I have a Nimbus Trials Uni and am wondering just how much abuse this thing can take without it folding up on me. I’m about 190 (that’s before the diet I’m starting tomorrow) and keep creeping up the height on drops (trying to keep up with my boys), but don’t know what the limit is of what it can take. I’ve watched videos of guys doing crank flips off a stair set (4 or 5 feet in height) and the seat post snaps off or the rim folds up.
Also, it would seem the forces exerted on the metal and welds is cumulative, so that over time things weaken. Would this be correct?
Any anecdotal or technical information is appreciated.
Trials unicycles are arguably the toughest thing you can ride, but trials style riding breaks parts by its nature.
The smaller the wheel size, the tougher the build. Add a deep double walled rim, 36 spokes, and a big cushy tire to soak up the big drops and it adds up to a very tough combo. The nimbus x had 48 spokes and you can still get those hubs, but I don’t think there are rims for a trials tire with 48 spokes.
The seat post can be “upgraded” to a steel one, but it’ll be quite a bit heavier.
I don’t do trials uni, but you should be trying to absorb a large amount of the impact. Run low-ish pressures to soften the blows.
Repeated stress on metal parts will always inevitably lead to failure. All metal has a fatigue life, but it’s longer than you would think. Aluminum is light and awesome and has a long fatigue life under normal biking stress, but steel gives a lot more and can “bounce back” so to speak (sorry for the ELI5 explanation).
If you do extreme riding, you should expect to break parts every now and then is the tl;dr of it all. A Nimbus trials is a dang tough unicycle.
You should be fine for a while. A steel frame is very strong. Frames rarely break except for after years of use.
Aluminium seat posts start to crack with tricks and eventually go but they are cheap to replace.
I haven’t seen a huge amount of rims break but usually they go after a lot of wear and tear and very large tricks/drops. I am 90kg and have never broken a rim with some 1.5m drops.
If you are getting higher than that and doing it repeatedly you may break something eventually.
Remembering that high drops don’t take a lot of skill may help. Try going the other direction.
If you’re having fun with it, eventually something may break. But that’s not a bad thing, really, since Trials is naturally hard on equipment. Keeping the wheel tensioned and relatively true will help. Seat posts may break, but usually from a buildup of “wrong” landings where you come down on the seat too hard or something. Normally you try to avoid that!
Also there’s the way you land. Some people develop really good finesse and can land like cats (usually), while others never quite figure that out and tend to land like a bag of rocks. Try to think like a cat.
I’m not a great dropper, just an observant guy. Seems that drops onto dead flat concrete or grass are much harder on the wheel than drops onto a very slight decline away from the launching surface, i.e. Going downward in the direction that the rider will go after the drop, the direction of his moment or momentum. I’ve noticed, for instance, that Terry Unigeezer will place a board, at an angle, to drop onto. This may help prevent gear damage. Others know better than me.
Thanks, everyone, for the insights. With all that’s been shared and knowing the level we ride at…our unis should hold up for a while. One of my boys, however, has “Evel Knievel” written all over him and will probably need a new one before the others.
