It's not the size that counts? Or is it?

General
1

The big question… Can even I ride a unicycle?
A little backstory… I’m 25, weight 325lbs, and have been cycling/mountain biking/touring for 13 years… I currently live car-free, and cycle at least 50-100 miles per week. I have also been riding motorcycles for nine years. I have great balance, and very strong legs(go figure:D ).
I’m confident in my abilities, but I understand that there are certain physics that are going to working against me here… What’s the heaviest you’ve seen uni?
I have a Torker DX 24" that will be delivered tomorrow! The anticipation is killing me, but I’m worried still. I guess I just couldn’t resist that stereotypical image of a fat man on a Unicycle! I’m thinking that a bear suit and a Uni is all I need for my next Halloween costume…

I think I have realistic goals and expectations of what I can do. I think the Uni I ordered is beefy enough to get me learnin’. If I find that I’m wanting to raise the bar and do more agressive/off-road stuff, I will spend the money to build something industructable… (the Conundrum comes to mind).
What do you think, can it be done? Thanks for any input!
Ryan

2

I think you’ll do fine.

And that Uni should hold up pretty well, too.

3

It sounds like you’re on the right track. Good job for researching and learning about unicycles instead of coming and saying “i wanna unicycle which one should I get”. The torker dx 24" is pretty beefy already but a bit heavier than some other strong 24"s.
one thing i would say is,
don’t think you’re gonna learn really fast. some people learn in a couple days, some it takes months. It just takes patience, commitment, and a lot of falling.
So have fun, I’m sure you can master it!

4

I was 265 lbs and only 5’8" when I started. And I started on a cheap sun unicycle. Now I am 225 but still need to get down to 200 lbs. Now I am riding a nimbus 36" and can ride 20 miles and increasing the distance.

The answer is that yes you can ride a unicycle and specially the torker which is a very strong uni.

5

making a custom

I bet the dx will be fine for learning. However, if you really get into it, and want to do some hopping and dropping, I have an idea.

I got a flat on my motorcycle this week. It has a 17 x 5 " knobby on it. Because the size on motorcycles is the rim diameter, not the tires, I noticed that the tire diameter of the dirt bike, and my 24 muni are the same.

A 17 x 5 would be over kill, even for you. I mean this is a setup designed to land 500 lbs off 20 ft drops going 50 MPH.

My point is that the rims, spokes and tires you need are already out there. The tire on my trials uni says max load 325 lbs on the sidewall. I don’t think regular uni tires will hold up for you if you ride aggressively.

I see the hard part (or at least the expensive part), would be the hub. But if you could get a custom hub made that would allow you to lace up a dirt bike rim with motorcycle spokes, the rest would be easy.

There are a few uni frame makers out there, and getting one to weld you up anything you wanted, with thicker tubes, to take any motorcycle tire width you wanted, would be easy, and not terribly $.

I suspect that because hubs are round, a custom one could be made on a lath, you should not need expensive castings etc.

Perhaps for about 2,000 $, more or less, you could have muni that would survive for years in a Samoan frat house.

I hope you really get into the sport and follow up on this.

We all want to see the giant guy with his 4.5 " muni tire setup !:slight_smile:

6

I’m somewhere in the 270-lb range. It doesn’t seem to me like weight is a factor, although my son found it easier than I did. I’m not sure if that’s because he’s lighter or younger or just more naturally a unicyclist.

I’m using a Torker LX, 20" size. They’ve held up okay for just general riding around, although I did have some problems when I got the cranks on the wrong side & unthreaded the pedals.

If you look at typical usage for a DX, it’s intended for guys that weigh 150 lbs to go jumping around on. So yeah, it’ll hold you or me, but I wouldn’t go jumping off the roof with it, either.

Logically, you’d think that more weight and the same size seat would cause more problems with seat discomfort, but I don’t know if that’s actually the case or not.

7

Yeah - at the speed a 150lb person hits the ground doing a 4 foot drop, the force on the unicycle wheel is going to be way more than the force from a big person sitting on it.

If you can ride normal bikes, something like a DX is built out of pretty much the strongest downhill bike components, you should have no problems with it.

If you go off road, you might have to be a bit careful, but to be honest, that’s quite a beefy unicycle, you might be surprised at how well it lasts. There are more expensive unicycles, but they’re mainly spending that money on making things lighter rather than massively stronger. Again though, the forces are so much bigger when more height is involved, so as long as you limit yourself to < 1 foot drops, you’ll still be less bad to it than a poorly landed 4 footer with a kid riding.

Joe

8

i weighed 236 when i started and like hector said i had a crappy sun uni when i started and it worked fine your getting a DX so you should do great.:smiley:

9

the DX is a gread unicycle… there is no problem with riding it on some hardcore Muni, very few people have wrecked these unis, and if you do, i would suggest going for a Koxx-one or Kris Holm unicycle, a motorcycle rim and spokes would be retarded to put on a unicycle because it would be so heavy you could not get it off the ground. that said, i have seen and used unis with motorcycle tires, they are not bad.

10

Scaling it up

If you figure a 12 lb KH is plenty strong for a 150 lb rider to land a 4 ft jump, to have enough strength for a 325 lb rider to land the same jump, it is not unreasonable to build a unicycle that weighed 25 lbs or so. Twice as much metal will be needed, more or less.

How long do you think a 6 lb unicycle that was designed for a 75 lb rider would last being ridden hard by a 150 lb trials rider ? It’s the same problem.

In any event, I just like custom stuff.:slight_smile: Really, have fun, and I bet the dx will hold up ok for < 1 ft drops. :slight_smile:

I just wanted to throw out the idea that you are not limited by your size in any way. There is no reason a 300 lb + person can’t be a top grade trials rider. But you will need to build your own pallets, and ultimately, a special uni, but it’s not that hard to do that.:slight_smile:

11

Thats a good idea but it would be way easier and cheaper possibly if you used the motor cycle rim and spokes and instead of a custom hub you could just get one of the new titanium KH hubs and see if you can fit moto spokes on it. Then youo can just make a custom frame and then you’ll have yourself a indestructable uni.:smiley:

12

Thanks for all of the great replies guys!
I’d like to be able to eventually do some light to moderate Muni (fireroads and some mellow-ish singletrack).
Currently I live car free, and would love to be able to ride a Uni to work.(about four miles each way). I guess we will just have to see how well the seat works for not crushing my “Tom Sellick”.
As far as seats are concerned, any recommendations?
Not to hijack my own thread, but I have seen those covers for the KH/DX seats with the inner tube, and I like the idea. Anybody have any other suggestions for a large and in charge rider like myself?
Thanks again!
Ryan

13

As far as seats go I would steer clear of air seats. they are really good at applying pressure evenly throughout the whole sitting area meaning they tend to put pressure where you don’t necessarily want it. My favorite seat is an old style KH seat (identical to the DX seat as far as I can tell) with the foam flattened front and back and a grove cut in the middle.

If you do want to go with an air saddle I would suggest getting a standard foam seat and removing the foam carefully so you can put it back in if you find that the air ride is not as comfy as it sounds.

One mod that I would suggest for you (and almost any rider riding a DX 24) is to get rid of the Kenda Kinetics tire that it comes with and replacing it with a 3" tire like the Intense or Gazzalodi if you can find them. The Duro Wildlife Lepard is also a good choice of tire for MUni and much easier to find if a bit smaller and rounder profile.