It’s hard to predict how fast you can ride with a certain setup or how well you’ll be able to climb hills. I spent $289 on a stock Coker 6 years ago and didn’t change anything other than the seat and pedals for the first 3 1/2 years. That was over 4000 miles of great riding, including my first 24 hour race, etc etc. Others have ridden MUCH further on stock Cokers. Worry about crank length etc later on once you get going. I don’t think it has much to do with your biking skills- just your Cokering skills which will increase as you ride more.
On speed, my comfortable max speed with 125mm cranks is about 18mph and I’ve gone a bit over 20. Others routinely hit 24mph or more. One amazing individual hit 29mph. Others find 15mph terrifying. On hills, some never go longer than 125mm; others never go shorter than 170mm. Give it a try and see what works best for you.
The stock coker rim is fine unless you’re pretty fat or riding very difficult muni on it. I weigh a bit more than you and I’ve taken my stock coker muni riding and ridden thousands of miles on it.
Having said that, if you’re buying the parts and building it up, the little bit extra you pay for the airfoil rim is worth it because a) it looks nice and b)it feels lighter to ride, which I guess would make it easier to ride for a short and lightweight rider.
on the 29er vs. coker, I love both of mine. But if you’re riding serious distances a coker is just easier. I’ve ridden 50 miles in a day on each of them and on the coker that’s a chilled out day ride compared to something tiring on a 29er. On the coker I can do 80 miles plus in a day without it killing me.
You can ride most road hills on 110 cranks on a coker if you’re riding regularly. Long 1 in 10 hills are perfectly doable. Some people can spin fast on long cranks, and can go super fast on them too, although the people I’ve met like that have been tall people. Once you’re used to the coker, try short cranks (110s) and long cranks (170s) for a hundred miles or so and see which you like most.
Don’t expect to instantly be fast because you’re a bike rider, you’ll probably still need a few hundred miles to get used to it. I think I really felt smooth on the coker after about a thousand miles. My comfy riding speed with 110 cranks is between 12-14mph, I can max out about 20 but I don’t like riding that fast, comfy going fast speed is more like 16.
I’m about your height, and I rode a coker for the first time ever last night, and it was so heavy!!
At the moment the only uni ive got is a 29er and I remember the first time I rode one of those after only ever riding a 20". I was suprised by how fast it was, and although it was a little sluggish at first, it didn’t seem all that heavy. The coker didn’t seem all that much faster than the 29er (although I’m sure it would have been if I’d had more room), but what really struck me was the weight.
It didn’t seem to me that it would be much use in towns or cities, because of its weight and size.
I wasn’t very impressed by the tyre itself either. I’m sure someone else will say otherwise but it seemed a little tacky to me- the tread pattern didn’t seem to be up to much.
Back to your actual question, I’m about 5’4" (i think) and im not sure about my inseam but I think its fairly similar, and I had no problem on the stock coker with the viscount saddle, I was even able to freemount it. Personally, though, I’m gonna stick with the 29er.
The coker is cool in cities once you’ve learnt to control it. I rode one on the roads in Central London for a couple of years. People really see you which is a good thing. A good rider can turn it 180 degrees on the spot, stop and idle / hop etc. just as naturally as a smaller unicycle. The thing about cokers is that they require strength and control and commitment to ride, and reward your commitment with extra speed and stability compared to other unicycles. The stability is particularly cool, because you can ride along paying a lot less attention to your riding and more to your surroundings and it’s great when you’re tired because you’re less likely to fall off.
The tyre tread is weird, but does seem to work pretty well on anything except really muddy mud. I rode in today and it handled the snow and some icy bits just fine, including bumping down a rocky track where I couldn’t see where the rocks were to avoid them. A slick like the qu-ax one might make a difference for purely road riding though.
It’s pretty hard to understand the coker thing until you’ve ridden some distance on it, if you’re just playing on it in a limited area, it’s just a big heavy unicycle.
Luke - you should come out riding some point with some coker riders and swap your 29er with a coker for the ride to see what the difference is. On your 29er, do you have shorter cranks than on the coker you tried? That might explain for it not seeming faster.
It is worth pointing out that the latest batch of Cokers come with an aluminium rim. It is the same width and definatly looks as if it is a better rim than the old aluminium one. It is basically untested.
The origional rim had it’s advantages. It was a single skin steel rim. So it is was flexible and could be bend out of shap… but it would return to it as well. It does require careful tensioning of the spokes, if it is too slack it collapes easily if they are too tight (this I have seen very often) it also tacko’s. Hopefully this new rim will improve things.
Roger - Ken Looi says that 110mm feels sluggish compared to 102mm on a coker! I’m not going to try 102mm right now though as I find 110s are pretty good for the mix of on and off road riding that I do.
