Me, John (vivalargo), his buddy Don and Jeff (thisguyIknow) got an early 9am start for today’s Coker adventure. Well, at least 3 of us had cokers; John brought his KH 29er along so I could at least have a fighting chance to keep up! Luckily for me, I brought by KH trials cranks and switched these (137mm) for John’s 175’s.
The weather was really ideal for our ride-totally overcast and on the cool but comfortable side for most of the ride. With my GPS strapped to my wrist, we hit some high speeds nearing 14mph, with and average cruising speed of 9mph. We only stopped a few times, mostly to just stretch out and rearrange “things”.
Although I was able to keep up just fine with the group, I was easily pedalling 50% more at the same speed, due to the smaller wheel. Total miles today was almost exactly 20 solid miles, which we completed in just under 3 hours, with all the stops. What a total blast! Next Saturday, we may just go for the whole 50 mile roundtrip!
Gotta have a lot of respect for the guys out there doing 100 miles on a 36er. I’m just a Muni guy faking it on a 36er so anything beyond 20 or 30 miles seems burly.
I wish Nathan, Corbin, et al would post more 36er trip reports so we could figure out what’s up with the 36er. We’re just winging it between Muni runs and I’m basically clueless per touring. The whole top speed thing has me confused. I’ve wound my 36er up to 17/18 mph and my legs can go much faster but I start freaking out thinking of pitching off and eating pavement at that speed. Man, that’s impressive of the folks who can hold that kind of speed for miles.
Generally, the 36er rides I’ve been on with Nathan and Corbin are fairly mellow. I joined them on a 50k ride a month or so ago, and I doubt anyone hit 17mph for more than a brief stretch. I think even their big rides tend to be more about holding a steady pace and managing saddle discomfort than specifically going fast. Maybe the 100-miler they’re going for up in Tahoe will be different. Ride The Lobster will be different, I’m sure, but Ride The Lobster is not likely to be fun; weekend rides should be fun.
Well I making the plunge and buying a coker, but some say I should wait to see what the new “improved” coker will look like. For me it would have to have a much better frame, and at least the airfoil rim.
I’m also puting out a question about the the best seat for long distance cokering; Since my '07 KH muni saddle (with the channel in the middle) is so comfortable for muni–much more so than my older air saddle–I’m wondering if it would also make a good touring/coker saddle as well. Does anyone (who does a lot of cokering) use this saddle, and if so, what are your opinions about it?
I’m also thinking of just getting the new nimbus 36er with the airfoil rim, but to be honest, I rather enjoyed the 29er John let me borrow! It’s lighter and much more nimble than the hulking cokers, and it’s a slined system, so I can still do drops and stuff. And then if I just put some 110 cranks on it, I would be more than fast enough! Tough decision. Opinions are encouraged!
The 50K we did last month, I did on a 29er with 110mm cranks and a KH Fusion Freeride seat, so I can speak pretty directly to your points.
50K was among the longest rides I’d ever done, and while the saddle was not entirely comfortable by the end, I was in at least as good shape as I had been on other long rides with an air seat. I’d definitely recommend the saddle.
I was able to fairly comfortably keep up with the group on the smaller wheel with shorter cranks, and on some uphills my setup was faster. I think in general, you have to work a little harder on the smaller wheel, and the saddle issues are slightly worse (due to more pedal revolutions). It’s definitely feasible to ride a 29er on a Coker ride; just keep your cranks at least one notch shorter than what the Coker riders are riding. But overall, it’s probably more fun and less effort to ride a Coker.
The other question is about spoke preference; Should I get the standard 12g or shell out an additional $36 for the 14g? Also, isn’t the 14g “stainless” steel, where the 12g isn’t?
So, I think maybe the best setup (for me) for long distance riding would be:
Nimbus 36er
T-7 handle
airfoil rim
TA Tire (What a RIPOFF of $82 for this tire! Booo!)
'07 KH freeride fusion saddle
14g spokes
Hope quick release clamp. Lots of chamois butter!
If you fancy having a try on one, come ride at Venice Beach the afternoon of Sunday 10th June.
For the coker, yes to 14g spokes, they’re lighter, better quality so stronger, and stainless so less likely to rust.
I’d worry slightly about buying an airfoil rim right now though, the Qu-Ax aluminium rim is already out in UK/Europe (although 48 spoke unfortunately, so only for use with qu-ax hubs), and unicycle.com are working on a better aluminium rim for the nimbus cokers too.
I reckon stock KH saddle of some kind for cokering. Airseats are ming, they just wibble wobble under you, whereas a normal seat gives you something to sit on. Some people like them though.
Howdy Joe! Yes I plan to join you all on 6/10! Any word yet on the start time? I’m guess sometime after 2pm? Are you up for the full bike path run of 5o miles?
Well, plane gets in 12.40, so yeah, prob about 2pm, after customs and junk.
Plane is long flight from New Zealand, so always a chance it gets delayed or is early though.
50 miles! Yeah maybe, see what people are up for on the day. Depends a lot on the heat though doesn’t it, if it’s super hot, 50 miles would just be hard work. But on principle, I’m up for whatever people are up for riding.
The UDC Nimbus Deluxe comes with all the above (except the KH seat); I just got one and love it. Believe me, a 36er is totally different than a 29er. In the beginning, I thought I wasted money on the 36er, but now that I’ve got a few long trips (for me) under my belt, it’s great.
The Nimbus gel seat takes awhile to get used to; I have it angled skyward in the front, and the back section parallel to the ground. It still squeezes a bit; I may try my Freeride or Fusion Street to see the difference.
Hmm, I just checked UDC again, and the T7 handle is $65 extra, as is the 14g spoke upgrade at $36 additional. So you have to add $101 to the $580 base price, bringing the total to $681, which doesn’t include the KH freeride fusion saddle, which I would also want. So the deluxe appears to only have the airfoil rim in place of the steel one. And the standard coker tire does not fit on that rim, which really sucks!
I preferred the nimbus gell to the KH air seat. Stock KH air seat is wobbly, and bulges and did weird things to my beginner’s confidence, and it wasn’t really more comfortable. I was going to order another saddle so I didn’t need to switch the good one between unis. So I said, "let’s look at this thing “.
I will take pics someday. All I had to do was remove the laced on cover (easy), and duct tape the inner tube sock (it’s a 20” tire tube doubled up in a cloth sleave and folded over). I held the tube sock in place while my friend taped it. Put an inch thick piece of closed cell foam over that, taped of course. Then the stock KH cover slips back on and ties like a shoe.
Very easy to do. I have switched it from my 24 " muni ( where the extra crotch shock absorbing was great), to the 36. So I am riding the nimbus gell on the muni now. At least it’s lighter, and I walk more often on the muni.
I rode the 36 for a couple hours this afternoon. The taped seat doesn’t move enough to shake my nerves, even with the shorter cranks that give the wheel a rubbery feeling. It’s such a pain to clambor up onto the thing that I don’t want to get off till I’m really thirsty and I’ve found a good spot.
This seat is so great, that it was my legs that felt stressed today. It was a great workout cause I never really was limited by seat pain, like I was when using the nimbus gell.
The current situation with the undersized Airfoil rim really does suck. If I was in the market now for a Coker that was going to be used on road (no Coker muni) I’d opt for the standard steel Coker rim and standard spokes. Then when a proper rim replacement is available upgrade to that along with the better spokes.
The standard Coker rim will do OK for road riding, and with a wide hub will do even better than the original Cokers. As long as you aren’t using a brake or doing hard climbing where the wheel flex will be an issue it will be just fine for road riding. And if I wanted I’d still use it for light muni.
Then when a better rim is available upgrade to that. The bummer there is that shipping on a Coker size rim is pretty much the same as for a complete Coker unicycle itself. Then you can use the old steel rim on a custom 36" ultimate wheel. I’ve been planning on using my old steel Coker rim in a custom ultimate wheel. Just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
John. we haven’t been on our Munis since Moab - all Coker all the time! Our training for the 100 miler next weekend and MUT in a few weeks has been going well. I think we’re ready. I believe in having fun on training rides, so we usually go on fun ones, with lots of climbing, a fair amount of offroad, but not super distance. Recently, besides commuting:
Last weekend: 100km, all road, organized bike tour: photos
Last Wednesday: 20 miles - speed run with Corbin, very fun GPS etc info
Last Friday night: 20 miles, lots of offroad photos
Today: 25 miles, similar route but more offroad. Video of Beau 1-footing offroad at speed (41MB)
So far in May, I’ve ridden 752km with nearly 7000m of climbing. We’ll see how things go next Sunday - 100 miles in a day will be quite a challenge.
As for top speed, we don’t go for all out speed anymore. We go for fun which means seeking out big climbs and great cross country trails and riding them at full (but safe or nearly) speed with 125mm cranks! We cruise at 11-13 or so on the flats, 15 or so downhill, with a max of 17-18 (sometimes Beau hits 20-21 if inspired). I sometimes go a little over 20, but don’t like it. With 110mm cranks, it’s possible to hold 17-18 for a while, but with longer cranks it doesn’t feel that great. One change we’ve made lately is to stick with 125mm cranks even for the offroad rides like today (including in that video above). Now that we’re in shape, we can climb pretty much any of the stuff we used to need 152mm for. And overall the strain on the whole body seems to be way less with shorter cranks. You should see the thing Beau climbed this morning at UCSC - wish Rob would post the video. It’s a skill thing not a crank length thing, so learn to ride short cranks and you’ll love it. Less butt pain, knee, ankle etc. After the 100km last weekend, I know I had many more miles left in me. There were very steep sections that had hundreds of the bikers walking, but 125mm did it all without dismounts. I would’ve probably felt way worse at the end with longer cranks.
For touring, the deal is to be in shape enough so that the daily rides don’t take that much out of you. For our upcoming Mediterranean Uni Tour we have to ride 4 day blocks between rest days, although the Norway tour had 9 consecutive riding days. The MUT days will be long and hard, up to 114km. You want to start each day as fresh as possible and be strong for the rest days so you can have fun instead of sitting around resting. What works for me is doing a bunch of rides beforehand with a TON of climbing. My training for the 1000km tour will end up being just under 2000km since mid Feb with about 17000m climbing. For the Alps Tour we did even more climbing training I think because the tour climbed over 13000m in just 15 riding days. Fun fun fun.
I will definitely post something about the 100 miler whether we make it or not. There are a number of unicyclists attempting this with us.
I just barely figured out how to climb it on my 24" muni with no UPDs.
I should’ve joined you guys yesterday. On an impulse I rode to Big Basin Redwoods State Park (~14 miles from home). Then I hiked with my big wheel. Since I’ve never been, I had intended to go see the falls, but I twisted my ankle half way there while hiking. So I skipped the trail to the falls and hiked (read: limped) for a few more miles to the bike legal (read: tame) dirt trail. I cruised out to the coast and continued to Davenport where I decided that my ankle was hurting too much to go for another 100K this weekend and I called my wife to pick me up.
