I haven’t ridden my 20" wheel for quite some time now, though now that winter has eased quite a bit I decided to go for a short ride on it I did briefly ride my 16" as I mentioned a couple days ago, though I would say this is my first proper ride on a micro machine in a while
After riding 26"+ all winter, 20" felt so slow at first And with 125mm cranks and still-sore legs from a previous ride, spinning wasn’t much of an option. After a couple minutes though I got used to it, settling at about walking speed.
Although my brain is still wired to want to go fast, I thought it was a nice change of pace going slower. When I’m riding my 36er I go into “tunnel vision” and focus mostly on avoiding any little obstacles that threaten to propel me off of the uni, whereas on the 20" I take in the surroundings at a much more relaxed pace. I was thinking “This would be great to ride at a nature park!”
I also decided to try and see how my muscle memory of one-footed riding held up over the winter. I was able to get a few good one-footed idles in, and after a few attempts I could get a good run with one-footed riding too. I gave myself a good pat on the back after that
I think I rode about 2 miles (3.2km) on the 20". I think I’ll get a pair of shorter cranks before I do anything longer than that
Just from the gain ratio, I would suggest that on a 20" the more available 100 mm crank starts to make sense for a longer ride, but don’t expect to go fast.
If you have 89s (often easier if it’s Cottorless) this is properly the best option to get started on riding some distance. They should still allow for some shenanigans and versatility.
75mm is the more speedy option, but also the most challenging. And the leg movement is so limited you have to get used to it.
So just raising it but I do have an extra set of 75 mm cranks. I am currently in a clearing up my parts bin mood so if someone wants to pay shipping and make a somewhat reasonable offer I can highly recommend them for trying out on the 20 inch. I will stop mentioning here as well because this is not the selling thread.
So this is what I chose to do with this information: I asked my old unicycle mentor @rusty if he didnt happen to have “Training Wheel Not Required” by Brian Mackenzie (stated on the DVD, but Brian Clinch is stated in the clip) on DVD. And ofc he did! And after a while he even found a way actully play the DVD for me!
The DVD has indeed a bonus clip called “40mm cranks”. In the name of science and community interest I clipped together some scenes from the bonus track:
This is just amazing. Freemounting this setup in the woods and just riding them like that. Pure Skills.
I also decided to try verifying the crank lengths myself with some simple and rather inaccurate means. By measuring key hole widths and other parameters on both an enlagred photo of the alledged 40mm cranks and a 89mm crank I own I estimated the cranks to have a length in the range of 45-55 mm.
By holding up the 89 mm crank next to an enlarged picture of the cranks in the video it looks like they are 45 mm indeed:
I never thought about making 45s this way. Too bad i broke my square taper uni due to excessively long 100 mm cranks. Had i stayed on 75s i would probably still be riding it!
It seems the price of a new hub isnt tooo high so i might be tempted
I intend to do more talking than watching the ground just in front of my wheel and scream a lot, so maaaybe I will pass that tempting offer
This guy is crazy. While searching for this clip myself online, I instead found a video of him doing muni and crazy stuff on his 36" ultimate wheel (the yellow one in the background of the clip I shared).
I do however notice that he choses to ride the 45?s downhill, thereby turning the challenge into something more resembling coasting/freewheel riding than actual riding by pedaling. Starting downhill, however, is the only thing that makes sense with such short cranks for getting started and getting used to the feeling. It took me 100 tries to get started on flat ground.
Indeed, look at his arms. It looks very much like a freewheel video. I think he is basically resting his feet lightly and letting it basically coast, rather than pedalling per se. This is still super impressive of course! I couldn’t do that.
I did it!
Yesterday, I took my 20" with 89mm cranks (I love the mix of measurement units btw) for about 10km. I lowered the tire pressure a little, down to about 2 bars. It’s a rather big tire (2.20" from memory), so it didn’t feel squishy but at least this dampened a lot of the road/sidewalk irregular tarmac.
It was a fun experience, though pretty tiring. I can see how it really exacerbates the bad habits I can’t quite shake off. My natural tendency to veer left was made worse, to the point that riding on parts with camber slopping to the left became really taxing! Also relying on back pressure and pedal leverage to help balance is not comfortable for sure!
Will I do it again? Sure! Especially if it helps with learning to quickly readjust to the right which I struggle with. Those are smoothed out on a bigger wheel, but no mercy on the small one!
And maybe I’ll graduate to 75mm cranks soon!
That’s a great idea and short cranks but I also had a 20" with 100 mm for the Trial Unicycling but I sell it because a have now a new one with 140 mm Cranks and the parts are better than on the old one.
2 mm actually makes a difference on such short cranks. The difference in gain ratio from 75 to 73 mm is about the same as switching from 114 to 110 mm. This is noticably heavier on a big wheel like a 29" and up, and would probably give a different riding experience on a 24" as well. For a 20" wheel, I guess you would need a side by side comparison to feel the difference, and I doubt you get 16" wheels with ISIS-hubs anyways
Nicely done! A 10k with that setup is no joke. Now you really made me want to get hold of a 20" myself. I think about 7 km is where riding a 16"/75mm setup stops being fun. Its just not fast enough, in combination with the constant attention to be kept out for any bump at all.
Yes, riding shorter cranks in general, but also smaller wheels, is definetaly a way to poke at some bad habits. And the improvements you do actually transfers to bigger wheels in my experience.
Some sales are nice but the order form only mention shipping to Scandinavia and they confirmed me by email that they do not ship further because of the cost
On another topic, once i get good enough i might go for a freewheel (not quite) micromachine. 24" semi fat tire on a 36" frame (brakeless until i get an appropriate frame). Although i am not sure exactly how viable it will be.
I did briefly ride my 16" as I mentioned a couple days ago, though I would say this is my first proper ride on a micro machine in a while
And with 125mm cranks and still-sore legs from a previous ride, spinning wasn’t much of an option. After a couple minutes though I got used to it, settling at about walking speed.
