General Muni Questions

General
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A few questions about muni:

Do you always have one hand on the seat as your ride?

Does it help to be able to jump with the seat out in front, or it that just for trials?

Is it okay to just wear a helmet, or is it necessary to buy all that extra protection stuff?

Does anyone ever get flat tires? Is it something to worry about?

Are the 170mm cranks that come with the kh24 too long?

Is the kh24 seat good enough or should I get an air seat? (I really care about comfort.)

Are brakes a luxury or a necessity for intermediate muni? Im guessing you have to be pretty advanced to need brakes.

How bad are gazzaloddi tires on pavement? Am I at a real disadvantage with the Duro Wildlife Leopard 24x3?

Should I be concerned about the kh cranks coming loose? Anything I can do to prevent it, since it seems to be a fairly common problem?

Any thoughts or opinions concerning the above topics would be greatly appreciated :slight_smile:

-Grant

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No, Don’t know, OK & No, Yes & NO, NO, Yes, no need, Luxury, Don’t know & No, No & do spline crank search. --chirokid–

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we have all pondered these questions. first of all you dont need to grap on to the saddle all the time, thats only if you are doing a drop or somthing so that the uni wont slip out from under you. Second, all KH products are very nice and durable, especially the saddle. One problem is the cranks, check out the thread on the KH cranks in this forum to learn how to stop the slipping.The duro wildlife tire is a wonderful tire all around. I can go down super steep hills and have no slip, they are also really good in the gravel (and duro tires look sexier than the gazzoloddi). Brakes are very nice to have, but for an intermediate rider, its best not to have them because you can increase your skill that way. Why? because when you go down a hill you push your legs against the flow of the revolutions, you can use this to your advantage by steering a round obsticles with ease.

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oh, and yes protection is crutial. if you want you can get a platform pedal embedded in your shin with ease. I reccomend the fox 911 shin guards that go all around the leg. also get gloves. the arm guards are better for better riders because they tumble alot

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Re: General Muni Questions

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 22:31:40 -0600, tennisgh22 wrote:

>Do you always have one hand on the seat as your ride?
No, but some do.

>Does it help to be able to jump with the seat out in front, or it that
>just for trials?
I don’t jump seat out, but it will help others.

>Is it okay to just wear a helmet, or is it necessary to buy all that
>extra protection stuff?
Your choice. I wouldn’t MUni without shin and wrist armour.

>Does anyone ever get flat tires? Is it something to worry about?
Rarely. Personally I never had one (on a uni).

>Are the 170mm cranks that come with the kh24 too long?
Matter of type of terrain and personal preference. I’m a fan of long
cranks.

>Is the kh24 seat good enough or should I get an air seat? (I really care
>about comfort.)
Good enough especially for MUni.

>Are brakes a luxury or a necessity for intermediate muni? Im guessing
>you have to be pretty advanced to need brakes.
Luxury.

>How bad are gazzaloddi tires on pavement? Am I at a real disadvantage
>with the Duro Wildlife Leopard 24x3?
If you plan to ride much on pavement, get the Duro. They’re cheaper
too. Especially with a highish pressure, the Duro is fine on pavement
although for exclusive pavement use a slicker tyre is much better.

>Should I be concerned about the kh cranks coming loose? Anything I can
>do to prevent it, since it seems to be a fairly common problem?
No experience, others have written a lot about it. I think antiseize
is the answer.

Good luck,

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict

“Heck, even my toes were aching from trying to grip the soles of my shoes! - Tommy Thompson”

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Re: General Muni Questions

7

This guy pretty much hit on most of the crucial questions about MUni. Is there already a FAQ about Intermediate Mountain Unicycling? His questions aren’t the basics like, “What is MUni?” or “Do you really take that thing offroad?” Someone should make a FAQ, because these are really good questions to be able to answer for where the sport is at this moment (brakes weren’t an issue a few years ago).

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Re: General Muni Questions

A little more add-on to the already good answers. In some cases I don’t agree with the answers of others:

> Do you always have one hand on the seat as your ride?
I almost always do, but you don’t need to. The hand on the seat not only helps you steer, but also takes some of your crotch weight off.

> Does it help to be able to jump with the seat out in front, or
> is that just for trials?
The reason for pulling the seat out is to get more leg compression. If you don’t need it, you can leave the seat in. But for those really big jumps and drops, you’ll know when you need it.

> Is it okay to just wear a helmet, or is it necessary to buy
> all that extra protection stuff?
It’s your skin. You will fall occasionally, and your pedals will probably slam into the fronts and backs of your legs from time to time as well.

