Just finished Nimbus Stealth 36" wheel build and Nightrider tire

Unicycles and Equipment
1

I just finished building a 36" wheel for a friend using the UDC’s new Stealth rim, 14 g ss spokes, new Nightrider tire and UDC ex wide hub.

I love the new tire. Its a total win compared to the Wheel TA and Coker tire. Its the first 36er tire I have seen that looks was made in a real bike tire factory -in this century . . . and not like some factory second from the rick shaw tire retreading industry! The tire mounted easily (even with the 29er tube I use) and the bead centered really quickly at under 20 pounds with no blow-offs.

I had a couple of thoughts about the rim. Feel free to post your thoughts on this:

The Good:

  1. The pinned joint is great. No bumpy weld like on the Airfoil

  2. The rim is less deep than an Airfoil, requiring you to build a 3-cross wheel with these components. I loke 4-cross better for 36ers, but a small concession really. Eyelets are perfectly sized for the nipples that come with the UDC ss spokes.

  3. The wheel went together smoothly and trued up nicely.

The Bad:

Initially, I really liked the look of the “machined” braking surface . . . . . until I finally laced it up gave the wheel a spin in the truing stand and saw that the machined braking surface was horribly unevenly ground away!! :astonished: . . . creating big valleys and hills that actually made it harder to true the wheel. Some of the variations were around 2-3mm. It looks like a blind monkey with ADHD and a case of the shakes got a hold of an electric disk sander and went on a grinding rampage at the Nimbus factory.

For those using a brake, it makes the rim a LOT less useful and kind of a shame that it mars an otherwise nice product. My friend runs without a brake, so I couldn’t tell how much this would effect brake performance. If I were UDC, I’d get after the nimbus matal finishers to upgrade to the 21st century or at least plan to offer customers the choice of virgin or “machined” brake surface so we can machine them ourselves . . . . or talk to Scott Wallis and U-turn to find out if they will show you how they machine an Airfoil’s braking surface.

Brycer1968

2

Thanks for that, it was an interesting read. As for offering an unmachined sidewall version - they do. The Stealth Pro Rim has the machined sidewalls and eyelets whereas the basic Stealth Rim has normal sidewalls and no eyelets.

3

Doouugh! . . . .I didn’t see that option at UDC and I generally like eyelets. Its that Tiawanese monkey with the grinder thats gotta be stopped.
Brycer1968

4

I don’t know what a phone call to UDC would come up with, but in their online catalog only the Stealth Pro is available as a standalone rim.

I’m not as handy as Brycer1968, so I never would have thought have machining my own braking surface!

Thanks Brycer1968. Can’t wait to ride such a light wheel!

5

Now the rims are powdercoated white… I wonder what was wrong with the black anodized finish.

http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=1196

6

Maybe they look better with the new purple N36 frames …

http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=960

7

I thought the RTL 36er was going to be a complete unit.

8

It is, I think they just haven’t gotten it up yet. They are still uploading stuff from this recent shipment.

9

Did you see UDC also upped the published weight of the Nightrider tire to 1970g? :astonished:

10

jeez the purple frame is worse than the blue. i hope that’s not the only color it comes in now.

11

I like the purple. It’s too bad they didn’t go purple from the start. I have way too many blue unicycles. :stuck_out_tongue:

12

Oh, that is sooo copying off me.

small.jpg

13

I kind of like it. I’m just don’t think it will go with my blue T7 handle …

(which is also now being sold in purple, fwiw)

14

I haven’t noticed any of these problems with the rim I got.

corbin

15

Mine looks great too.

16

I seriously doublt that the skin is much more than 2-3mm thick in the first place. Which would make 3mm variations nearly impossible, are you sure it was the grind, not the build?

17

I’d love to see how low quality this extrusion machine is that is making rims that can take 3mm variations in grinding depth.

18

that would look cool with this
http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=1206