So today it hit me for the first time: I have too many unicycles. Two Munis, three roadies, and my old learner. Add to that my fat bike, and we have a problem.
Seems that most of my time off is spent riding Muni (and now my fat bike) so the 36er I just built up hasn’t gotten any love yet, the Guni is collecting dust (mostly after sending me skidding), and that 700c just didn’t work out.
When I do Muni, I usually take my Flans, and the 36er is used as a clothes rack.
I want so badly to be a badass rider like Joe or Mike, but how in the hell do you balance it all? Life was simpler when I had a Muni, and a 36.
Light and strong 19" - for trials.
24" - street & trials
26" - pure DH
G29" - general purpose muni
brakeless 29+ (Knard 29x3.0) - offroad and pretty aggressive riding
G36" - for real speeeeed and long distances
Now I’m waiting for some parts for fat uni…
Add here 29er XC bike and 24" street-trials bike
P.S. Every morning I have bad times choosing what kind of riding I’m going to do today
If it makes you feel any better I have a Koxx one trails, KH trails, Oracle 26" muni, 36er Guni, Oregon 29+, Oregon 26, and am rebuilding my Flansberrium as a 27.5DH rig with carbon rim. Those are the ones I just have with me at school. At home I’ve got a Schwinn 29+, impact trials uni, 26" street uni, two Torker 24" learners, a 5ft Torker,a 20" learner, and a chiz ton of bikes. Then the commuter b*ke that’s my daily.
I don’t think you can effectively balance it all, you end up spreading yourself too thin. I’m betting that Mike or Joe didn’t have so many unis. I think it helps to do more with less, you get to be a much better rider when use one uni over a range of rides. When you always have the right uni for the right ride, you are always riding in the comfort zone, you stop developing skills.
You obviously like your toys, I mean who doesn’t, but ultimately they distract you from getting down to business. A GUNI and a 700cc are just niche uni’s, their purpose is so narrow, what is the point of having them? Some people do well at making use of them all, Terry is a great example, but he’s a freaking animal and rides as much as 5 people.
I have the same problem as you, not quite as large, but it’s there. a 19 trials, a 20 inch freestyle, 26 muni, 29 muni, mountain bike, road bike. For muni I love the 26, but I’ve had the 29 so long I don’t dare part with it, I love it, yet they cover almost the same range. Tough decisions to get rid of one, maybe just put it in a closet for awhile and forget about it?
No, skills spreads onto other unicycles. I do some trials on my 29+ (it is lightweight and equipped with 165 mm cranks), i use to hop and ride downstairs on G36 (1:1, not overdrive yet :D). Such skills came from smaller unicycles, after riding larger wheels smaller ones seem more agile and powerfull (for right type of riding). Different machines show you riding from different points and push riding technique.
I have nine unicycles but I find myself using two of them on a very regular basis. Yes, my 36ers Ihave my KH 36 set up for road and my Impulse 36 is set up for trails.
The weather helps me decide which uni to ride. If the weather is good and the ground is dry then I take the Impulse 36 out on the trails.
If the ground is wet then I’ll take out my KH 36 out on the road.
If it’s very windy then I might go into the forest on my KH 24" and do some technical muni
You gotta listen to your heart. Sometimes I feel that I am neglecting other skills by not riding my freestyle and street unis. But I’m having the most fun on the 36ers and the 24" .
I’ve partially disassembled the other unis for storage purposes. As a consequence I don’t really consider the other unis much. But if I start to get bored I I know that I can always press my redundant unis into service
Practise moderation in all things. But please do so in moderation.
I dont even want to know how many I have… The good thing is, I think I still have more ridable unis than parts… Just seeing my tire and rim rack it scares me…
I’ve sold a few unis in the last 2 years. I feels good! Even though I still have all the wheel size I rode alot, that’s 20, 24, 26, 27.5, 29. No 36" Sometimes it’s fun to take the old setups and go ride, example, put my 3" IRC Kujo Tire on my 24", install my diskbrake and go ride the scetchy spots I used to ride
impact gravity black
2 x impact reagent set up for hockey
kh 26
kh 29
kh 19
kh 24
impact gravity white
Are the ones I ride most often (in that order). I think skills transfer across. Harder riding like street/muni improves riding ability for hockey. There is no such thing as too many unicycles. I will be getting a Flansberrium next.
I also have
One Club 24
One ALDI 20"
5x 16inch torker unistar
15x UDC trainer 20’
I originally was going to teach some classes at schools but other job opportunities came up so I haven’t had the chance.
I ride about 4-5 times a week so the non learner ones get used fairly regularly depending on what type of riding I am doing. I will usually have about 4-5 in my car. Two street unicycles, 1-2 hockey and 26inch muni.
20" Torker LX (used, CL purchase so I could ride while in mid-west over summer)
19" Nimbus Equinox Street
20" Some piece of junk for $30 on CL.
29" Nimbus Road (Drak)
Applying the less-than-or-equal-to-10 rule, that gives me four more to buy! Granted, three of mine are modest unicycles, and I have lent out them to friends (whom, much to my dismay, haven’t gotten off their butts).
Now that I’ve installed the T-bar on my 26" MUni, that is making MUni WAY more fun (less stress on the arms, more stability, improvement in hill climbing, rides over stuff, faster cadence). Alas, I was not manly enough for the Duro tire which came stock with the Oracle, and have downgraded to a Maxxis Ardent (much lighter). Considering starting a new thread, entitled “Your tire’s so fat, …”
Since this thread is about having too many unicycles, if I had to have only one unicycle, I’d probably stick with the Equinox street, because I can learn all kinds of skills on it, and it is still fine for trail riding. A little slow … whatever.
Still trying to achieve a certain comfort level on the 29" Road unicycle. Have the Shadow handle installed with the brake. Pretty good up hills, still getting comfortable with the brake going downhill. Riding in traffic has its stresses, but I am building my confidence. I was a little annoyed when I noticed the outer tire diameter of the 29" road was not that different from the 26" MUni with the fat tire. If I had to do it over, maybe a 32" would be nice, but I live in a very hilly place, and the 29" is currently working fine.
I told my wife about Shlumpf hubs; she acted like she might have to kill me…may have to wait a while on that.
So you like the Equinox? That’s was going to be my next one until I talked to a guy that has one. He was riding his KH 19" and the Equinox sat still. He said it was hard to control. Not quite sure why. I wanted to try it but the seat wound 't go low enough.
Do you ride them all? Or are you a trainer an theese are your club unicycles?