With some aprehension I bought a KH 36" a two months ago. To my suprise I have enjoyed it so much that not even my 29" has been used since. My 36 is great on the trails rolling over bumps and good uphill control with 165mm shanks. I feel the need to get on the uni every day.
I am intrigued that so many better riders than me stay on smaller wheels. Am I missing something? Has anyone else had a similar experience with a 36?
Yes
Ride my 36 every where. The 29er just collects dust.
Funny you mention not riding a 29 much after getting a 36.
While I love to ride the 36, it seems to always have me at my strength limit when riding.So I keep thinking the 29 should be easier and fun. But each time I ride the 29, it just feels flat, no fun at all. So I go back to riding the 36.
I do visit the 24 now and then, and that is always fun.
My MUni is way more fun on the steeper and more technical stuff. The Coker is most fun when it can go fast. I think rolling, windy singletrack is my favorite. 
I went straight from a crummy learner 20" I got for free to the 36", freemounted the first day and haven’t looked back since : ) I knew what I wanted when I saw it, and didn’t feel like buying a $300 uni just to transition, turns out if you’re young enough, learning to freemount isn’t that bad, especially if you make yourself learn it fast by riding everywhere right off the bat : )
I’ve ridden a 29er before, and would like a mountain uni in that size, but I’m contemplating just putting 170s on the big wheel and going for it. Only rode serious offroad once on the 36er (on 150 cranks) and ended up not being able to freemount uphill when I needed to, but I was a beginner back then. it turned out to be a good walk anyway O:-)
I have a lot of fun on my 36 it is a complete freedom feeling. It’s amazing, but I ride more for tricks so I’m stuck on my trials cycle more often than not. I still jump on the coker for those great free rides though, just not as often. And honestly not enough because I have to move my seat and sometimes I’m just not up to the work for a 36er ride… you gotta ride there and back…
Yeah, what is 'Kiwi’Richard doing in Sydney?!?
36ers with long cranks are a blast, 36ers with short cranks are a blast. 36ers with medium cranks are just plain fun.
Those that stick with 29ers are missing out, though those can be fun too.
as long as we’re on this topic, I went from a 24" trainer to a 36" and love it. Only been riding it two days and I’ve already adjusted to it except for free mounting. What is the trick to doing this because every time I the pedal down to go up, I stay in the same place and just end up pushing my uni forward. Any help?
I’m different. My 36" collects dust. I ride my 29" nearly all the time. I use my 24" or 26" on dirt. I just can’t manage the 36" up hills steeper than 7-8% grades, even with 150 cranks. The 29" has 125 cranks and I can climb most any road up to 20% grade.
Not sure if I understand your issue. Is it that once you are up on the uni and push the pedal down, the wheel goes forward but leaves you behind and you fall/step off behind the uni? In that case, you have to realise just as with smaller unis that you have to end up slightly in front of the wheel, as opposed to straight above it, in order to be able to ride away. And yes, that means quite an energetic mounting move on a big wheel! You really have to jump up and forward, especially in a pure static mount.
There must be a between-your-ears component to that. The two unis (with those cranks) should have roughly the same hillclimbing ability. If the rider is very light the 29" has an advantage, but not by that much.
There is a huge difference for me. I don’t get nervous, my legs give out. I’m around 140 pounds. I was thinking of trying the 165 cranks on the 36" but that would require cutting the frame. I’m not comfortable cutting the frame.
Assuming that both unis are fixed 1:1 (i.e. non-geared), a 36" with 150 mm cranks has a Total Gear Ratio of 3.05, while a 29" with 125 mm cranks has a TGR of 2.95. (Think of TGR as the multiplication factor: if your pedal moves 1 cm along the pedal circle, the uni moves 3.05 (or 2.95) cm along the riding surface.) That’s a difference of about 3%.
Let’s assume that your 29" is 15 pounds and your 36" is 25 pounds, then the weight with rider differs another 6 percent or so (165 vs 155 pounds). That’s a total of 9% to the advantage of the 29" (note: rough estimate). Now, granted, the max grade that you could conquer should differ more than 9% since you need a base level of power to keep any unicycle going in the first place (resistance, maintaining balance). But you’re talking about a factor of more than two in max grade, and I can’t understand why it would differ that much.
You say you don’t get nervous but maybe you’re still more ‘at ease’ on the 29"? If you can ride up 20% grade on your 29er, I bet with (not too much) training on the 36" you would be able to do 12-15% grade with the same ease.