Very interesting thread. Tony, those pictures are dramatic. Sorry to hear about that. We have five 36" cycles, 3 Hunters and 2 Cokers, all with the Coker tire, and all but the original 1999 one have airfoil rims (not with the X). These all work great and our normal inflation pressure is 50psi for road and 40psi for offroad. I have not tried the TA tire but I bet it’s great for road riding. For offroad I love the Coker tire, and it’s fine for on road, so I have had no reason to change.
Weight is really a big deal though. Unijuul, 180g in the tire is a big difference - like a turbo charger or the lack of it. That’s about the same weight savings I got when I switched to a 700c tube and it was stunning how much better climbing was. Nowadays we just use Coker tubes though to avoid flats.
I don’t think I ever heard who the maker of the Airfoil rim was - just that they are in Hollywood, California (at least they were back in 2002 when I got my first one). That is SO lame that there are now double the choices in 36" tires, but people with new rims can only use one.
The tread is thicker than the Coker tire so that is where most (all?) of the weight gain is. If you are concerned about weight you could sand down the tire tread to lose some weight. If you do that you would also probably want to keep one tire that is sanded down as your race performance tire and use a regular TA for training.
The TA tire feels like it uses a harder rubber compound. I don’t have measuring tools to measure the hardness and I doubt Coker and TA know the durometer of their tire compound. Just going by the fingernail test it feels like the TA is harder and less sticky. That would contribute to traction differences.
A new TA tire has an outer skin on the rubber that is hard and slippery. It’s likely due to the release compound in the mold. When the outer skin wears away the newly exposed rubber is softer and more grippy. Might be worthwhile to sand off that outer skin when you get a new TA tire (I haven’t done that yet). Once that outer skin is removed from the entire tread I think the TA will do much better in terms of traction. I’ve ridden my TA enough that the skin on the center strip of the tread has worn away. I’m going to have to sand the sides down to remove the rest of the skin from the tread.
Once the skin is removed the rubber still feels harder and less sticky than the Coker tire, but the difference isn’t as great. Again, that’s a non-scientific measurement just using my fingernail.
Yeah, they didn’t release that info to me. To an earlier comment, I just wanted to clarify that the Airfoil manufacturer can’t be Dave Stockton. I’ve done business with Dave, and “Meticulous Workmanship” is his middle name. If he were in the rim-making business for 36-ers, he wouldn’t ship product that hadn’t been tested on both tires, and didn’t meet the same specifications of his earlier builds. The Airfoil manufacturer appears to have committed both of those sins. Hacks.
I tried the tubeless on my Coker a year ago with EXACTLY the same result when i pump the psi to 45-50. I thought the ‘light-weight’ Coker sounded good but after going through three 29" tubes and two 36’ tubes AND a tubeless-kit; I have decided it’s NOT worth the effort for few ounces save on weight. I had to wait weeks for new tube to arrive.
My advices is don’t bother with the ‘lighter-tire’ or tubeless for Cokers.
My 2cents…
After converting to 29" tube I never change back to the orginal 36" Coker tube. It is a bit tricky to install the 29" tube, but it makes a totaly new unicycle.
Light option: 29" tube with weard tire = 498 grams saved. And this is at the outmoust of the wheel (biggest radius). Also to go from 12 ga to 14 ga spokes will make a difference. But not so big I think.
For me the 29" is a must have at the climbs I unicycle in. But because I saw pictures of, i think it was Scot Cooper, got a blow out on the 29" tube. I newer have inflated the 29" tube over 32 psi as described at the tire wallside. I have now ridden 1600km witout a problem on the 29" tube. For me it is better to get a light wheel than inflate it much more.
Maybe it is different when you unicycle at flat tarmac. I looked at pictures from Unicon, as I could se Patrick Schmid is using a heavy steel rim!!! Maybe it is easier to get a god speed and more stable cycling when having a heavier wheel at the flat?
Air pressure also makes a noticeable change in the unicycle when climbing. A low pressures the tire feels dead, like it is sticking to the pavement. At higher pressure it gets some zip. I found the tire behaves better at about 40 to 45 psi or even higher, but I tend to keep it just above 40 psi.
So if you’re going to experiment with climbing feel you’re going to have to factor both weight of the wheel and the tire pressure.
The 29er tube is thinner and that make the Coker (or TA) tire more supple (pliable, less rigid). That also has a noticeable effect on the feel when climbing compared to the Coker tube.
So the riding changes that you’re attributing just to weight may also be due to the tire pressure and/or the more supple 29er tube combination. It may not be so much just the weight.
What do you mean by “weard”? That’s not an English word. It may have been lost in translation.
I’m a big fan of the 29er conversion. It’s a noticible differance and I’m still on my first tube. I got one pinch flat, but patched the tube and it’s been running for 3 months with no air loss (aside from normal). I think the susceptability to flats with a 29 tube is only if you run low pressure and bottom out alot, otherwise anything that would puncture a 29er tube and coker tire would most likely go through a coker tube and coker tire.
Thanks guys, a friend of mine blew 3 tubes trying to do this but he’s not the most technically able unicyclist so I wasn’t sure. I love the reccomendation to wear ear protection!
I had very little trouble installing the Schwalbe 29er tube and I’m not very technically able either.I have a steel rim though, so it might be harder on the Airfoil. The only puncture I’ve gotten was a small hole from a thorn, but damn that thing really left me stranded. I now carry a pump and patch kit every time I ride.
The airfoil is a whole different story. Much harder to get on in general and with a 29er tube, MUCH harder to do without damaging the tube. I’ve done it probably 4 times with about 6 failures. I think my success rate now is better than 50% but I don’t know about 2 out of 3. It’s also harder with a new tire of course.
I’ve fitted the same 29er tube twice without causing a puncture on an Airfoil rim (although I snapped one lever). The only reason I removed the tyre was for a spoke upgrade.
So how much pressure can a tubeless 36" tyre reasonably be expected to hold? Has anyone tried running 45PSI or more in their tubeless 36" tyre for extended periods? Is it reasonable to expect a tubeless coker tyre to withstand such pressure?
According to the Stans tubeless site, you should not exceed 40 psi. Running tubeless is much harder on the bead. I have taken it higher to seat the bead, but never run more than 40. Near the end of the third tire’s life without any problems. With the new rim being of smaller diameter, tubeless would not be recommended.
To an earlier comment, I just wanted to clarify that the Airfoil manufacturer can’t be Dave Stockton. I’ve done business with Dave, and “Meticulous Workmanship” is his middle name. If he were in the rim-making business for 36-ers, he wouldn’t ship product that hadn’t been tested on both tires, and didn’t meet the same specifications of his earlier builds. The Airfoil manufacturer appears to have committed both of those sins. Hacks.