Biggest weight loss on your unicycle?

General
22

About feeling the light

I am not a very good uni rider. If I was much better, having a uni as strong, and much lighter, would be an advantage. The only advantage I could just buy.

At my skill level, I sorta enjoy my KH’s more for the pride of ownership in a quality product. The weight difference doesn’t seem to help me much. I bet I could ride a heavier Nimbus, Qu ax , etc. , just as well.

Still, no one can refute the fact that lighter is better. FTL can’t feel it really. I’m not that good and just wanted KH’s for the craftsmanship. For better riders, I am sure it is very important. Light is the only thing you can buy.

Also, even if you can’t feel it yet, light is always right. Especially if your wallet is heavy. Oh, so much then.

23

do you know how much weight you saved? this would be good if there was a small beam in the middle to prevent bending

24

I agree, a beam would make me feel more secure. Still, for all I know I’ll never be applying more than 50% of the force needed to break these. That’s what I’m hoping. It’s an experiment and as long as I don’t get hurt, I’ll be ok with failure.

Yeah, in the previous post I listed my savings.

I’ve seen at least one person milled around the ISIS hole to increase frame clearance. I could even remove more material there. My milling buddy’s milling machine isn’t very easy to set up, and he had to do all the work, so I didn’t push it.

25

I’ve lost 10 pounds (~4.5 kg) since I began riding again in April 2011!

26

Ideally it was all in your feet. (rotational weight) :stuck_out_tongue:

27

Ah, this thread again. Someone posts a thread just like this about twice a year.

So here I go again, using the search function like a fancy-pants. The definitive thread on reducing unicycle weight is right here:

I want my unicycle as light as possible

28

FANCY PANTS!!! Destroying it for the rest of the crew that wears boring dull pants.

29

As with most things, a compromise is a compromise, so going lighter is not often better, ie short cranks may be lighter but they may also reduce rideability.

The easiest and most effective way to lose weight is to get a lighter tube/tire, for example:
Duro DH 26 x 3", 1.5mm Tube ~450gm
Maxxis Freeride 26 x 2.2-2.7, 1.2 mm tube ~295gm
No diffence in rideability.

Duro 26 x 3" Wildife Tire ~1500gm
Maxxiz Ardent 26 x 2.4 Tire ~850gm
Some difference in shock absorption, but the Ardent is a noticeably faster tread.

You can do the same for cranks and pedals, lose upwards of 300-400gm by making careful choices, and still not negatively affect ride quality.

Frames are frames, not only is there little weight difference between steel and aluminum frames, but the weight is centralized so it is less likely to make a difference in how the uni rides.

Seat, seatpost, brakes, no big gains there, keep looking.

Hubs, this can be a big loser IF you can get a ti or al hub that fits your needs. I saw an ~ 500gm weight loss going from a chromoly spindled hub to a ti spindled hub; but the ti hub broke. The al hubs tend to twist when used hard. Oh well.

As to what really makes the biggest difference?

That “punk kid” made a very good point, conditioning and overall fitness mean a lot more than the sum weight of a unicycle’s parts. I spent all last week riding the Oregon in Oregon, a beast of a muni it is, but it was not that much of a hardship because I’m fit and conditioned for muni. But I will say, I am sooooo looking forward to getting back on my 29er :smiley:

Yup, old thread topics just seem to cycle around…

30

I got my KH 24 MUni down to 10.5 pounds.

31

The hub does rotate, but it has a relatively small diameter, and at the center of rotation so it would not have much inertia, having a similar effect to a heavier/lighter frame.

Something like cranks or pedals is getting further from the center so would have a larger effect.

32

In actual fact, unless it’s so steep that you’re deliberately coming to a complete stop and pausing, then in such circumstances a heavier rim is beneficial, as it smooths out the accelerations.

33

Interesting idea.

However, once a hill goes above a certain (extreme) steepness, it’s not a question of deliberate stop/pausing, it’s actually a necessity.

And, not a bad thing either, as those brief pauses allow ‘micro-rests’ which are good on hills of such extreme steepness.

Plus, like I mentioned before, just by the laws of physics- climbing a given distance clearly must require more energy if the weight taken up is greater (assuming the hill is extremely steep and thus requires those stop/starts).

For non-extreme hills, you may be right- while greater mass will still require greater energy input, the ability of the heavier rim to roll through the acceleration more smoothly, may counter that to some extent?

34

Hey Terry, you might want to check your scale, your KH 24 is two pounds lighter than my KH 29, and my tire is 700gm lighter than yours, so even though your frame and wheel are smaller, my muni should be slightly lighter than yours.

35

I could be wrong but I assumed he was referring to his Fargo St climb setup rather than his muni setup.

