Now that we have a muni-rated geared hub, and RTL is behind us, I’ve taken my 29" guni out for a few trail rides.
First, what do we call this?
Gmuni…doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue.
Mguni… has a bit of Swahili sound to it, that might be ok.
GuniMuni… rhymes, but too many sylables?
Second, its way fun.
Third, its different.
The fun part is the speed, which is restricted by trail conditions (and rider skill I’m sure) to some extent. I can ride geared up on dirt roads and ‘beginner’ mt bike trails. Throw in too many roots/rocks/climbs/twists and I’m downshifting. However, a gear makes these otherwise boring sections super fun. Carriage roads, dirt roads, and the other trails you previously avoided because they were too boring on a 24 are now a blast(especially down hills). I have started to find a few suitable trails in my area and am having fun on them, still getting a feel for how fast I can really handle it around turns and over bumps.
Curious to hear what kind of terrain 24"gunis are riding geared up. I’m tempted to move my hub over to a smaller wheel just to try it out.
So far I have found two pretty fundamental differences. First, you have to look further in front of you AND right in front of you. Because you’re going so much faster you have to know what the trail is doing further ahead. However, you also have to know what bump your about to hit in the next second. Inevitably you run into situations where you can’t keep track of them both and you either slow down or get the feeling that you are just barely holding onto control (which may be terrifying or exhilarating, depending on your personality).
The second big difference I noticed it timing hops. By now I have a pretty good feel for where my feet are going to be when I approach an obstacle in 1:1 and can time my hop accordingly. Things are different in 1:1.5. I probably just need to practice hopping curbs geared up more…just don’t want that to screw up my 1:1 timing.
-Ro
