I’m looking at buying a new unicycle. I have a 20" Schwinn. I’ve been reading
everything and I’m trying to decide what to buy 24", 26", 28". I want to try off
road riding and I want to be able to ride some distance. I’m afraid that if I
buy a 24" I’ll wish I had bought a bigger wheel. So, if you could buy only one
what would you buy??
Re: If you could have only one
You are looking for two opposing objectives. For distance riding you are going
to want a 26" or 28" with shorter cranks. For off road riding you are going to
want a 26" with longer cranks. Somewhere you are going to need to compromise.
A typical off road uni has a 26" wheel and 170mm cranks. The long cranks make it
easier to handle bumps, climb hills, descend hills, and handle the technical
stuff. But the long cranks also mean that you cannot maintain a high pedaling
cadence. With the long cranks you loose several mph in average speed. The long
cranks are also more work to cover any real distance.
For distance riding on a 26" you will want 152mm (6") cranks or even shorter.
Depending on the type of trails that you plan on riding you may find that a
compromise with 160mm cranks will give you some of the best of both worlds.
160mm cranks are fine for fire roads and beginning level single track trails
(basically anything that isn’t extremely bumpy and technical). With lots of
practice you will find that the 160mm cranks will even allow you to handle the
rougher stuff. Real good riders, like John Foss and others, manage to do muni
over most any terrain with 152mm cranks.
I’ve been experimenting with 160mm cranks on my muni. Usually I use 170mm
cranks. 160mm cranks are great while cruising along a bike path, but when I
use them off road I usually find a couple of places on the trail where I wish
I had my 170’s.
It all depends on where you want to compromise. Do you want to go faster or do
you want to have an easier time making it over and through the rough stuff?
My advice is get as many unicycles as you need and then get more.
>Subject: If you could have only one
>
>I’m looking at buying a new unicycle. I have a 20" Schwinn. I’ve been reading
>everything and I’m trying to decide what to buy 24", 26", 28".
I
>want to try off road riding and I want to be able to ride some
distance.
>I’m afraid that if I buy a 24" I’ll wish I had bought a bigger wheel.
So,
>if you could buy only one what would you buy??
>
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Re: If you could have only one
In article <01be7848$20c34880$5d788981@davidsfe.rwc.uc.edu>, “hartmame”
<hartmame@uc.edu> writes:
>So, if you could buy only one what would you buy??
Congratulations! You have officially been sucked into the world of unicycling, a
world where one is never enough. 
I currently have seven uni’s for various
purposes and will probably add two more by the end of the year. I advise taking
a good look at where you’re going to be doing most of your riding. If you’re
going to spend most of the time on the road, go for the 28" and you won’t be
disappointed. If you like offroading even slightly, the 26" will be the most
versatile, but it’s not required. Last summer I won the MUni race at the NUC on
a 24" with 125mm cranks. (I thank the Bloodman for not being there, we’ll see
what happens in WA this year!) This is the same 24" that I take on the road for
15-25 miles several times a week when the weather is swell.
happy decision making, until the future,
dustin kelm
Unicycling Productions/Dustin Kelm T-Shirts are now available… Check it out at
<http://www.gilby.com/t-shirts/up.html>.
Where do factories come from? The factory factory?
Re: If you could have only one (long!)
Mary Hartman wrote:
>So, if you could buy only one what would you buy??
And Dustin Kelm replied:
>Congratulations! You have officially been sucked into the world of
unicycling,
>a world where one is never enough. I currently have seven uni’s for various
>purposes and will probably add two more by the end of the year.
Wow! That’s a lot of unicycles! Your reply brought to mind a posting I read some
time ago on a different list by Knapp Hudson of Portland, Maine in response to a
similar question regarding bicycle collections. This guy knows what he is
doing…at last count he had 17 bicycles and is still married!
I have taken his advice and “uni-ized” it for our edification, replacing the
word “bike” with “unicycle”.
-Rick Bissell
It takes a lot of planning to be able to accumulate a unicycle collection. For
those of you who have not yet begun to accumulate your collection I would like
to suggest a strategy for your consideration. This strategy is to be used when
your significant other, be they he, she, or undecided, does not share your
passion for acquiring unicycles.
The Strategy is based on the writings of Patrick McManus author of The
Grasshopper Trap (also They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They, Real Ponies Don’t Go
Oink!, Never Sniff a Gift Fish, and A Fine and Pleasant Misery). All of these
books are great reading. Just don’t try to read them when your partner is trying
to sleep, your laughs are sure to wake them.