36

Two pounds is a lot, my already very light 29er would be the same weight as Terry’s if I removed the tire, tube, cranks, and pedals :roll_eyes:

Current 29er configuration in contrast to Terry’s KH 24:

2010 KH Frame, 29 vs 24, minimal difference, +50gm
2011 KH Adj post vs fixd, minimal difference, +50gm
2009 KH Freeride seat, same, - 0
KH Moments 150, same, - 0
Nukeproof Electron pedals vs Drilliums, similar, - 0
KH Freeride rim vs Surly LM, - 500gm,
Nimbus hub vs KH hub, similar, - 0
14ga spokes vs 13 ga spoke, - 25 to 50 gm
Al nips, kh rim strip, , same, - 0
Maxxis Ardent 2.4 vs Intense DH 24 x 3, - 700gm
Maxxis Freeride tube vs Duro DH tube, -150gm
Magura rim brakes, same, - 0
Custom grab handle vs KH seat grab, +50gm

As configured for muni, in contrast to my KH 29er, Terry’s KH 24 is 1000gm heavier, so ~ 14.5#. Now if he were to configure the muni for the hill climb by changing out to a lighter wheel set, tire, and tube, shorter cranks, and ditch the brake, he could probably cut 2000gm from his total muni weight, so an 11# uni is possible, maybe 10.5# as he claimed, BUT then you no longer have a muni, it becomes a track uni.

An even lighter uni is possible, nimbus sells racing unis, but then what good are they really?

So, for a while I was running the lightweight QuAx cranks for muni, they’d worked fine for a few months, then due to the softer al alloy, they would wear on the splines and start to creak, so I changed them out. Funny part is that when I did a weigh in on my new digital scale, the QuAx cranks were not any lighter than my steel QuAx cranks and the Moments (depending on year machined) were not that much heavier.

In terms of overall riding quality and the difference weight makes in rideability, the tire and tube are the big players. If you can get over the need for a fat tire/fat tube combo (Duro/Nokian/Arrow DH 3"):

Ardent 26 x 2.4 is 800gm, Maxxis freeride tube is 300gm, total of 1100gm.
Duro Wildlife 26 x 3 1500gm, Duro 26 x 3 DH tube 450gm, total 1950gm.
The volume difference is ~20% less with the Ardent.

Additional benefits of a lighter tire is reduced friction, so you use less energy in moving the muni. Granted, I’m not a hopper and I don’t do big drops, but I do ride downhills and I am a bigger guy (200#) and I have no problems riding a 2.4-2.6 tire, no snake bite flats forover a year, and that’s running 16-18psi on Ardents.

Drill the cranks, yeah, that could help, though I have this memory etched in my brain from when I was a kid:

We were big into BMX, liked to get big air, urban style, dropping stair sets and loading docks, which was rough on cranks. So I had these new chromoly cranks that were drilled for lightness, we’re out in back of Alpha Beta, dropping off the loding docks, when my cranks snap in two, piercing my calf. Yeah, not pretty, and so when we checked the cranks out, we were no suprised to see that they cracked at one of the holes.

Tire and tube, that’s where it’s at, the weight loss that is :smiley:

Now if Nimbus starts making their new disc hub from Ti, I’ll be first in line cuz that’s a serious weight loss with no penalty in terms of function; well, as long as it’s not designed to break :roll_eyes:

37

Heavy tires/tubes are slow to start, slow to stop, slow to maneuver, and heavy to carry, so I think it’s safe to say that about the only thing they do well is absorb shock and cushion the ride.

You can do better, follow KH’s lead, try a High Roller 2.5-2.7, Ardent 2.4-2.6, or similar tires that do more with less.

I know folks continue to covet the Gazz 3", but really, those tires are dinosaurs, not only are they no longer being made, but even hard core DH bikers have gone to the newer tires to increase rolling efficiency.

I have Ardents now, 29 x 2.4 and 26 x 2.4/2.6, great tires for sure, but if I can find one on sale, my next tire is going to be a High Roller 26 x 2.7

FYI, UDC has the Duro 3" listed at 600gm, this is not accurate, they are closer to 1600gm!!

38

Carbon fiber saddle base, thomson seat post, super light kenda k-rad road tire, super light nimbus cranks. The setup I used to climb Fargo. I re-weighed it and it’s actually just a hair under 11 pounds.

39

Well yes, but in that case it makes no difference whether the weight is in the frame or the rim.

40

Not like that’s a trivial advantage - I can certainly feel the benefit of the 3" Leopard I’m now using compared to the 2.4 RR I had on before (though I know you’ll tell me the RR is just too light). Interested to try one of the others you mention if I can ever find one cheap.

41

I 100% agree with the tire tube weight loss!