What? I didn’t post that comment, that was Up_Rite! It does sound vaguely like something I might say, but I didn’t say it.
This makes me wonder how well a wheel with a non internal disk hub like the Kris Holm would hold up in comparison. I don’t know if I will ever get to this level, but nice to know how well things stand up in comparison.
The rim on this uni is not drilled and seemed to hold up ok. Would it have failed if it was drilled?
My suspicions were correct. Drilled rim holes accumulate filthy crud, and make it a hassle to clean.
This is a really stupid feature, what are you supposed to do? Remove the effin wheel, tire and tube every time and go through it with a toothbrush just to keep it clean? No bloody way I want to put up with this ridiculous BS every time I want to clean it up properly.
The seat and cranks are awesome on this KH20, but I really hate these stupid holes in the rim. This is a deal breaker I will try to avoid in future purchases.
That’s funny, I’ve been riding a drilled rim for a year now and haven’t seen a single thing stuck in those holes.
Are you falling off in mud and catching your uni and dragging it through the mud?
When you wash and want your muni to dry out you have to soak up the water that runs to the bottom of the rim but never mud or dirt. That’s all over my back.
All I can say is… don’t look at your pedals!
You’re supposed to wash your muni?
+1
Hell Ya…If it needs it.
Nothing beats a clean machine.
Muddy fun! Zoom in and notice how full of crud the rabbit holes are?..nah! Actually, No crud at all…
I used to be anal like you, when I first recieved my Kh 29er. I was paranoid of water slushing in and not being able to escape.
Now I just ride, in every weather condition, mud or no mud. Mud is no big deal, I hit a muddy section, keep on riding, hit pudddles, ride through them, more mud flings off, hit gravel, even more comes off. When my 1 to 3 hr ride is over 80-95% of the mud has flung off. When I get back home I just spray the rest off with a hose and it’s good for the next day’s ride. Besides the really muddy rides, I hardly wash it off, but use a wet nap to wipe off frame, rim, hub and tire.
As far as the disc brake crashing and ripping into the calf flesh fear? That seems to be a one time freak accident incident. I have crashed/UPD over a thousand times on disc brakes, not one time was my calf in danger. But of course, that doesn’t say it will never happen, because it did to one unfortunate rider. There’s inherent dangers in simply riding itself, but I’ll take the chances.
My advise, dont overthink. Buy what you need right now. Focus on multi terrain riding. Start small to achieve big. You dont need rabbit holes, you dont need disc brake right now. I might even suggest you call Josh at UDC, purchase a frame with a disc brake tab and all the necessary parts for a wheel build. Build your own wheel, it’s an awesome experience!
I used to build my own PC’s instead of buying the off the shelf options. I ended up with better computers for less money. Then people started getting me to build custom set ups for them. Then I got a Mac, and had an operating system that actually operated. No longer needed stacks of books just to figure outhow to keep Windows working.
I have switched back to PC’s since Apple’s computers no longer just work, and every time they update their OS it’s just gets worse and worse at a premium price. what used to be an awesome computer now just sucks. Steve Jobs must be rolling over in his grave, as his company botched his once excellent product.
The off the shelf options for Unicycles are good, but nothing seems to be exactly what I actually want from any of the vendors.
I suppose the closest thing to what I would want would be a KH without a brake, rim without holes, and a voluminous slick tire on it.
Awesome experiences are what unicycling is all about. So, if buying the parts and building a wheel is an awesome experience, as you say, perhaps I will do that. I think I saw a titanium ISIS hub somewhere to get things started…
Building and configuring your own unicycle is fun, for sure, I’ve had multiple custom 19" unis, with my own paint jobs, etc. Really fun projects. But since time has recently become a lot more scarce, I only focus on parts that matter for riding. I build myself a “Hugo strut” similar to this: Scheibenbremen, scheiben, beläge - #57 by Charly.Oldie
and a DIY brake extension piece, both are not pretty, and could be optimised, but they work, so I leave them.
What I am trying to get to is: If you have the time and money to spend on making your unicycle exactly the way you want, go ahead, it might be a fun experience. But it’s definetely not necessary to become better or most importantly, and it usually is not “worth” the time you spend on it if you look at the progress you could have made in the same period of time. Riding a uni that is precisely the way you want it to be is definetely fun though.
I just might have to rebuild the wheel on my KH20. I used the wrong end of the crank puller removing the cranks, and now cannot thread the bolts back in.
So if re threading this hub will not work, I may as well build another wheel with another rim without holes in it.
I think if you have at least 2 good unicycles, a project rebuilding or modifying one of them should not interfere with riging too much. I have one good one, and another one older with square taper cranks I find far less enjoyable to use than the KH. It feels flimsy in comparison.
I was going to hold off on acquiring another good one until I got better on the KH. I might get another good one for more satisfying practice sessions until the KH gets fixed.
I would try chasing the threads before panicking too much. Cheaper and easier than rebuilding the wheel or buying a new uni.
That is what I will be doing. No one had the tool locally, and for the shop’s prices to bring it in were much more than ordering it online. So now I am just waiting for it to show up in the mail.
It will take a week or longer to this to get here, so I will just use my inferior unicycle until then.
Are there plastic caps, or anything else, that can be put in the holes on drilled rims to keep crud out of the rim and provide a smoother curface for cleaning?
This thread is hilarious 
Drilled rims don’t really accumulate dirt and washing is still easy if they do.
Plastic caps dont’ exist as far as I know as they’re completely unnecessary.
As said above, really you just need to get out riding more.
When you’re riding every day, you won’t even start to think about cleaning.
I clean my unicycles a few times a year:
- Before events because I want to pretend that I clean them.
- After bad weather to get the salt/grit off them.
- Once mud starts falling off in my house.
- Before I sell them.
I fully understand that with unicycling that significant time and effort must be spent in actual practice. I put in as much practice as I can, when I can.
Currently I have a doozy of a lingering cold. I went out practicing before when I thought it cleared up, and it came back with a vengance.
muni riders do a lot of effort to ride their munis / rims muddy & dirty. 
they are proud that people can see their hard job. 
may be they clean munis / rims before selling, but usually they ride their munis / rims down till they crushed 
;);)
“weight weenies”
Drilled rims save an insignificant amount of weight in a light alloy wheel, more in a heavy one. Better off to get a better rim, lighter tire, and go tubeless to save weight.
Drilled holes in rims increases the amount of maintenance needed to keep a wheel aligned and results in more broken spokes, bent a broken rims.
Just a cost increasing unnecessary vain feature to look cool.
I’m gonna have to disagree with this. A well built wheel will be pretty reliable. I started building wheels back when Rigida rims were standard. Those were soft, and not really round from the factory. The only thing that made the wheels solid was a good build. The current technology in rims makes the rim so much stronger, straighter, and rounder from the get go which has allowed poorly designed low spoke count wheels to be somewhat sturdy. Using these same rims in a standard laced 32-36 spoke wheel makes for an easy build that will be fairly reliable even if it isn’t perfect. That same wheel built by an expert, or an amateur who was careful, will be as maintenance free as any other in normal circumstances.
Granted, if the holes are not well placed, or too big to allow enough support for the nipples you will have problems with rims cracking. To be honest though, I’ve seen more cracked Mavic rims without holes than I have cracked drilled rims.