Hey guys, I just wanted a second opinion.
I have been reading a lot about unicycling and watching some videos, and I really want to get into it.
I am pretty sure I want a 24" uni, but if anyone has any interesting tidbits to share to sway me, I would love that.
I am only 13 so I donât have an income and I wonât be able to afford something like a kris holm. I was browsing around and I thought that whatever knowledge that anyone has on this subject would be helpful for me, and all newbies alike.
This is the Torker Unistar LX 24" (obvi)
It is a little bit more than I would like to spend, but reviews are great, and I think it would hold up better than a cx model.
This one is a little less, and nice looking too, but Iâm not sure if the company is quite as reputable as Torker. It comes in a bunch of colors. Reviews are also pretty good.
This is the cheapest I could find on Unicycle.com, and would take much less of a dent on my duct tape wallet, and the wallets of other new-unicyclists.
Thanks already in advance for all of your help. I love this forum!
feel free to share anything that you think might be helpful to me, or to anyone who happens to stumble across this post.
J
You can walk anywhere if you have the time.
-Steven Right
(I guess you could also Unicycle anywhere too, eh?)
The seat on that Hoppley looks really bad. It doesnât even have a handle. And that makes a difference when youâre when are starting out. Toughening up down there and learning to sit without⌠ya know⌠squishing yourself is part of learning to ride. You donât want to make that any more difficult than it already is.
Iâve ridden the Torker and the Club before, and theyâre both good. I think you would be happy with either of them.
Yeah, also it would be harder to put your foot on the frame for learning tricks like riding w/ one foot on the Hoppley you posted.
The Torker wheel is theoretically stronger w/ the 48 spokes, and the Club seat is a tad more comfortable IMO (the LX seat was pure torture for me), but some like both seats just fine.
What kind of riding do you want to get into? 24 is a good all-round size but a 20 might be better, depending on your interests.
Found one more possible crazy cheap option.
It is by KAZE, which seems to be a furniture companyâŚ
I know I would probably need to replace the seat, maybe the cranks, but do yâall think it is worth it?
Right now I am leaning towards the torker.
Alright! The torker it is! thanks for all of the help, I will keep my eye out for a good price.
I injured my knee playing soccer so it will be a couple of weeks before I can start learning
Pretty excited!
Well, one more possibility.
Should I go for the 24 or the 26? Which do you think is best for riding around town.
I know that larger wheels are faster, but would it be more difficult to maneuver?
Depending on the distance and the terrain you are about to ride either a 24" or a 26" will be fine (i have both now), but learning would be much easier with 20". I used the 20" to get some fresh bread in the morning from the bakery a few blocks down the street, now i use it to ride from the car to the trainstation and from the subway to my workplace sometimes.
Soon after we started learning to ride the unicycle we bought a 24" (when we bought a new saddle for the 20"), so we tried to ride both before we where able to freemount or ride free with the 20". Without the help of my partner i wouldânt have made that much progress on the 24" in the same time. Once youâve mastered the basic skills on a 20" you can easily adopt to 24".
Learning on the 26 is not recomended, even the 24 would be more challenging than a 20.
The LX 26 has 170 cranks. Kind of long and I bet youâd have to cut the neck of the frame to fit.
Unless theyâve changed the specks on the Club, it has 125 steel cranks, fine for cruising, but a little short for learning IMO.
At youâre height, you still may need to cut the neck on a 24. The LX comes w/150 cranks, better for learning, light Muni but long for speed, and not too strong (one of mine bent a bit from a UPD, still ridable though).
Iâd get a 24 + some quality shorter aluminum cranks
What are the best sizes for shorter cranks? I saw some that were as short as 75mm!
Is that overkill? (underkill, really, I guess) Any recommendations for brands?
The smallest cranks Iâve tried on my 20 was 89 mm, but anything shorter than 114 ended up being slower overal from less controll.
My 24 is a Muni and it only has 150 and 170 cranks. My 26 LX is still newish and never had anything on it other than the stock 170âs.
My prob w/ the 20 and cranks 102 or less Iâd end up haveing to pause to reagain my balance a lot. A bigger wheel will have more inertia and not start/stop so easily, so the paticular prob I had on the 20 would be less to non existant. Some experienced riders like to ride w/ 102 cranks on their 36ers on flat roads and some freestyle riders like 89mm cranks.
I will confess, I have not played around with Torkers much, that was until this past weekend when I took apart my sonâs 2010 Torker Trial (isis). What can I say, they are heavy, poor quality of workmanship, overbuilt in some places, underbuilt in others.
In all seriousness, you should get a Nimbus. Not only will you get a better product, but you will get better customer support. UDC builds and sells NImbus, it is their brand, the Torkers are sold all over by retailers who focus on bikes. Notice that you can get Torkers on Ebay, but rarely can you get Nimbus or KH, thereâs a reasonâŚ
So, one past noobie to a current noobie: Get a good uni and practice until you get it.
I have the same basic critique of my New Torker as far as quality.
It will work, and Iâm planning on riding it until it falls apart, but Iâm already planning to get a Nimbus for my next ride.
I was going to say âyes you should learn on a smaller wheelâ, but what do I know? If you work hard at it, youâll probably get it pretty quickly. It seems like younger riders have less trouble learning. Once youâre past the learning stage, 26" is a good size for cruising around.
