# Large Marge Muni
**URL:** https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873
**Category:** General
**Created:** [April 12, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873 "2004-04-12T23:01:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mojoe](https://unicyclist.com/u/Mojoe)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/1 "2004-04-12T23:01:52Z")
See the photos and be amazed:
[http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albux14](http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albux14)
Dave from Surly Bikes, [http://www.surlybikes.com/](http://www.surlybikes.com/)
was nice enough to lend me a Large Marge prototype rim built into a wheel for me to test out. I just got it together and I still can’t beleive how wide it is.
I’ll tell more as I get a chance to ride it.
Mojoe
[http://mojoe.unicyclist.com/](http://mojoe.unicyclist.com/)
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### Author:  [@john\_childs](https://unicyclist.com/u/john_childs)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/2 "2004-04-12T23:16:17Z")
Are you going to try it with a 26x3 Gazz? The 26x2.5 Panaracer MegaBlaster is going to be lighter, but it would still be interesting to see how the Gazz compares on that rim.
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### Author:  [@Mojoe](https://unicyclist.com/u/Mojoe)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/3 "2004-04-12T23:19:50Z")
Oh yeah, I’m going to get a Gazz for it sometime. Maybe I’ll get it ordered next week, along with some Park steel tire levers.
Mojoe
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### Author:  [@mango](https://unicyclist.com/u/mango)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/4 "2004-04-12T23:20:33Z")
NO WAY! 😲
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### Author:  [@andrew\_carter](https://unicyclist.com/u/andrew_carter)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/5 "2004-04-13T00:06:01Z")
So they aren’t available in a 24"? Beautiful rim, thanks for all the great photos.
Andrew
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### Author:  [@forget\_your\_life](https://unicyclist.com/u/forget_your_life)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/6 "2004-04-13T00:12:48Z")
Re: Large Marge Muni
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by Mojoe
> Dave from Surly Bikes, [http://www.surlybikes.com/](http://www.surlybikes.com/)
> was nice enough to lend me a Large Marge prototype rim built into a wheel for me to test out
i remember you saying you were going to get one during my search for a wide 29er rim,glad to see you finally got one running.thats fat!
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### Author:  [@Mojoe](https://unicyclist.com/u/Mojoe)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 5:33am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/7 "2004-04-13T05:33:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by andrew\_carter
> [B]So they aren’t available in a 24"?
>
> Andrew [/B]
The 26 inch rim won’t be in production for another 3 months I think. They’ll probably bring out a 24 inch hoop later, but I think there is a bigger market for the 26, so thay want to get that out first.
Also, the production model will be anodized black and have machined braking surfaces.
Mojoe
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### Author:  [@dubmuni2004](https://unicyclist.com/u/dubmuni2004)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 7:30am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/8 "2004-04-13T07:30:50Z")
you should put a 3.0 downhill tire on it 😃
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### Author:  [@Max\_Dingemans](https://unicyclist.com/u/Max_Dingemans)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 7:36am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/9 "2004-04-13T07:36:49Z")
I think mine should be here either today, or tomarrow. All we have for tires in 26" right now is a kollosal (or something) 2.6. Eventually we might be getting something larger, but I wont raelly be able to start testing until at least sunday. Looks pretty nice, and I imagine the traction’d be pretty decent. More Later.
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### Author:  [@johnfoss](https://unicyclist.com/u/johnfoss)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 9:20am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/10 "2004-04-13T09:20:57Z")
Wow. That is one fat rim. Kind of like the Snow Cat rim George Peck used to have, but that one was single-walled, and not intended for what we do.
Did you know Large Marge used to be the world’s biggest unicycle? I can’t remember the wheel size but I think it was 66". It was built by Jim Moore and ridden by Steve Gordon in the 80s. The previous biggest wheel was 63.5" by Goran Lundstrom (picture below). I rode that one.
Jim and Steve later created Intense Hortense (or Immense Hortense?), a 73" wheel. I believe Sem Abrahams now owns that one. I have a picture somewhere of him riding it with big blocks on the pedals.
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### Author:  [@Sofa](https://unicyclist.com/u/Sofa)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 11:24am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/11 "2004-04-13T11:24:56Z")
Hmm, that doesn’t look like large marge to me ☹
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### Author:  [@johnfoss](https://unicyclist.com/u/johnfoss)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/12 "2004-04-13T14:38:56Z")
It’s not Large Marge, it’s the cycle described before the part that says (picture below). That picture was taken in 1983, which may have been before that Large Marge was built.
