It finally arrived!!! All the way from the US of A, my beautiful, big, black and shiny KH24 Muni.
I’ll give a pretty basic review here as I read the other review and its pretty much summed it up - so heres just a variation on that other review.
I’m 19 years old, have been riding for about ten months. I learnt on a dodgy 20" and went through three seats - a no name brand, a viscount, and eventually an ‘old’ miyata. I rode (on the 20) lots of street stuff - stairs, rails, ‘urban’ riding. Then I discovered dirt and havent got off it since, hence the upgrade to the KH24.
the KH24 I now own is a standard version from Taiwan - no pro for me! It has no brakes, the wellgo pedals and everything is standard except for the 3 inch gazz I had unicycle.com add to it.
Firstly, the ordering process. I’m in australia, so it was going to be difficult from the start. I placed the order, then ended up paying for it with a wire transfer. It arrived very quickly because I chose the express option.
The Unicycle.com guys were great, very helpful. They organised a lot for me and gave me all the info I needed in various emails.
Ok. heres where I get a little negative.
The cost: It cost a lot to get it over here. Its a US$449 uni, and I ended up paying over $1400AUD. Thats a lot of money. I had to pay GST, taxes, customs taxes, delivery charges, etc etc.
I think this will be the last unicycle I buy in a very, very, very long time.
I would not recommend importing a uni to aust. to anyone unless they have some serious cash to part with - its very expensive and if I had known it was going to be so expensive I probably wouldnt have bourght it, would have had one made.
Note: I dont have any problems with unicycle.com - the big charges came from australian customs ($250 to bring it in), the GST and the other taxes imposed.
Ok. Onto the uni itself.
I live in a college … I was eating lunch in the dining hall when it arrived and the master ran down to tell me. I left my meal, picked up the box (quite large) and took to to my floor’s common room.
The room was full of all my friends who knew how excited I was about this uni, so they all sat around as I pulled open the box.
First thing I found - 5 uni.com stickers. Shame I dont own a car to put them on … but hey, maybe one day…
I pulled out the seat, then all the huge amounts of paper packing (3 metres of it) and saw the wheel.
I was speechless - I think I said ‘Holy shit’ and realised I had a big boys uni now. I pulled out the wheel and the whole room said ‘ohmigod’ simutaniously.
the 3 inch gazz is enourmous! Compared to my 20" with a 1.95 tyre, this thing is a tractor tyre!
I put it all together with ease. All I had to do was put on the pedals and seat. I had to cut down the seatpost by 2 inches.
I pumped up the tyre and took the beast outside.
Surrounded by an audience of anxious friends, I attempted a freemount - and made it. I actually think the rollback mount is easier on the 24. I rode off wobbling a bit too much for my likeing, but soon got used to it.
The speed of the thing shocked me a bit at first (compared to my 20) but I soon adjusted.
I took it down a very steep grassy slope and the 170 cranks ate it for brekkie. On this hill, I would normally have some difficulty on my 20inch but the 24 made it a breeze.
I rode off into the sunset getting used to the uni. I wanted to test out the tyre so I threw it down some trails around the place and was impressed. Sections of bush that I wouldnt even consider on my 20" now became a playground as I hammered over them on my 24.
I then took it onto the road for a trip into town(3km).
The gazz on bitumen - well, it wasnt exactly the ‘smoothest’ ride, but it did the job. I think I’ll invest in a 3.0 inch fireball for riding on bitumen.
Turning proved a little difficult. It seemed that when I leant sharply, the edges of the gazz would slow me down…I couldnt get the same smooth speedy action as I did on my 20 inch (I found it difficult to lean on the gazz).
I found it hard to ‘twist turn’ (sharp turning on the spot) due to the gazz.
When I got into town I went an increased the tyre pressure so it was tight (40 psi) but soon let it down because it wasnt cusy enough on drops.
Ok, ok, enough about all that - onto the basics:
Pros:
Everything looks strong, especially the hub(very beefy). I was in a shop at town and a mountain bike looked at my rim and was in awe (asked where he could get a tyre like the gazz for his mountain bike)
The seat is fantastic, much better than the miyata I was used to.
The seat handle was brilliant, sooo much more comfortable than the miyata.
The gazz - need I say more?
the whole look of the beast. It really blows the whole unicycle = clown thing out of the water.
Cons:
price, price price. But Im sure if you are in the states it is the way to go.
The weight - This uni is incredibly heavy, esp. compared to my 20".
Standard pedals. Waaaay to small for my big hoofers (size 13). I took them off and replaced them with my other metal pedals from my 20".
cranks - the protruding part kept hitting my ankle until I changed to a wider pedal. I also think a shorter crank (maybe 150) will suit my needs a little better. So I’ll have to look into this.
Tyre not really suited to asphalt at all but hey, we all knew that.
And one last thing. On my big ride today, I found myself on a lean constantly fighting falling to one side.
I think it was my seat angle but am not sure. I tried my best to straighten it but the handle is not exactly straight on the front of the seat.
Hopefully I can sort this out soon.
I’m going for another ride. Talk to you later!
