Mine was built when Surly sent it to me. The production model will come in a 36 hole and a 32 hole downhill version ans a 32 hole crosscountry version. The crosscountry version will have some of the material on the inner part of the rim drilled out. The prototypes that Max and I have are not drilled out.
I didn’t weigh mine, but it feels light to me. I think that tire choice may effect weight more than the rim itself. i have a Panaracer MegaBlaster 2.5 on mine, which I think weighs about 700 grams. The unicycle feels light and responsive. In contrast, I have a WTB MotoRaptor 2.4 DH on my Alex rimmed muni. this tire is very heavy and the muni feels dead and sluggish. On the Alex rim, both tires are the same width, but the MotoRaptor is actually taller. I really hate the feel of the MotoRaptor. I can’t wait to get a Gazz for the Large Marge, so I can return the MegaBlaster to the Alex rimmed muni.
I’ll try to get a gazz in the next couple weeks to try out on the Marge.
I’ve yet to get it out in the dirt, but it feels great bombing across my rough yard. Tire clearance is very minimal on my GB4 frame. I’ll try to get it out sometime this weekend and write up some comments.
I took it out for a good ride this afternoon. The 26x3 inch Gazz is very heavy. I had more trouble starting, stopping, and making sharp turns, compared to when I was using the Panaracer MegaBlaster 2.5. I also had more trouble with downhills, but I attribute that to the shorter cranks I’m now using. On a posative note; I liked the increased momentum gained by having the extra weight of a heavy tire. With the 150mm cranks, I was able to get it going pretty fast and it was easier to maintain that speed. The Gazz rolls straight over imperfections in the trail. This trail is pretty rough since it gets used by horses a lot. The increased momentum allowed me to just bomb over small logs in the trail without slowing down. It would have been hard to slow it down fast anyway.
For comparison, I brought out my other 26 inch muni with the MegaBlaster on an Alex DX32 rim and the same 150mm cranks. After ridign the Gazz on a super wide rim, the Alex rimmed muni felt squirmy on the rough trail. Even with the brake on this muni, rocky downhills felt pretty sketchy compared to the Large Marge muni. Next project is to weld some Magura bosses onto the marge muni.
I’m still not sure if I like the Gazz or the MegaBlaster better on the LM rim. They both have pros and cons. The MegaBlaster is light and responsive, but dosen’t have as much volume as the Gazz. Plus, it dosen’t have that “Magic Carpet Ride” at speed.
The Gazz is really heavy, slow to accelerate, and hard to turn fast. However, it really shines on straight paths and when bombing over logs. Downfalls include clearance issues, which I can live with or get a wider frame, plus the fact that when I mount a brake, they will stick out further than normal. This may or may not be a problem.
Ok, so today I went for my first ride. First off, It’s currently in a Bedford Unicycles 28" frame, and the tire clearance is small enough that largish rocks that get stuck in the tire could lock the wheel up. It happened last night as I was walking it home (ok, so I took a really short ride on pavement and a crank came loose).
right now It’s laced on a suzue 48º hub. With a kenda 2.6 kenetics tire. Cheap aluminum alloy cranks, at 165 mm. Absolutely easy to bend. Biggest I’v done was 18", and that was a nice smooth rollout. So I personally wont be testing the stregth issues as much as I’d like to be yet. oh well.
Anyways, it was a great day for a ride. 80 and sunny and the trail was quite dry. Some large patches of sandy. No problem at all. I only had one minor traction issue, even when trying to slow down, or even lock up going down a steepish/sandy hill. and it involved me sliding about 4 inches. it was great. Once I got the pressure right (it was too high initially) it was great, even on pavement. still rode nice and straight. almost just like my 24" intense 3.0 FRO tire. At that point, it rode great in pretty much all cases that I tested, except riding up a curb without priorly lining it up. And then, it would rim. fairly easily. Rigt now however, im noticing that this review isnt actually very technically descriptive, and will continue more later.
Tonight it was raining. My ankle kinda hurt, it was getting dark, and I felt it was the perfect time for another test ride. It’s been raining for a few hours. As most of dont yet know, my neighborhood is pretty hill filled. Which also makes it a mud trap. So without changing the tire pressue, and still running the Kenda 2.6, I set out in search of thick mud. Initially I found a couple downhills of mild decent that had a reletively thin layer of mud (up to an ich or so) and set to work Switchbacking down the slippery spots. Nothing. Absolutely no tire slippage was noticeable. I still felt the wheel rode great on pavement, with the only problem occuring when hitting a curb wrong (the local ones are about 5 inches) and rimming pretty easily. Next I found a large mud patch at a local park. If I estimated the size right, it’s about 100 meters across. The first 50 meters or so I barely had any problems at all. the next 30-40 meters I had a bit of trouble, but still plowed through it pretty well. Right at the end I started getting caked with mud, to a point were I started to spin out, and finally fell off. I continued to be amazed with the mud sheding, traction retaining abilities of the wheel. I figured that if I lowered the pressure even further, It would have further improved traction. But… I still had to ride home, so I didnt want to risk it.
So far, I’m pretty impressed with the performence. I’ll try to keep you posted.
The picture looks great. That rim really widens the tire out dosen’t it? I measured mine with the 26x3 inch gazz and the it measured 3 1/8 inches. It makes my 2.5 tire about as wide as the Gazz on an Alex DX32 rim.
that rim is nice. i cant wait until they make a 24" version. will they be double/triple walled and stronger to withstand bigger drops than 18"? if i could take this thing out for some 4 footers and heavy MUni, it could be a serious upgrade over the Alex DX32 Rim.
I beleive that are planning on making a 24 inch version in the future, but wanted to get the 26 incher out in production first, since it’s a bigger market. Here is a picture that shows a cut-away view of the rim.
and in response to withstanding more than 18" drops, Im pretty sure the rim will. It’s my cranks that are currently limiting the testing of that perticular aspect.