I found that picture of Sem on Immense (Intense) Hortense. That’s attached here. Not Large Marge. 🙂
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### Author:  [@hell-on-wheel](https://unicyclist.com/u/hell-on-wheel)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/13 "2004-04-13T14:58:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by Sofa
> Hmm, that doesn’t look like large marge to me ☹
I was a huge Pee Wee fan as a kid, but I remember having nightmares for weeks after seeing Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. The two scariest scenes for me were 1. The animatronic clown shot from a low angle when Pee Wee first lost his bike, and 2. The Large Marge claymation above which I had managed to repress until you so savagely unlocked it from my inner psyche just now. Thanks. Looks like it’s back to counselling for me:(
"Just tell 'em…LARGE MARGE sent ya! (cackle cackle)
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### Author:  [@Max\_Dingemans](https://unicyclist.com/u/Max_Dingemans)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/14 "2004-04-13T20:43:13Z")
Opened it up about an hour ago, and I’m still looking at it and thinking "good gosh that’s wide.’ should be a good ride.
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### Author:  [@U-Turn](https://unicyclist.com/u/U-Turn)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 8:13am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/15 "2004-04-14T08:13:25Z")
Excellent project and pics, Mojoe!
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### Author:  [@Mojoe](https://unicyclist.com/u/Mojoe)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 9:53am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/16 "2004-04-14T09:53:06Z")
I’ve had the Large Marge out for one ride so far. The following is a short review that I sent to Surly on the rim’s performance::::::
----------"I took the Marge out for an hour ride at Floyd yesterday after school. I’m really sold on it. The only downside is that if I mount brakes on it, they may stick out too far, but I won’t know if this will be a problem until I try it. When I get some free time, I’ll weld on a set of Magura mounts and try my Maguras on it.
I was running the air pressure real low so that the tire flattened out wider than the rim when I was riding. I’m not sure of the pressure, but I can easily press my thumb into the tire. I could never run this low on an Alex DX32 rim. I thought the low pressure and medium volume rim would be trouble when hopping onto logs and rolling over roots, but the extra width of the rim makes the footprint bigger and spreads out the weight more. I only smacked the rim twice; once rolling over a tree branch hard and another time on a rock on rocky downhill. Traction is Off-The-Wall with this thing!!! It feels like your riding a 3 inch tire. I was going down a lot of the really loose, sketchy hills at Floyd and I couldn’t get the tire to break loose once. The hills were really churned up from recent horse traffic and have lots of root drop-offs on them. Also, on the off camber stuff that usually gives me trouble, the tire remained stable and didn’t try to turn into the hill. Normally, the tire wants to roll of the rim on off-camber stuff, unless you have the pressure jacked way up. Cornering on dirt feels rock solid too, but cornering on pavement is harder. Next time out, I’m going to up the tire pressure a little bit and that may improve cornering on cement.
One more thing; I don’t think the large Marge feels heavy at all. In fact, it feels responsive and accelerates quickly; of course this may change when I switch to Gazz. The MegaBlaster tire is only around 700 grams, so it’s light for its size. The Gazz, though heavy, will be able to bomb over anything without worry of smacking the rim."--------
I’ll keep everyone posted on the progress of the testing. Max Dingemans will be testing one too, and I’m sure He’ll be able add comments of his own. I’ll bring it along on the muni ride at Regionals on may 9th, if anyone going to that wants to give it a try.
later… Mojoe
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### Author:  [@gerblefranklin](https://unicyclist.com/u/gerblefranklin)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 11:45am UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/17 "2004-04-14T11:45:41Z")
I can’t decide if I wan t this rim yet. It seems almost _too_ wide. With the flat shape of the gazz, I imagine on this rim it’ll go concave 😲 . Also, do we really need wider rims? Eventually it gets too wide and you have a constant knee knocker. It seems like a 3.0 is a good compromise, but a 3.0 on a 2.5 rim is massive.
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### Author:  [@Dirtsurfer](https://unicyclist.com/u/Dirtsurfer)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/18 "2004-04-14T15:12:53Z")
I know it’s a proto-type, but by any chance did you put it on a scale before building?
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### Author:  [@HandyAndy](https://unicyclist.com/u/HandyAndy)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/19 "2004-04-14T15:51:50Z")
mmmm… beefy:p
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### Author:  [@Max\_Dingemans](https://unicyclist.com/u/Max_Dingemans)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2004, 7:33pm UTC](https://unicyclist.com/t/large-marge-muni/62873/20 "2004-04-14T19:33:38Z")
Mine was built when I got it, probably the same for Joe.
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