times if it was for sale. I had a lot of comments on it from a variety of people, to the point that I was getting embarrased. I definitely need to improve my riding to justify the strength of this muni. If you could see it with the flames, it would blow your mind. There was a guy hoping around on it at NAUCC that was well over 300 hoping around on it like it was a pogo stick, and it held up fine. I even had the pressure in the tire below 20lbs and the Fireball was flexing like crazy. If that didn’t bend the rim nothing will. Well maybe my Jeep. (Did that to my Stealth Torker Unistar 24) I don’t leave it anywhere near the Jeep so it won’t happen again!
As for the ankle thing, I have heard that before and was very concerned about it. I would recommmend riding one a little more before making the final decision. I tried the same one at unicycle.com and tried to buy that one on the spot. I have yet to have the problem myself though I can see how it could be an issue for some. The KH ub is huge and I don’t see it being a weakness, and the cranks seem fairly stout as well. You would have to be doing some really rad stuff to damage this bad boy, but of course this is just a biased opinion. My offer still stands, if you want to go for a ride lets meet up and ride. Glad to let you try it out.
The other thing I like about this uni is the ease of assembly/dissasembly. I had it completely apart for it’s trip to MN and it only took me about 10 minutes to reasemble. I had the tire completly deflated and stuffe into a duffle with little protection, and it made it both ways fine. I can only imagine the abuse it took. I was concerned, but didn’t have much choice if I wanted it with me.
The great thing about used Uni’s is there seems to be a pretty good used market and if you buy something you hate someone will buy it at a good price. Just ask Jagur.
It’s funny you say that, I was looking at your other post and trying to decide if it will be feasable. I will let you know. I am not ruling it out yet.
Yea, I really need to get more comfortable posting pics. I have only done it once before, so I am not real familiar with the process. I guess I need to contact gilby to have him activate my web space so I can post pictures. I really have no excuse for not knowing how to do it. Last time I tried, the picture ended up being so low resolution it was next to worthless.
To my recollection, I did not need to get any kind of a formal activation to be able to post pictures. You may need to log in separately once you’re at the gallery (even though you already logged into the forums), but after that it should be pretty straightforward. It was mostly menu driven after choosing “create a new album” or something similar to that. You use a browse command to find the files on your hard drive, then it pulls them in. If you had a resolution problem, that was likely with the source file, not with the gallery.
There might be something on it in the FAQ, or on prior threads…if playing around with it doesn’t yield results, you might try a Search.
looks like he said “web space” not a gallery.i belive you do need Gilby to activate your “web space” before it can be used.the gallery though,seems to be a free for all…
(Did that to my Stealth Torker Unistar 24) I don’t leave it anywhere near the Jeep so it won’t happen again!
and have a city ride? --chirokid–