MUni Buying Advice

General
1

Much to my surprise, I seem to be progressing quite nicely on my
Unicycle! I’m starting to think that I might like to get into MUni at
some point in the future. (It’s just an idea at the moment, as I
really don’t know that much about MUni.) Anyway, I know that my
current yike isn’t nearly up to the challenge, so this will mean
getting something shiny and new.

I’m currently considering the UDC Max Traction from unicycle.uk.com.
What do people reckon to this yike? It seems a bit strange to me that
it comes with a 24" wheel, and no option of 26". I thought that 26"
was the preffered size for MUni? What makes it seem odd is that this
yike has a 28" frame, so surely it can take a 26" wheel? Is there some
reason why it’s got a 24" on there?

More generally, what to people think of this machine? Is it good value
or can I do something better with my money? The UDC is right at the
top of my price range, so the alternatives (from uni.uk.com) are:

  • Onza trials uni. Incidentally, what exactly is trials? Despite being
    in the MUni section, the wheel on this is even smaller (20") which
    makes me prefer the UDC.

  • Pashley MUni: This one does have a 26" wheel. Rather cheaper than the
    UDC, but it has lollipop bearings. I thought these were too easily
    breakable even for freestyle? The price difference between this and
    the UDC is about 100quid, so maybe I could spend that money upgrading
    the Pashley. IF so, what could I change, and would I get something
    comparable to the UDC?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Nick

–
Nick Grey
Add 0112 before the “at” to e-mail me.

2

Re: MUni Buying Advice

Nick Grey <nickgrey@farrand.net> writes:

> I’m currently considering the UDC Max Traction from unicycle.uk.com.
> What do people reckon to this yike? It seems a bit strange to me that
> it comes with a 24" wheel, and no option of 26".

I have a UDC Max Traction on order, with a 26" wheel. It is available,
you just have to ask for it.

Janne

Do not disturb. % shem@erasethis.iki.fi
I am BRAINSTORMING %
with a BARF BAG. %

3

Nick,

First congratulations on making the decision to go for MUni, you won’t regret it as it’s great fun. With regard to wheel size this is not as easy as saying 24” is 24”. I have a 24” X 3” (same size as on the UDC) and it is roughly the same diameter as a Pashley 26”.

Your best option is to ring Roger at unicycle.uk.com and he’ll give you good advice on which size would be best for you. Personally I’d go for the UDC rather than the Pashley but I bought a 24” Nimbus II with a bigger tire instead ‘cause it was a bit cheaper than the UDC. I’ll probably have to upgrade the wheel at some point but it’s OK for now.

Cheers, Gary.

4

I also bought a nimbus 24" wheel with a 3" tire in a 28" frame from unicycle.uk and I’m well pleased with it. It looks wicked and rides like a dream.

Although the rim isn’t as stong as the UDC, I think it should be o.k. for what I use it for (street riding and off road stuff mainly involving riding up and down steep hills without hopping or doing massive drops) as the tyre should protect it.

With regard to 26" wheels, the 24" rim should be stonger, and the 3" tyre gives it the same effective diameter.

I recommend it highly!

5

Unless you have lots of money (in which case, send me some) don’t assume that you need to buy a high spec uni to do MUni.

I have a Pashley 26 MUni, and a Nimbus I with a 24 inch wheel and a slightly fatter and knobblier tyre than standard.

Each uni is good in its own right. The 24 is more nimble, and better on long uphills, and easier to control on steep descents. The 26 covers ground more quickly, and can roll over small obstacles or bash through vegetation more easily.

The very fat tyres you will see on some MUnis look very cool, and they will provide more traction in slimy conditions and deep mud. they will also cushion the rim better on rocky ground. If you like to jump or hop over obstacles, a fat tyre will also help. However, a fatter tyre - especially at low pressure - will need more effort to propel - especially on those long sections of fairly easy ground if you do any distance (it’s more tyre-ing, ho ho).