In The Grasshopper Trap there is a chapter titled Gunrunning in which McManus
provides a primer on strategies and tactics for bringing a new gun home. This
advice is appropriate for unicycle collectors also. The following is taken from
McManus’ book substituting the word unicycle for gun…
First of all, let us consider the psychology of a person as their partner brings
a unicycle home. It is important to note that the first unicycle is greeted with
considerable enthusiasm by the partner, and they may even brag about it to their
friends. “The new unicycle will be great for riding to work and getting
exercise.” It is important to let your partner know that this is a standard
unicycle and to fully be able to exercise, ride on the poor roads in your area,
and to ride on the great woods trails a mountain unicycle is going to also be
necessary.
“Why can’t you ride in the woods with the same unicycle?” they say. “I really
think you could if you wanted to.”
You will then need to explain the difference between a standard unicycle and an
off-road unicycle and your partner will finally agree that you probably do need
another unicycle.
Now that’s the typical situation the new collector faces. He or she will start
with a base of two unicycles, their partner granting them the benefit of the
doubt that two unicycles are actually needed. After the second unicycle, the
argument that you need a new unicycle will be dismissed by your partner with an
upward roll of the eyeballs and a big sigh. We are talking only third unicycle
here, remember, nothing more. If you are newly together, upward-rolling eyeballs
and big sighs may seem formidable obstacles, but they’re really not that
serious. Go buy the unicycle and bring it home. The eye-roll and big sighs will
let up after a few days. Now comes the biggie - the Fourth Unicycle.
With the mere mention of your need for a fourth unicycle, the partner skips
right over the eyeball-rolling and big sighs and goes directly to a recital of
your deficiencies of character, weird quirks, and all sins committed to date.
They will bring up such matters as saving for retirement, the fact they are
still wearing the clothes their parents bought them in high school, the
threatening note from the electric company, etc. “And you want another
unicycle!” they will finish, the sarcasm flickering about the room like sheet
lightening.
The fourth unicycle is the tough one, and in the face of this assault, there is
always the temptation to sneak the fourth unicycle. That’s a mistake. Your
partner’s knowing you purchased a fourth unicycle is essential to further
development of your unicycle collection. Here’s why. After you bring the
unicycle home and show it to your partner, they will shake their head and say,
“I don’t know why you need all those unicycles.” Note that they don’t say “four
unicycles” but rather the vague and general “all those unicycles.” Henceforth,
they will think of your unicycle collection not in terms of specific numbers but
as a single collective entity - all!
To thoroughly grasp this important concept, suppose your partner is looking at
the unicycles. “You and all your unicycles,” they might say, possibly with a
very tiny tolerant smile. What they fail to notice is that there are now five
unicycles! Once the psychological barrier of the fourth unicycle is crossed, the
unicycle collection can be expanded indefinitely with the partner’s not
noticing, provided you use some common sense and don’t add too many unicycles at
once. Two to three a year is about right, spaced at decent intervals.
There is one pitfall in this strategy - the area the unicycles are stored
in. Although your partner will never bother to count the unicycles, they will
notice three empty spaces. Therefore, you must make sure that there are
always three empty slots, even as your collection expands from four to forty
unicycles. If you plan on enlarging your collection, select a storage area
that can be expanded by adding on new sections, so that there are always
three or more empty slots. It works.
But how do you get all those unicycles into the house without your partner’s
knowing, you ask. Actually, it is all right if every few years you simply walk
right into the house and say,
“Look, dear, I bought a new unicycle.”
“Neato,” they will say. “I’m ecstatic. Now tell me, what did you want to buy
another unicycle for when you already have all those unicycles? I’ll bet you
haven’t ridden most of them in the past five years.”
Ride them? Yes, a partner will actually say that. They will not be able to
comprehend that you needed the unicycle because you needed it. They will not
understand that you need the unicycles just to be there, to be your unicycles,
to be looked at and fondled from time to time. They will not be able to fathom
that you need the unicycles even though you don’t need to ride them. Tell them a
unicycle collection is like wilderness. Even though we don’t use all of it all
the time, we need to know it’s there. Probably it won’t do any good to tell them
that, but it’s worth a try.
Stating the simple truth often works in explaining an occasional unicycle
purchase. But why take unnecessary risks? Go with your best lie and get the
unicycle stashed in your expandable storage area as quickly as possible.
Oddly enough, there are a few really good lies for explaining the purchase of
a new unicycle.
There’s the classic “A Fantastic Bargain,” of course, in which you will tell
your partner that the unicycle you just paid $600 for was on sale for $27.50. If
their eyebrows shoot up in disbelief, you mention that three men in white coats
showed up at the bike shop and led the manager away before he could slash the
prices on the rest of the unicycles. Indeed, you say, you could have picked up
five more brand-new unicycles for a total of eighty-five dollars, but you didn’t
want to take excessive advantage of a crazy person.
The “Play on Their Sympathy Ploy” works well on young, inexperienced partners.
