Can I fit 3" tire into these 29" Nimbus and QU-AX frames?

Unicycles and Equipment
1

My first post, greetings from Estonia :slight_smile:

I climbed on my friend’s 26" QU-AX unicycle first time almost 3 weeks ago and have been hooked ever since. Unicycling is awesome, rode over 7km yesterday (combined :p).

So now I’m trying to assemble my first very own (budget) uni and need some advace. I’m planning to get KH FH 47mm 29 inch rim. Can I fit 29х3 CHAOYANG Big Daddy H-5176 tyre into either of these frames on that rim:

  • QU-AX 29" muni frame This one might not accomodate but I’d prefer this frame to the Nimbus one because of the price and looks. I haven’t found any useful info on it. Can get it for €40.
  • Nimbus Oracle 29" Disc I’ve found on 3+ year old threads that at some point this or a similar Nimbus frame was ~85mm wide so it should take a 75mm tire, unless the crown is too low. Not sure but it seems it could be slightly bigger than the QU-AX one. Would definitely take it but it costs €100, much more than the other one :confused:

Does anybody have either of these frames with wider sort of tires? Or both? :smiley:
Which tires exactly and how do they fit?
Or maybe someone could measure the width of the crown and the vertical distance from rim to bottom of the crown, or from top of the tire.
Any other comments comparisons about these two frames? I’ve only noticed the difference of break mounts (disc vs erm the other ones ;), rim gripping).

Thanks a bunch and happy riding!

2

Hi radiaator. Good to have you here with us. I have that 29" Qu-Ax frame. In fact I bought it from Goudurix, at the other end of your link, when they closed out their stock of rim-brake parts. It’s a simple steel frame and it’s been fine for what I’ve done with it. Having seen other riders’ Oracles, It isn’t as nice as an Oracle frame, but whether there’s €60 of difference is for you to decide. The Qu-Ax was built for standard size tires and probably isn’t any larger than the Oracle frame. I can’t measure it for you at this moment but I’ll do it later in the day.

Do you have the actual width and diameter of that Chaoyang tire? What gets sold as a 3" tire varies a lot. At one point, I had a Duro Wildlife 26x3.0" tire in the Qu-Ax frame and it fit easily for width, but those tires are famously undersized. As for diameter (size reference) I think it could handle the 29x2.4" tires (eg, Racing Ralph, Trail King) but probably not a Knard. I’ll measure to be sure.

3

Radiaator,

I have a Nimbus Oracle 29" with a disc brake that has a 29"x3" Maxxis Minion DHR on it.
I do feel a little rubbing when the tire is being torqued (high speed cornering when not perfectly balanced) but otherwise I never notice it.

At rest the tire has a 1/4" clearance on each side.

4

On my 29" Qu-Ax frame, the minimum width measurement is the distance between the insides of the Magura brake mounts, which is 83 mm. It’s hard to measure clearance to the bottom of the seat tube exactly, especially with a wheel installed and I’m too tired to remove it now :(, but it’s roughly 280 mm from the axle center. It looks good for up to a 750 mm tire diameter and unlikely more than a little beyond that. Hope that helps.

5

Thanks guys, it’s really awesome to be here! :slight_smile:

but I’m so hacked. Just yesterday morning I ripped one end of a muscle on top of my right foot straight off the bone… Not while unicycling or motorcycling or snowboarding or wakeboarding or doing whatever so called “extreme” but instead somehow managed to crash in slo-mo while BIcycling to work like 5-10 km/h. So now the foot is in a cast and have to take a break from unicycling for who knows long. Just as I discovered and got highly addicted to this new sport. What an epic fail :smiley:

Anyway, thank you, LargeEddie for taking the time. That’s very useful info. Now I’m quite sure the QU-AX won’t accommodate that tyre however tempting the price. Don’t know the exact measurements but going to assume it’s average. Also I’ve got the same impression from videos/pictures. Doesn’t look like there’s lot of space above the stock 2.2" tyre. Not enough.

But based on your setup, Canoeheadted (thanks!) the 29" inch oracle disc frame seems really promising (I gave a wrong link/pic before, to the non-disc oracle frame, sry). I think high speed cornering is something I need not be worrying about as of yet :D.

Anyway, so far I managed to practice quite many hours over 3 weeks. Managed to learn to ride forwards without instantly falling off, my best distance until UPD was 1.2km on smooth tarmac on 26" QU-AX Luxus w 152mm cranks. Can do static freemount as well on my dominant foot quite successfully. Done little bit of riding on unpaved slightly uneven trails as well, was fun.

Now I have been reading lots of threads on this forum and trying to figure out good setup for the first bike. While not spending insanely much on my first uni because preferences tend to change very quickly with a new hobby. Just around my house there’s mostly tarmac, some unpaved slightly uneven roads, some parks etc but not much real offroad and mostly rather flat landscape. I think I’d like to do offroad as well at some point, but need to go out of town for that. So I’d mostly do some commuting on streets, to the shop or friend’s or whatnot, some smooth bicycling road for workout, some light offroad later for workout when skills have improved. And sometimes some trails in the woods. Won’t do tricks nor trials. But would like to learn basic stuff like backwards riding, hopping up/down curbs, idling obviously :). I also do like some speed usually. I noticed the 26" is too slow for me on the pavement.