I’d suggest that you get something well within your budget, upgrade it as you go, and learn which aspects of MUni you enjoy most. Then you will be able to buy a second one which more nearly suits your real life requirements and preferences. 'Sup to you though.

Whatever you buy, have fun.

6

I have that Muni, and I can say it’s a really good machine (and it doesn’ cost so much, compared to other muni!).

And the tire is a 24’’ “only in the name”, because in facts it’s even bigger than a 26’’ wheel!
With this wheel you can roll over stones, wood, rocks, mud, totally careless and without problems, because you have a wheel smaller only than a tractor wheel…
With a so big wheel, there is just a little space between the top of the tyre and the frame. And this tyre is also very wide, maybe a smaller frame couldn’t fit it! I don’t know if it fits a big fat 26" wheel, but this frame with a 24"x3 tyre isn’t an odd solution, on the contary, it’s very common, I think!

Onza trial uni (I’ve order 3 onza trial uni today for my friends and me:D ). The smaller wheel and the shorter cranks mean more control, it’s more reactive. The bigger wheel-cranks are better when you want to ride offroad or on-road, because when you pedal the uni covers more distance.
In fact this uni is made for trials, that means jumping over obstacles, making higer drops, gapping from a place to another…
For these reason it has a wide (=a lot of grip and stability) and small (=more conrol) tyre.

Pashley: the big tyre is better for riding, but it’s not so good if you want to do freestyle or trial tricks. Even if I don’t have this uni, I don’t recommend to make the buy-and-upgrade it!

My final advice (but remember, it’s only my opinion! And you can see my “user text”, under my name…Maybe I’m not objective… ) is UDC Max Traction!

7

Re: MUni Buying Advice

On Thu, 18 Jul 2002 09:57:34 +0100, Nick Grey <nickgrey@farrand.net>
wrote:

>I’m currently considering the UDC Max Traction from unicycle.uk.com.
>More generally, what to people think of this machine? Is it good value
>or can I do something better with my money?

After half a year of off-road riding on a Semcycle with an indoor-type
24 x 1.75 tyre, I was ready to buy something more dedicated to MUni.
Like you, I considered the UDC Max Traction from unicycle.uk.com. I
asked advice here and the average opinion was “very good machine,
can’t beat it for the price”. So it is on order now. I’ll be on
vacation almost until it arrives - can’t wait to take Het Beest to the
trails!

(I printed the photo from unicycle.uk.com and look at it every now and
then. :ssllsshh:)

Klaas Bil, virtual UDC Max Traction owner.

8

Re: MUni Buying Advice

Klaas Bil wrote:

> After half a year of off-road riding on a Semcycle with an indoor-type
> 24 x 1.75 tyre, I was ready to buy something more dedicated to MUni.
> Like you, I considered the UDC Max Traction from unicycle.uk.com. I
> asked advice here and the average opinion was “very good machine,
> can’t beat it for the price”. So it is on order now. I’ll be on
> vacation almost until it arrives - can’t wait to take Het Beest to the
> trails!

I’m jealous. Won’t be getting mine for a little while yet, so when you
get yours, be sure to let me kow how cool it is. :slight_smile:

Nick Grey
Add 0112 before the “at” to e-mail me.

9

I bought a UDC Max Traction Muni a few weeks ago… you’d have to pry it from my cold dead fingers to take it away from me now.

It’s soooo much larger, faster, bouncier, cool-looking than my 20". Bumps that were a challenge on my 20" can be totally ignored. Aaargh, I just can’t say enough, get one, you’ll not regret it, it’s absolutely brilliant. Yeah.

I actually had my first go for ages on my 20" yesterday because I’m taking it away for the weekend. It was so hard to ride to start with! It idles so much faster, I couldn’t mount the thing… I’d start doing a rollback mount but any pressure on the pedal would just make the thing fly off backwards. And having a big squishy tyre is sooo much nicer for jumping and things than a 2".

10

Re: Re: MUni Buying Advice

I used the picture as my desktop background, and looked at it, umm, extremely frequently. It’s still there even though I’ve got it…

Phil, just me

11

Me too!