> Does anyone ever get flat tires? Is it something to worry about?
Same as bikes. Less chance of flats if your tire’s really fat, but more chance if you run low pressure and your rim hits the ground. But flats happen to everybody from time to time. Carry tools and patches.

> Are the 170mm cranks that come with the kh24 too long?
No. The speed is lower, but the leverage is higher. If your trails don’t have much steep stuff, you can use shorter cranks and go faster.

> Is the kh24 seat good enough or should I get an air seat?
You can start with the KH and see how you like it. They’re great seats. I’ve been riding one on my MUni for a year now.

> Are brakes a luxury or a necessity for intermediate muni?
> Im guessing you have to be pretty advanced to need brakes.
It’s not about you, it’s the terrain. Around where I ride, there are few places you really need them. But if I lived in Santa Cruz, I would definitely have them. Lots of steep trails there.

> How bad are gazzaloddi tires on pavement? Am I at a real
> disadvantage with the Duro Wildlife Leopard 24x3?
It’s not that the Gazz is real bad on pavement (depends on tire pressure), it’s more that you’re wasting rubber. It is only truly happpy on dirt. Don’t know about the Duro.

> Should I be concerned about the kh cranks coming loose?
> Anything I can do to prevent it, since it seems to be a fairly
> common problem?
I don’t think it’s common. Loctite.

Have fun riding!

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plus you cant put an air seat on a KH unicycle anyway because nobody makes a seat post that will fit the diameter of a KH frame and the miyata saddle. If you have lots of money you could buy a bicycle rail type seat post and get an adapter so it it can fit a miyata saddle with airseat. I perfer the KH saddle because it looks more pure, all the parts were ment to be on a uni. Instaed of all these weird parts on it and a bicycle seatpost

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Re: General Muni Questions

  1. Not always, but in many circumstances it’s very, very useful. I personally use a Reeder (a tough angled bit of padded metal designed for my left hand) handle on the front of my seat, so the following relate to that: -

a. steep descents- any little bump can bounce your feet of the pedals, pulling up on the seat keeps them on

b. steep ascents- gives extra force on the pedals to power up hills

c. rough terrain- not only helps with recovery but you also get useful tactile info about the ground conditions, direct to your fingers

d. strictly speaking not muni but, when I ride the roads on my 29-er I really want to stay on it so, if the road ahead looks even slightly dodgy, or if there’s a car getting too close, I’ll have my hand on the handle for security

e. concerning the handle, Mike Fule observed that it effectively counts as being able to move up one crank size i.e. you can get up a hill with 150 cranks and a Reeder handle that normally would require 170’s

It took me a while before I could grab the seat/handle without it affecting my balance, once I’d got the hang of it I saw what a valuable technique it is.

having used the Reeder on both muni and 29-er, on the few occasions when I’ve ridden without it I’ve felt ‘naked’, the extra leverage it gives is way better than just holding the seat.

having said all that, try not to get into the habit of continuously holding the seat, it’s a good challenge to practice rough stuff without it to improve technique.

  1. I can’t do it, but it looks very useful for landing high drops

  2. for me a helmet and wrist guards for mild muni, add knee pads for less mild and for dodgy stuff round rocks I’ll also have shin pads and elbows.

helmet cos, even though head impacts are rare, they can be life destroying, wrist guards cos broken risks seem to be a more common injury. Whilst I don’t usually feel the need for shin guards in my riding, I’ve noticed that many muniists/trials seem to always wear them

  1. I’ve only had one, and that was on the 29-er not the muni

  2. for myself, I like a bit of speed and have never given 170’s a chance, Consensus (and this has been discussed here a lot) is that it depends on the terrain, the riders body etc. For trials type muni the extra leverage is very useful, but for more distancey cross country muni the 150’s are a better compromise for many. 170’s will be better for steep descents, as for uphills it’s pretty even with the extra speed/momentum effect of 150’s making up for the lack of leverage.

Best thing is to try them both out, remember that you’ll need a few weeks with each to make a fair assessment- read a FAQ on changing cranks properly and use the proper tools so you don’t damage them.

  1. Can’t comment as I’ve never ridden a KH seat

  2. brakes are something I’ve never used, i can see they’d be useful for knee killing sustained descents, but there’s nothing near me that requires them; also, to me, part of the appeal of unicycles is their mechanical simplicity, I don’t want the hassle of adjusting and maintaining brakes

  3. never ridden a Gazz, I’ve heard that they’re not that good on pavements. I like the Duro, I’ve gone through several of them and have no complaints but, like I said, I can’t compare with the Gazz as I’ve never used one.

  4. From some of the postings here, yes, it could be a problem. A search should turn up some good ways to deal with it.