Late to the discussion.:o
I have a standard Coker. I upgraded the cranks and pedals. It’s been good for many rides on and off road in the 20 -30 mile bracket, and a few longer ones.
The riders in this forum are a self-selected elite: people keen enough to take their sport seriously, and ride regularly and hard. I wonder how many Cokers are sold to less serious riders.
Most unicycles sold have 20 or 24 inch wheels, and I guess that for every one that is ridden properly, 10 are ridden occasionally, and 20 are hardly ridden at all. The profit is the same for the manufacturer whether they sell one to be ridden or thrown in the shed.
I guess that Cokers would tend to be sold to people with more enthusiasm and commitment, so the ratios would be better. Maybe half or a third of them are ridden “hard”. Who knows? Aim too high with the product and you might price yourself out of the wider market.
Serious riders will always upgrade peripheral components. Seats, pedals and cranks are readily available and very much a matter of personal choice.
Where Coker Tire Co. would need to specialise would be the tire, wheel and frame. These are the unique Coker components. (It takes serious effort and commitment to source custom made wheels and frames. If Coker Tire Co. makes it easy to buy an upgrade off the shelf, I’m sure they’ll get the business.)
The heavy cheap wheel is part of the charm of the Coker - but this is making a virtue of necessity. A better wheel would be better, by definition.
Better means lighter, stronger and structurally more stable. That means an alloy rim and a wider hub (and/or a hub with deeper flanges). The present tube is heavy. Many people now stretch a 29 inch tube onto the Coker rim. A lightweight 36 inch tube would be better.
A good unicycle tire has a rounded cross section (like a motorcycle rear tire) rather than a square cross section (like a car tire). The difference it makes to the enjoyment of the ride is massive.
The tread pattern on the standard Coker tire is, er… rudimentary. It works, but there is room for a more road-friendly one, and a more aggressive off road one. An even fatter tire (3 inch section?) would be great. Unicyclists like fat tires. It’s the only suspension we have.
The frame is pretty basic. Not much can go wrong with a unicycle frame, though.
If I were trying to market Coker unicycles, I would perhaps have a “design your own” menu on the website offering 2 or possibly 3 options on most major components, and three “off the peg” models. Make the top model “to order” only, and it will increase the cachet. If you offer three, then most people will choose the middle one.
A larger wheel would be fantastic for those of us who are real enthusiasts. However, the bigger the wheel, the smaller the market. Somewhere around 42 - 45 inches would be a dream come true for most serious riders.
You could liaise with manufacturers of the geared hub to introduce an off the peg geared Coker.
The Coker unicycle is unique. However, it is the Harley Davidson of the unicycle world. Its the “real thing”, but as things stand, there are sound practical and economic arguments for a 29 inch tire, with or without a geared hub. Coker’s USP is the big wheel, and that’s the way to go.
I hope you appreciate that an Englishman has used “tire” in place of “tyre” throughout. (And through gritted teeth.).