12

my uni

AHH!!! i’m at work, and i just got the call that my nimbusII frame has arrived at home! i’m gunna go put it together during lunch break – i am so excited!!! im probably going to ride it back into work!

i’ve talked with a few people about 24" vs 26", a lot that got 26 wish they got 24 because of the hills and more manuverability of it, 26" still has some advantages, the sheer amount of tires(tyres) to choose from is great…i was going to try to find a slick of some sort for my 24" if i wanted to do some road stuff, but i dont think its even possible for me to get one for a rim as wide as mine(alex DH32)…i guess i’ll be sticking to my gazz, and staying off-road(not really a problem, is it?)

13

Re: MUni Buying Advice

On Thu, 18 Jul 2002 23:00:38 +0100, Nick Grey <nickgrey@farrand.net>
wrote:

>I’m jealous. Won’t be getting mine for a little while yet, so when you
>get yours, be sure to let me kow how cool it is. :slight_smile:

Surely I’ll chime in here but it’ll be end of August…

Klaas Bil

14

I just bought my first muni about a week ago. This was after LOTS AND LOTS of several hours a night reasurch into absolutly every single detail. So far my only complaint is that i wish i had known ahead of time that I would be breaking cotterless cranks and hubs within the first 3 days, (now looking for how to aquire profiles).

so this is what I did:

first, the people at both sites seem to be very pleased to help you with whatever you need. The uni’s put up on the sites are really just suggestions of what one might get, but if you are willing to do the reasurch, I think it is better to order the parts you want and build it up yourself when the parts arrive.

Also, this way theres a lot you can do to save you money. Specificaly, cranks are a lot of money if you buy them new, however, most bikeshops have slightly used cotterless mountain bike cranks, and loads of them, and for very very cheap. Also, very very strong, my hub bent before my cranks ever did, and I only payed 7$ US for them. Aslo, you problebly have a seat from your first/an older uni you can use. If your happy with what you have, and it has a good grip, use that one.

Beyond that, all you have is the frame and the wheelset. Personaly, I knew that I was going to be doing large drops and using it for other various harsh riding right from the start. So the rim was very importaint to me, and because of that, I made sure I got the best one I knew of out there. the Alex DX32. The thing is MASSIVE, holds the wide tire perfectly, and has not gone the slightest amount out of ture, and most rims would have folded by now without a question. For the tire, I went cheepo and got the “arrow racing prime wide” 24-3.0. I’m very very very happy with it. It does have a big foldover factor, but thats because I keep 15 psi in it.

The hub…if you think you are going to be doing big stuff on it, i’d just go ahead and get teh profile or some other spindled hub/cranks. otherwise go with teh suzue and whatever you can get for cranks. Or look at what they have built up for wheelsets at unicycle.uk.com.

The Nimbuss II frame is absolutly perfect! Whatever you do, i’d defenetly go with that for the frame. It holds whatever tire you get, and the crown grips your foot wonderfuly, and what else is there? It does hurt occasionaly when it hits the inner part of your knee. I personaly can live with that.

I got all this for roughly 250$ US. My cousen got something similar with an upgraded tire, and a leather myiata air seat and new cranks for something in the mid $300’s

Sorry for letting this this long. I hope after reading all this i’ve helped at all…

15

Delicacy

No criticism of ‘Thisistrev’, whom I’ve never met, but this snippet from his post on another thread is representative of a side of MUni that I fail to understand. What am I missing?

I would be annoyed with myself if I dinged my wheel rim, disappointed if I broke a spoke, and horrified if I broke a crank, and yet I ride many miles a week, mainly ‘off road’ and have been riding to a greater or lesser extent for about 15 years.

Today, I rode 7 1/2 miles in about 1 1/2 hours on my Pashley 26 MUni. Apart from crossing a road twice, all of it was off road. Some of it was down sections of hill where I was having to pull up on the seat, and the tyre was skidding down the slope as I tried to brake. Some of it was up sections of hill so steep that I could only get part way up. I rode over rocky sections and tree roots, and through muddy puddles where my pedals submerged. I rode down narrow paths where the bracken to each side was completely obscuring the ground and I was riding blind. I rode over prepared obstacles on the mountainbike/BMX track in the woods. And so on and so on.

I enjoy the challenge of riding the wheel across the most difficult terrain I can manage. It’s a wheel - it’s designed to roll. I pick my route accordingly. A patch of mud, rock and undergrowth is a maze to be negotiated by the most difficult route I can manage, and therein lies the skill, the challenge and the enjoyment.

Why do so many people destroy expensive equipment leaping off spectacular drops and so on when there is so much fun to be had treating the uni with care and respect? I’m an off road unicyclist. If I wanted to bounce and jump everywhere, I’d buy an all terrain pogo stick.

16

Muni buying advice

That’s sorta the way I felt everytime I saw Pete Townsend smash another guitar. Maybe some people have too much money.

Now that we’ve worked on defining “Muni”, maybe it’s time for another niche category. How about “agro-uni”? It might fit for the drop-off-whatever-elevated-surface-I-can-find-until-something-breaks-so-I-can-complain-about-how-crappy-it-was-until-I-buy-the-next-most-expensive-one folks. Sorry if anybody doesn’t like that description. Not.

17

Re: Delicacy

All valid arguments. I belive it is mainly just one of the many differences between generations. Things are just worth less to me and a lot of younger people. I would much rather get full unrestrained use out of my equipment and face the damage and cost of repairs when the time comes then ever hold back from doing something. Personaly, most of what you described above describes the part of MTBing that turned me away from the sport. Distance holds no interest for me, especialy not offroad. When I do make it off road (most of my time is spent on the street, but I need the big tire for what I do), I tend to go to select “spots” which hold challenges that are slightly over my head, and ride them untill I make it through. I often will walk the muni between spots. Drops are fun, and nessisary to be able to do in order to be able to ride any terrain you come accross. I work equaly hard on getting higher jumps and learning pedal grabs and whatnot for the same reason. Drops just happen to be what does the damage. Also, lets face it, drops are what get you the girls.

18

Re: Muni buying advice

I agree compleatly. Smashing the guitar is in no way a part of playing it. However, nobody deliberatly plays the guitar without bending the strings for the fear of breaking them, they play the guitar as hard as they need to and buy new strings when they break. And complain if they break quicker then normal, but not if they held up to expectations.

19

delicateness

OK, Trev, point taken. I guess the PT guitar-analogy was a bit off the mark. I retract it.

Speaking of “Delicacy”, that was a very delicate way you found to call us “old fogeys”! We’d like to understand you youngsters, really, we would! As for appreciating the worth of things, I think it’s more a matter of what you have to do to acquire them than how old you are. I’ve destroyed quite a few bottles of … never mind… but I was only using them in my normal way. Hey, I was a punk, back when… ???
…
…What was I saying?

Anyway, different strokes, and all that baloney…

Just have fun, don’t hurt each other, and if you hurt yourself, get well soon!

20

Rick,

I hate taking up the forum for this type of thing but I can’t seem to find your e/m address so this should be the last one.

Sorry for calling you old. But you are older then me, and we do have very opposing views of life that are rather characteristic of the different generations we belong to. I actualy took my responce directaly from an argument I had with my unkle the other day on the same topic, in which he specificaly brought up the “our generation” v.s. “your generation” thing. Thats where that came from. And still, you have to remember, our parents are not buying us unicycles. And I am not exatly debt free at the moment. It is perfectly possible to say that I am doing more to earn the parts then you would be, though I have no idea. I still think its just a different value system. Spelling is obviously a lot lower on my value system as well :slight_smile: . But anyway. i realize I am arguing a droped topic in a place I should not be arguing, and making it take way to long in a place where things should be short, and all because I like to argue, and I should stop…now