I can’t find it again, but just before my computer crashed yesterday I was reading a post about the Red Bull which said basically:
If it’s dry, the poster would ride the Coker;
If muddy, (s)he’d use the 28/29 incher;
If very muddy, then it would be the Muni.
Serious question comming up, because the Coker seems virtually unstoppable except by steep inclines and perhaps by unexpected steam rollers. I’ve never ridden a 28/29, but I have ridden a 24 with a smoothish tyre, and a 26 inch Muni.
So: why did whoever it was say they’d prefer a 28/29 to a Coker in the mud? My limited experience tells me the Coker would be far better. Is it something to do with remounting after UPDs, or simply to do with distance to fall in a sideslip? Or is there a surprise waiting just round the bend of my learning curve?
Admittedly my ‘off road’ experience on the Coker is limited, but I have already blasted it through short passages of gloop which would almost certainly have bogged down my 26 inch Muni.
I can see that in extended muddy sections, once the momentum has been lost, the Coker would be a liability, and that the Muni would be better.
My question, though, is why a 28 inch rather than a Muni would be preferable. The suggestion in the ‘lost post’ was that the 28 was not blessed with a high-traction tyre, but was still better in the mud than a Coker. Perhaps I misunderstood?
I have seen some pretty gnarly 29" tires. There is a woman in my club who has a Muni-ish tire on her 29 and it seems pretty good for muck. The coker is also a bit too week for harsh riding. I know it has been done, but i’d rather not have to replace the wheel.
-David Kaplan
“Mikefule” <Mikefule.674ez@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message news:Mikefule.674ez@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
> So: why did whoever it was say they’d prefer a 28/29 to a Coker in the
> mud? My limited experience tells me the Coker would be far better. Is
> it something to do with remounting after UPDs, or simply to do with
> distance to fall in a sideslip? Or is there a surprise waiting just
> round the bend of my learning curve?
Because the 29 has a mud tyre, the coker slides too much in very muddy
sections. In normal riding the coker wouldn’t be too bad as you can ride out
small muddy patches, but this is on a 24 hour race where if there’s any mud,
there’ll be lots of mud by the end with thousands of people riding over
the course.
Basically 36" has a slick tyre, so isn’t good in prolonged mud, my 29" has a
narrow tyre with a not very aggressive mud tread which allows you to go
almost coker fast in shallow mud as it digs down through to the ground
beneath and then the 26" has a gazaloddi in case the mud gets way too deep
to ride the 29".
Because it’s a race I’m gonna ride the fastest unicycle possible for any
particular lap, hence the particular order I gave. 29" unicycles are great,
but they’re not so controllable in a slide in real mud.
> I can see that in extended muddy sections, once the momentum has been
> lost, the Coker would be a liability, and that the Muni would be
> better.
Remember that the Red Bull is an 11 mile lap and Joe (who was
the original poster) is a soloist who’ll be riding with
only short breaks for 24 hours. As almost all the course is
on field boundary/singletrack tracks the mud will last
almost all that 11 miles. Coker wheels are pretty heavy
at the best of times - positively weighty when coated in
an inch of clay all around…
