I live in Tasmania, Australia surrounded by over 31,000 square kilometres of world heritage rainforest and i want to explore this. Most will be offroad but there will be a little on Tarmac and some pretty serious offroad.
i am considering a Muni, probably 24 maybe 26 but i was wondering, due to all the “your crazy if you dont buy a coker” threads popping up, would it be wise to consider a coker as an option?
I know it will give me more speed, but how do they ride off road? I have had no experience with anything larger than a trials wheel. Please help me out, i dont want to end up getting a muni to discover, down the line, a coker would have been more suitable.
I am not asking anyone to decide for me, i am just after some background information before i go out and make a purchase.
and please watch this thread because there is definately more questions to come, so that i dont have to create another thread for other questions
Thankyou,
Tom
(i did use the search function but i could not find anything substantial on this subject)
It really depends on the terrain and perhaps your definition of muni. 36ers work quite well on dirt trails as long as they’re not too steep or too technical in too many places. You can always walk if the trail is unsuitable for riding in only a few places. However, if most of your riding will be “pretty serious offroad,” I would stick with a 29er or smaller.
Well it sounds like you will be doing quite a bit of distance, but you also need to do some offroad. I’d say a 29er would be best for that, probably one with a semi-knobby tire.
I’ve only had a coker for about a week…but I agree with the two above me.
The coker isn’t as manueverable as a Muni would be. But if you’re talking serious distance, I say go for a 29. That way you get speed, and enough control.
Cokers don’t do serious offroad, so if you get one you’re going to have to avoid those sections. Whether this means there are just some areas you’ll have to avoid, or that you’ll have to walk half of any trail you do depends on the terrain, which of course you know about but I don’t. It sounds like a 29 would be more suitable for you, especially as hopefully better DHtyres wil be avilable later in the year.
I would get a KH26 with the two hole pedal inserts.
Easily switchable in a few minutes, you can do rough M-uni and on the long flats, get the size down. Also, 26" tires are very easy to get anywhere (including Tasmania), and considerably cheaper than 29" or 36" in shipping, duties, and base cost.
Another option is to get the geared 24" that Kris is going to sell on market in a few months, but that is more costly, but would suit your purpose best IMO.
that has ruled the coker right out, thankyou. I did not think it would suit my needs but with all this talk about them i had to ask.
Danni these geared 24", is there anywhere i can find information about them? a few months is a few months more i can save for one
and with the 29" and 26" how much difference in speed/manouverability would i gain? 26" sounds like a much more comfortable size, but i cannot find any around my area, only the nimbus 26".
I am currently doing what sounds like similar riding, on a Schlumpf geared 29er.
It is nice. but I would be happy with a normal 29 or 26. The high gear is nice on road, but pretty rarely useful off road.
If Tasmania is hassle to get stuff like 29" tyres to, I’d consider a 26", otherwise just buy yourself a KH29, that’d be fine. There isn’t much difference between the two sizes, but the 29" isn’t a custom build, so will probably be cheaper, whereas 26" is much easier to get tyres for (at pretty much any bike shop). The 26" is nicer for really technical offroad, with a fatter tyre, but you get used to the 29" after a bit.
Cokers are nice, and are fun to ride muni on, but they do limit what you ride. I find cokers particularly limiting in wooded areas, because your head is so high up, that if you hit a lot of branches. It isn’t a problem in areas with super-tall pine trees, but other wooded areas it can be real hassle.
Thanks Joe, i am inclilned to go with a 26" now, it sounds like the best suited. unless i can find info on this 24" guni, apart from questions on whether it will replace coker…
24" Guni, is the Kris Holm geared unicycle. It’s basically a KH24, but with the possibility to change to 36" gear for riding easy sections.
It’s coming out when it is ready, which Kris has said he doesn’t know quite when it’ll be. Cost is kind of unknown, but probably similar or a little bit more than the Schlumpf geared uni, which is about 2700 NZD/2500 AUD.
It will probably be nice. With a nice fat tyre on it, it might be okay to ride off road in high gear too. It kind of depends on how much you really want to wait and how much money you’re likely to have.