I’ve never had the opportunity to try a muni with fat tyre but my friend has once and said it’s much easier to balance on it. To me it just looks so badass that this by itself is enough to ride it! But it also seems more versatile. Only downside being more road resistance and little bit of more weight, right? Or are there other downsides? I think I won’t mind about the resistance that much because half of the goal of uniing for me is workout anyway.

Oh. And I’m 1.78m (5’10") and 70kg (154 pounds).

So based on all this I’d say KH 47mm rim with 29x3.0 tyre combined with 152mm cranks for the beginning and then maybe going shorter as I gain more experience or for different conditions sounds like a good fit. Right? Or is there something horribly wrong there in this setup considering my story?

I also like having this rim because I could go down to at least 2.2" or even 2.0" slick tyre with minimal cost if I feel like it. At least I would think the rim is not too wide for thin road riding tyres(?)

Oh and for learning I just got myself a random second-hand 20" uni from ebay for few dozen euros, hasn’t arrived yet. I think I could use that to comfortably and safely learn the basics like idling and backwards riding and hopping and whatnot. And then I would guess it should be much easier to transfer those skills to the 29" than start them from scratch on 29". Does this thought process make any sense at all? :slight_smile:

6

Thanks guys, it’s really awesome to be here! :slight_smile:

but I’m so hacked. Just yesterday morning ripped one end of a muscle on top of my right foot straight off the bone… Not while unicycling or motorcycling or snowboarding or wakeboarding or doing whatever so called “extreme” but instead somehow managed to crash in slo-mo while BIcycling to work like 5-10 km/h. So now the foot is in a cast and have to take a break from unicycling for who knows long. Just as I discovered and got highly addicted to this new sport. What an epic fail :smiley:

Anyway, thank you, LargeEddie for taking the time. That’s very useful info. Now I’m quite sure the QU-AX won’t accommodate that tyre however tempting the price. Don’t know the exact measurements but going to assume it’s average. Also I’ve got the same impression from videos/pictures. Doesn’t look like there’s lot of space above the stock 2.2" tyre. Not enough.

But based on your setup, Canoeheadted (thanks!) the 29" inch oracle disc frame seems really promising (I gave a wrong link/pic before, to the non-disc oracle frame, sry). I think high speed cornering is something I need not be worrying about as of yet :D.

Anyway, so far I managed to practice quite many hours over 3 weeks. Managed to learn to ride forwards without instantly falling off, my best distance until UPD was 1.2km on smooth tarmac on 26" QU-AX Luxus with 152mm cranks. Can do static freemount as well on my dominant foot quite successfully. Done little bit of riding on unpaved slightly uneven trails as well, was fun.

Now I have been reading lots of threads on this forum and trying to figure out good setup for the first bike. While not spending insanely much on my first uni because preferences tend to change very quickly with a new hobby. Just around my house there’s mostly tarmac, some unpaved slightly uneven roads, some parks etc but not much real offroad and mostly rather flat landscape. I think I’d like to do offroad as well at some point, but need to go out of town for that. So I’d mostly do some commuting on streets, to the shop or friend’s or whatnot, some smooth bicycling road for workout, some light offroad later for workout when skills have improved. And sometimes some trails in the woods. Won’t do tricks nor trials. But would like to learn basic stuff like backwards riding, hopping up/down curbs, idling obviously :). I also do like some speed usually. I noticed the 26" is too slow for me on the pavement.

I’ve never had the opportunity to try a muni with fat tyre but my friend has once and said it’s much easier to balance on it. To me it just looks so badass that this by itself is enough to ride it! But it also seems more versatile. Only downside being more road resistance and little bit of more weight, right? Or are there other downsides? I think I won’t mind about the resistance that much because half of the goal of uniing for me is workout anyway.

Oh. And I’m 1.78m (5’10") and 70kg (154 pounds).

So based on all this I’d say KH 47mm rim with 29x3.0 tyre combined with 152mm cranks for the beginning and then maybe going shorter as I gain more experience or for different conditions sounds like a good fit. Right? Or is there something horribly wrong there in this setup considering my story?

I also like having this rim because I could go down to at least 2.2" or even 2.0" slick tyre with minimal cost if I feel like it. At least I would think the rim is not too wide for thin road riding tyres(?)

Oh and for learning I just got myself a random second-hand 20" uni from ebay for few dozen euros, hasn’t arrived yet. I think I could use that to comfortably and safely learn the basics like idling and backwards riding and hopping and whatnot. And then I would guess it should be much easier to transfer those skills to the 29" than start them from scratch on 29". Does this thought process make any sense at all? :slight_smile: