So what is the ultimate long distance unicycle?
First of all chirokid, don’t be jealous. I’m the one who should be jealous, of all the people who learned to unicycle before age 38 like I did. But all that age stuff is just in your mind as long as you’re realistic and don’t try to shoot for the moon right away.
A summary review of my Hunter36…well, it worked out fantastically in Norway. It was interesting to see that all 11 riders had a brake, and everyone had a nice one, that is, everyone had a real welded on solution. That is a key thing for real-world (non flat) riding. If it’s not flat, you want a brake. I was the only one with a hydraulic brake and it worked perfectly, but had anything gone wrong with it, maintenance is much more difficult on the road. Just get a brake, any brake, and you’ll start using it and loving it.
Every single rider had an extension handle - there were various designs, but they all looked basically like the Wyganowski extension that I had. Either buy one or get designing yourself because without it, the riding is much harder. I really liked the addition of bar-ends so that my hands were higher up - Scot Cooper and I were the only ones with those.
10 out of 11 had the Airfoil rim, not a necessity, but a great upgrade from the stock Coker rim.
Seats varied all over the place and I am convinced that there is no best seat. The best seat is just the one you like to ride with. On the last day, I traded unicycles for a while with one of the riders and neither of us could believe that the other had completed 600 miles on “that horrible seat”.
I was the only one with a “Super Coker Wheel” based on Tom Miller’s 120mm wide Suzue-replacement hub. Dave Stockton made this for me and it was great. Then again, for road riding, it isn’t really needed. But I love the feeling of bombproofness, and my Hunter36 is used for offroad riding as well as commuting, racing and touring.
Frame-wise, I had a Hunter, there were a number of Wyganowskis, a few stock Coker frames…I don’t think it matters all that much for road riding. Obviously, stiffer is better.
The big thing that made the trip relatively easy for me was training. I rode over 1000 miles in the 2 1/2 months of preparation for the trip. As a result, I suffered none of the knee, tendon and seat problems that others did. I believe that I could’ve done the tour on a regular Coker (with added brake and improved seat) just about as well. I think it comes down to the rider and his/her motivation, training and skill rather than the equipment.
The search for an ultimate long distance unicycle has a long way to go (even Bronson Silva’s amazing Creative Gecko unicycle isn’t what I would call the Ultimate). The research and testing is going to be far more fun and rewarding than the actual achievement.
Take Aaron Svec from South Dakota as an example. He rode the whole Norway tour with his nearly-stock Coker (just had an added brake and 125mm cranks). He started the tour with a bald, cracked tire, the same one he used on the EUT two years ago. He broke several spokes along the way. He crashed multiple times and bloodied himself. He didn’t train that much and was in pain on several days. If you look as his survey comments at http://www.unitours.org/tours/NUT/Survey1.htm you’ll see he would like to change Seat, frame, tire, spokes, extension, seat clamp, brake, cranks, pedals, and bearings (basically everything) on his unicycle. But he BLASTED along, uncomplaining, being our ambasssador to Norway, helping all the other riders, and having a great time. He absolutely motored on that Coker of his. And that is the real deal. Get out there and ride.
—Nathan