The geared unicycle is great if you don’t have a car, as it makes it easy to get to trails. It is also great for really long rides which have technical sections, with easy bits in beteeen. If you do have a car, you’d probably be fine with a non-geared unicycle for now, and then if you get into really long rides later, maybe buy one.
The two holed cranks are good as someone above mentioned. Now available in 125/150, Kris is considering making them in 165/137 also, but he said neither pair are recomended for drops. I bet they can take the occationals 2-3 ft. drop to dirt w/ a good roll-out.
What is serious offroad for you? Rocky trails / steep slopes (up or down) probably aren’t going to go that well with a 36".
Well… As long as things aren’t slippery / muddy I actually quite like the 36er as an offroad machine - for XC riding, anyway. I also have a 29er, but I’ve ridden similar terrain on both - with a similar amount of success. The coker is heavy and more unwieldy, though it is able to cope OK with lumps and bumps by being very and heavy and large - it just rolls over things.
Mmmm. I believe wide hub and airfoil rim are important if you want to abuse your coker wheel; I’ve never had any problems with this setup, although I’ve probably not abused it as much as some!
Personally, whilst I sometimes ride the coker offroad, I’d only really choose to do it on pretty much towpath riding, not for any real cross country riding. Like it’s okay for riding out from Cambridge along the river, but once you start actually riding any real offroad trails, it isn’t so good.
If it’s dry, the coker is fun on some proper trails too, but even the most insane coker riders like Roger Davies are mainly doing the easier end of xc riding on it. In the wet it mings totally and is just a waste of time.
The coker is great for things you’d be happy to ride a touring bike on, but if it gets wet, or too technical, it’s just hassle to ride, I’d totally not recommend it for general XC riding, if you brought your coker to somewhere like the Peak District, or to ride the cross country mountain bike trails at Coed y Brenin in Wales say, you’d get totally caned.
I’ve got a vague feeling we might have talked about that route before in these forums, but can’t really remember. The river path out from Cambridge to Waterbeach has been paved in the past few years and is now basically road riding (albeit with low hanging trees).
I sustained a very bad sprain to my right ankle doing offroad cokering in the wet - not something I really want to repeat! I’d successfully (to my slight surprise) gone down a steep incline, it was muddy, and the TA tyre suddenly stepped sideways out from under me. Took me months to recover fully from that, and I resolved to take the 29er on slippery terrain in future as it’s both grippier and less far to fall!
sigh I only wish I could take it travelling more! I’ve never had the chance to try the 36er at the kind of long sweeping offroad trails I think it would be optimal on. I don’t relish going down steep hills on it, though - the high gear and the heavy wheel are going to make it a bit scary. I’ve been trying to get up small steep inclines by hopping, but it’s tough going with the big wheel!
That said, something I’d love to see would be a coker muni: strong wheelbuild, long cranks (170mm or longer, or reduction gearing if that ever became available) and a knobby tyre (e.g. by cutting down a TA as several people have already done). It’d lose some of the speed of a coker but as long as you didn’t need to go to technical it’d just roll through anything in your path
What you should do - train to Kings Cross, walk/ride to Kings Cross Thameslink station, train towards Brighton, get off at Hassocks. Then you’re right near the South Downs Way, which is bang exactly the sort of easy offroad riding in hills that is great for cokers, 100 miles long (40 miles one way from there, 60 the other), and all rideable (with maybe some uphill pushes on a coker). It’s totally worth the train journey. Other stations near it are Petersfield, Eastbourne, Winchester (that end is a bit less interesting though), Chichester (near as in 6 miles ride away). There are a few campsites near it too, for two day+ trips.
Well you have a custom trials tyre fitted to your coker like i did (I sold it because i mostly ride my coker on the street) But when i did have it, it worked very well. It rolled/moved like i was riding on flat ground. If you’re thinking of doing it. Get magura brakes and T7 handlebar cause you’ll need these.
Muni on a coker rules. I have took my coker on some sweet trails, steep hills, and even some dirt jumps. Make sure you have a properly trued- tensioned, and built wheel. You will need it, and cranks bend pretty easily when your going 10-15, sometimes 20mph on a coker.
If you’re thinking of doing it. Get magura brakes and T7 handlebar cause you’ll need these.