It goes something like this: Rush into the house wiping tears of joy from your
cheeks. Then cry out, “Look, look! A person at work sold me this unicycle. Its
identical to the one my grandfather gave me on his deathbed. Gramps said to me,
I’m givin’ you ol’ Betsy here, because every time you ride it, you will remember
all the good times you and I had together.’ Oh, how I hated to sell that
unicycle to pay for mother’s operation! But now I got one just like it! Or maybe
it’s even the same unicycle! Do you think it might actually be the same
unicycle?”
Warning! Don’t try the Sympathy Ploy on your partner if you have been together
for longer than five years, unless you want to see a person laugh themselves
sick. It’s a disgusting spectacle, I can tell you.
The “Fantastic Investment” lie will work on occasion provided you lay the ground
work carefully in advance. “That ol’ Harvey Schmartz is a shrewd one,” you say.
“He bought this classic Loyd unicycle for one hundred dollars as an investment.
Three weeks later he sold it for eighty-seven thousand dollars! Boy I wish I
could lay my hands on a Loyd. We’d sell it when we retire and buy us a condo in
Aspen and tour Europe with the change.”
After you’ve used up all your best lies, you are left with only one option. You
must finally screw up your courage, square your jaw, and make up your mind that
you are going to do what you probably should have done all along
- sneak the new unicycles into the house.
Here are some proven techniques for unicycle-sneaking:
The Surprise Party - You arrive home and tell your partner that you have to go
to a surprise birthday party for one of your riding partners and picked up a
special cake on your way home. “Oh, how clever!” they will exclaim. “A
birthday cake shaped like a unicycle!” This is also known as “The
Unicycle-in-Cake Trick.”
The Lamp- You buy a lampshade and attach it to the seat post of a new unicycle.
“Look, sweetheart,” you say to your partner. “I bought a new lamp for the living
room.” They gag. “Not for this living room,” they growl. “Take it to your
workshop and don’t ever let me see that monstrosity again!” A variation on this
ploy is to tie picture wire to the new unicycle and call it a wall hanging (this
works especially well with antique unicycles).
The Loan- A riding friend shows up at your door and hands you your new unicycle.
“Thanks for loaning me one of your unicycles,” they say. “I’ll do the same for
you sometime.” Make sure your accomplice can be trusted, though. I tried “The
Loan” with a friend one time and he didn’t show up at my door with the unicycle
for a month, on the day after first snowfall, as I recall.
Spare Parts- Disassemble the unicycle and carry it home in shopping bags.
Mention casually to your partner that you picked up some odds and ends from the
junk bin down at Sams Bike Shop. If it’s a giraffe, and there is a question
about the frame, you can explain that you found it at the dump when you were
taking the trash. Works like a charm!
Hope the above ideas are helpful in building your collection.
Re: If you could have only one
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Wow, If I could only have one unicycle. What a question to start a Saturday
morning with! (In my Opinion) the 24" is the best all around size, but scince
you already have a 20" and say that you want to do some MUNI as well as some
distance riding (both of which are fun and well worth pursuing), I would
suggest that you try for a 26" unicycle. With that size you have a very good
choice of tires. It is a very good commuter size uni. It’s easier to mount,
ride in traffic, and stow away (once you arrive at your destination), than a
bigger wheel. Yes, based on the info that you give, I do believe that for now
the 26" would be the ideal choice. However, I wouldn’t worry too much about
it because if your anything like me, you’ll soon discover that you simply
must ride and have one (or more) of each and every size that is available.
Let me suggest for now a 26", then 24", then 36", etc., etc… Have Fun, Mike
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unicycling@winternet.com Date: 27 Mar 1999 11:49:04 GMT From:
“hartmame” <hartmame@uc.edu> Message-ID:
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“hartmame” <hartmame@uc.edu>
I’m looking at buying a new unicycle. I have a 20" Schwinn. I’ve been reading
everything and I’m trying to decide what to buy 24", 26", 28". I want to try off
road riding and I want to be able to ride some distance. I’m afraid that if I
buy a 24" I’ll wish I had bought a bigger wheel. So, if you could buy only one
what would you buy??
–WebTV-Mail-1010422166-984–
Re: If you could have only one
John, wrote:
> Dustin Kelm wrote:
> > Last summer I won the MUni race at the NUC on a 24" with 125mm cranks. (I
> > thank the Bloodman for not being there, we’ll see what happens in WA this
> > year!) This is the
>
> I’ll let Brett argue with you if he wants, but I don’t think he could have
> beat you. Brett would do best in a race that was at least 10 miles long, on
> technical singletrack, uphill all the way. Even then, I think Roger Davies
> would give him a run for his money!
I am not too sure about that myself, but we will know more in the summer as I
intend to come and play at the NUC this year.
Roger