I don’t know much about engineering. Would a design like this be stronger than a Schlumpf hub. i have wanted to try a schlumpf but I’ve been afraid to as I’m pretty heavy.
This design seems like it could be practical with some tweaking (narrower frame, find a way to move the cranks higher so they don’t clip the ground, bigger wheel).
The new Schlumpf hubs are already really strong. The old ones had bearing issues but beside those I haven’t heard of many problems.
hey people
I’m one of the testers of Hunirex.
All I can say it’s perfect for fast urban riding or for long distance tours.
As you ride you don’t feel that it’s q-factor (tread) is bigger than a normal unicycle’s.
the center of the cranks is lower than the center of the wheel but it’s not disturbing at all
if you can ride a schlumpf geared unicycle you will able to ride a hunirex after a few minutes, I’m sure
I’ve tried a prototype Huni-Rex. The Q-factor didn’t bother me, nor did the wide frame.
When I took sharp turns my pedals sometimes hit the ground, but I didn’t go too fast.
Somewhere in the gearing or cranks or whatever there was something that couldn’t be tightened enough, so the cranks had a bit of free play (I think it’s called free play. It’s probably what someone above called slop."). But it was only a prototype.
Pedaling below the center of wheel didn’t bother me at all. I actually liked being closer to the ground.
Has anyone taken one on a tour yet?
These things look great for around town, but I think the q-factor would cause big problems over very long distances.
The Q-factor could be reduced somewhat with different, low-Q cranks. What’s the price on these unis?
The Huni-Rex is available now. Thanks to davidp for mentioning this in a different thread.
It costs 866$ / 749€
The wheel size is listed as 26", but the rim size as 36". It looks like 26" is correct.
Is it possible to change out the sprockets? At a 39" effective gear, it’s hard to see a reason to buy this instead of a Coker at half the price.
Yeah, I saw this uni mentioned in another thread, seems like an interesting way to get a higher fixed gear, not that anyone would want one 
I’d like to see a belt drive on this uni, that would be quieter and more resilient, also easier on body parts, in case you slip 
The low pedal set is an interesting thought, makes me wonder it that’s one way to make unis more stable…
I’d like to know this too. My earliest experienced with geared-up unicycles was from experimenting with various sprocket sizes on a Schwinn Giraffe. That’s not the best configuration for high-gear riding, but it was I had at the time. We settled on a 28:48 ratio, which made for really challenging freemounting!
Anyway, if the sprockets can be changed, it opens a wide variety of speed options, but not with convenient gear-changing.
I’ve been trying Huni-Rex on EUC week ago and it was really fun to ride, but I personally consider it mostly a toy to try. You could ride it after a few minutes and it is really fast for such small wheel. However the ‘free play’ in gears was too noticable for me. Probably these unis used by everybody to try and falling down quite often where getting loose much faster than in normal use, but anyway one of Huni-Rex guys was tightening them all day.
I would not take Huni-Rex as regular city uni, because of the cranks hitting the ground on tight turn. I didn’t like that at all. On a tour it may be an interesting option though.
I wonder how the timing is being synced between the two cranks. If it is solely relying on the chains I would think that over time you would see the cranks go out of sync. Before long you would have one crank ahead of the other, and it would be like having a twisted spindle on a standard uni.
From what I understand it is just relying on the chains to be in sync, and to get out of snyc one side of the drivetrain would have to wear quicker than the other. It would make replacing parts more problematic as you’d always have to replace in pairs unless the wear was very minor.
I’d think the slop in the system would drive you nuts before being of out sync would. Imagine both cranks with independent slop… You could help alleviate the growing slop as the parts wear by chain tensioning but also adds another item to break/fix/tune.
Ability to change out sprockets would be very appealing, as the owner could set the effective gear to their personal preference, much as a fixed gear bike user can.
I can see several reasons why someone might buy it over a coker-
very portable machine, carriable into shops/buildings and without the storeage issues of a Coker
less distance to fall in UPDs
All the cons, few pros, the pedal strike issue would make it a pavement only uni and even then a sharp turn could send you flying if you clipped the ground at speed. Going fast, but on such a small wheel, why bother when an big wheel already goes that fast and is more stable, lighter, and has better pedal clearance.
It is suprising that they didn’t locate the crank spindle in front of the axle, that would have addressed the pedal clearance and maybe given some mechanical advantage…
Like Tom said, gearing up big, that would be interesting to try, but the pedal clearance would make me very nervous. The Nimbus version is kitted up with Nimbus parts, so maybe they got a good deal on the wheel/frame. I’d like to see this set up on a 29" or a 36", esp if it could be geared down on the 36" 
Good for Shorter people
Why would it not be better for shorter people than the Coker. The wheel is much smaller. so unless the difference between the hub and the sprocket is more than 5 inches shorter people can ride this.
There’s been several threads here now on the huni-rex, including discussion/comparisons with other geared unis.
The overwhelming consensus is that it’s deeply flawed- particularly with it’s tendency to pedal strikes (pedal hitting the ground).
I don’t recall any huni riders posting positive comments on it- additionally, to my knowledge, none of the available huni videos, including the companies own promotional vids, make it look like it’s in any way a good ride.
I think the huni-rex is a clear lesson in the wisdom of putting out a prototype and getting experienced riders to test it- before going into production.
One thing I noticed was that in none of the videos did any of the riders turn. Clearly pedal strikes are an issue.
It looks like the upper gears are ordinary track cogs, held in place with lock rings. I don’t understand how you could guarantee the final position of the cog teeth (and thus the crank attached to them) since there isn’t a spline or similar, forcing the cog to a particular place. You just tighten it till it stops, and that’s not a very predictable position. And the lockring doesn’t really “lock” it into place; it just stops it from unscrewing very far.