Right now I am at the point where I can ride comfortably all over my neighborhood. I am doing some practicing of just trying to come to a stop while on the unicycle (and then I continue on from the stop). I am also trying to figure out how to idle consistently. My current unicycle is fine for this, and it will probably be a month or so at least before I really feel satisfied with those skills.
Now, at some point, I want to do some minor hopping, and I want to ride down some stairs, so that I can fill out my basic street mobility goals. So, I am planning on buying a 26" wheel with the Profile setup and maybe the IRC Duro Metro 2.0 tire, or some other decent street tire.
So, I am wondering, did anybody here learn to hop curbs, hop steps, and ride down steps, on a 26" wheel? How hard was it? Did you have a heavier unicycle (I think the rim and the Profile hub / cranks will add weight)? How did it work for you?
I know people say that I won’t need Profile stuff on a street unicycle, but I will probably worry overly if I get anything “less”. I want to have a street monster that puts no limits on how far I can push the cycle.
I might go for a 24" but I am leaning toward a 26", because I’d like to be able to go slightly faster, and I already have 3 unicycles with 24" wheels. I thought I might do something different for my main street uni.
So, I am wondering, did anybody here learn to hop curbs, hop steps, and ride down steps, on a 26" wheel? How hard was it? Did you have a heavier unicycle (I think the rim and the Profile hub / cranks will add weight)? How did it work for you
yes i leaned all this on a 26".it was maybe a little heavier but thats why i ride a panaracer fire DH with a kevlar bead.it not as good for muni but its so much better around town,hopping,etc.
i also chose 26"because of supierior tire selection.its more versitile, as long as you dont mind swaping tires a 26" can be more things in one.
you know animation, i bet you could fit a 26" wheel and up to a 2.125 tire in your hunter muni,theres a lot of room in there for that 24 by 3.0 tire.so you might just need a new wheel to have this street machine dream.
Ya, exactly- but Lewis is a bourgeois-lazy-eleitist pig, and doesn’t wana have to crack open the bearing housing to swap the wheels; it would also be slightly ambigious as to the number of cycles in his stable… and since I now have 4…
> So, I am wondering, did anybody here learn to hop curbs, hop
steps,
> and ride down steps, on a 26" wheel? How hard was it? Did you
have
> a heavier unicycle (I think the rim and the Profile hub /
cranks
> will add weight)? How did it work for you?
Yep. Up until last December I did all my off-road, trials and
some street riding on a 26" Pashley with a 2.6" Gazz, Doublewide
rim and Suzue axle. I wouldn’t really consider that setup heavy
(sorry, I don’t have the exact weight), but it’s not nearly as
light as a 20" Monty setup, which is commonly used for trials
type riding.
As for the difficulty in learning to hop curbs, hop up steps and
ride down steps on a 26" wheel vs a 24" wheel … it’s likely
negligible. From a logical standpoint I think it’s easier to move
from a 26" wheel to a 24" for doing these skills, whereas someone
moving from a 24" to a 26" might encounter some initial growing
pains. Because of this I think it is advantageous to learn on a
26". I found the 26" forced me to focus on proper technique for
things like hopping/jumping as the added weight and wheel size
made it difficult to muscle the unicycle up things … and as you
say with a 26" you have many rim and tire choices.
For going down stairs, the wider your tire the more comfortable
your descent will be. With a 2.0" tire you’ll feel it, with a
2.6" you’ll only feel it a little, with a 3.0" it’s all plush
like a Craftmatic.
I really enjoyed my 26" unicycle for both muni and trials,
however, I have improved considerably in trials with the 24" x 3"
setup and can’t imagine going back to a 26". I still use my 26"
Pashley for pure off-road cross-country rides and I plan to do
several cross-country events on it.
