My original plan was to learn on a 19/20", then get a serious 24" and limit myself to that size just in case something larger was too much of a handfull. Then after a year on that, get something bigger, likely a 27.5". I was planning on buying a new unicycle once every year, going up in size until I have the 36". I do plan on making the purchase of a new unicycle something I do every year, depending on how things go.
In that thread that one fellow was having a difficult time with the transition from 20 to 24. I do not expect to have this problem.
I have no plans to ever acquire a 22". I will probably skip the 26" size as well as they are being phased out due to deliberately planned obsolescence so companies can sell more hardware and force upgrades. (I expect there to be future hyped up BS return to 26" or some other new size in the quest for more money.)
I think you’re overthinking things. If somebody asked me for advice, this is what I’d tell them:
Buy a cheap 20" or 24" for your first wheel. Use it for your initial learning.
Once you can ride the length of a block and freemount, work out what sort of riding you want to do, obtain an appropriate unicycle, and start using it. Any further skills you’ll pick up along the way.
My point is, the point of owning a unicycle is to ride it. So just pick something suitable for the discipline you’re interested in and go for it. I really don’t think you need to worry about progressing through wheel sizes or anything like that.
Your second uni might be a trials wheel. Or a muni. Or a 36er. Or a giraffe. Don’t agonise over the perfect machine, just pick something you like and ride it :). You won’t really know what you do and don’t like until you have a fair few miles under your belt anyway.
I agree, you are overthinking things. Learn to ride, after you feel comfortable buy the wheel size best for what you want. More downhill muni? probably a 27.5, More cross country non technical muni a 29. More road riding? a 36.
You dont need to progress one size a year. If you waited an entire year after using a 26 to ride a 29 you would go to ride the 29 and think “I am an idiot this is barely different to my 26… I could have done this 11 months ago”
I started off with an old trials Uni. Selected that because they were supposed to be very strong etc. I used to to be into heavy weightlifting and weighed way over 300 lb when I started.
I completely flattened the tire at its maximum psi and it was unuseable. So I overinflated the tires and it blew off the rim. No high psi tire was available for the 19" rim, so I ended up finding a 20" wheel set and put in a bmx tire that I could inflate to 100 psi. Then I could start practicing and my bodyweight went down.
I still cannot use a skinny low psi tire on a unicycle. I have dropped enough weight that a Trials 19" unicycle is now rideable. Several unicycles later, I have a used KH trials uni, which is immensely better than all the pre isis ones I had.
I also have a steel framed 24" that I had to replace the 1.75 x 24 65psi with a 2.10 x 24 110 psi tire or I could not ride it. Also upgraded the seat. I am concerned with breaking this one as it is older with cotterless cranks and the guy at the bike shop said that the rim was cheap and weak compared to current off road rims, and the whole wheel was probably not as durable as current parts. It feels vastly inferior to the KH trials when I ride it.
I have to go with a beefy uni with a big fat tire until I lose more weight, which will come as I progress with practice.
One of the reasons I was planning to buy one more uni every year is I expect there to be wear and tear on them as they age, and that newer better parts will be available in the future. Eventually I expect to have one Trials uni plus a at least a couple of other sizes in the stable. Good to have a back ups in case one breaks or gets stolen. Small wheeled Unis are supposed to be stronger than large wheels, after a couple of years of unicycling I expect to be much leaner and lighter, which will be easier on a 36", and I suspect it will be easier to mount with a lighter body.
By then, I should have enough experience, endurance, and knowledge so I am more likely to be able to do something epic like riding across the country or Europe on a touring uni or go ride down a mountain like a maniac.
This is exactly why we direct the heavier riders to bigger tyres. It is not unusual for us to suggest that the Club trials or Club Muni for learning on. We do point out that this is NOT for jumping (but what learner unicycle is!) and that it is just for learning to ride on. It works great.
Roger, earlier this year I was flattening the tire on a 19" Trials Uni, that is the one that I blew the tire off the rim with. I was lucky that the local shop had a spare QUAX compatible 20" wheel set which was easy to get a good high psi tire onto. I went with a trials uni because I thought that it would be tough enough, was not expecting the tire not to be up to the task.
Anyhow, I have dropped a lot of weight since, and now a 19" trials tire holds me up just fine. Looking forward to continue to get leaner as I progress.
I don’t think many on this forum are suggesting you shouldn’t buy one uni a year, we are just saying you don’t need to buy them in size increments because of a learning curve.
I have bought about 4 a year since I started but I bought them in order of what I wanted to ride the most not in an order of size
All good advice, but for #2 I would not give it up too soon. The time to buy the upgraded uni is after you’ve stopped bashing the original one to the ground so much, or just before you start using it for things it’s not good at, like lots of hopping.
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.
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.
