Help with the vintage on these Kris Holm unis?

Hi,

I just picked up these 3 unicycles. 2 20"s and a 24". I used to ride as a kid, but it’s been a few decades. I’ve been having fun reacquainting myself with riding!

Any idea what year(s) these are?

Three Unicycles

Thanks,
Chris

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We will have to wait for @johnfoss The Wise :wink: but it looks like first generation KH unis (early 2000s?).
Fun to see all three from the same era (at first glance).

Has the one 20" a square taper hub? What hub-crank-interface have the others?

When I get a chance I’ll check out the cranks & hubs. I forgot to mention that the 24" has lugs for rim brakes.

Chris

Sweet looking unis.

I would give them a clean and service (new bearings etc) and make sure everything is tight and in working order.

@danger_uni ?

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Thanks for your vote of confidence! I’m not an encyclopedia, but those are definitely early KH unicycles, with all three showing the brand labeling. The orange one is a Trials/Street uni (not sure if Street was a thing yet) with a splined axle. The 24" also has a splined axle, and the previous owner made sure it had a brake mount under the seat (wonder if the brake go moved to seller’s next uni?). The black 20" has a square taper axle, which means it’s not suited to lots of pounding. Could be a Trials uni for a lightweight youngster, or an everything-else uni for anyone.

All unis have saddles that match the time period for those frames, so it’s likely they are what came with those unis when they were new. Tall foam, still comfortable, but gets old if you go on long rides. The frames are steel, with a crown design that’s one-foot/gliding friendly.

The only negative I can think of about your recent purchase is that they’ll be a little on the heavy side. Otherwise, unless you paid a ton of money, you made a great score!

Some quick research: I looked through my (online) pictures from early Muni Weekends to see when these frames first appeared. In 2001 all I could see were Hunter and Pashley frames, and one DM Vortex. Granted, that was a small group as that event took place the weekend after 9/11 and everyone had to drive there. In 2002 there was at least one person with a KH Muni like yours (Ben Plotkin-Swing). it also had Unicycle.com stickers on it. David Poznanter was on a KH Muni as well. Those also had the “Profile Poznanter” hubs. Kris Holm was also there, but he was riding a red Muni with a steel frame and a Norco head badge on it. Probably some sort of prototype. I had my DM ATU from 1999 (first uni on the market with a splined axle). And finally, there were at least two Telfords, one being ridden by Geoffrey Telford Faraghan himself! :smiley:

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Maybe not, but you are the ‘unicyclopedia’ when it comes to this kind of thing :slight_smile: (as well as the unicyclone of course)…

Great to see these! A few clues that help clarify vintage:
The black splined cranks date between 2003 and 2005. Before 2003, KH unis had U.S.-made Profile cranks and hubs, and frames were made in Vancouver (and the unis cost $1,500!). From 2006 onwards, KH unis used ISIS spline.
The frames look like early Taiwan-made frames; my memory is vague but I believe orange pre-dated black, before switching to blue in 2006.
The thick foam on the saddles also dates to early/mid 2000’s.
The large nub on crank, at the axle, suggests it was the first release of this type of crank; this nub was cut off in subsequent production runs
The left uni has steel cranks and a 4-square taper hub, and the 20" rim that was on a flatland model later. This was the setup on a version that I’d endorsed for Norco bikes at the time, but never on the UDC-distributed versions produced by KHU. It doesn’t 100% match up with a standard spec that I recall - I’m not sure of the vintage but suspect it also dates to sometime between 2003 and 2005.
Hope that helps!

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