munis range in the 24-29" range w/ dirt tires. (depending on terrain, 24 is ideal for the most tech stuff, 29 for long simple trails)
trials are fat-tired 19" unis
For that very reason is why there are people in the MTB community who intentionally ride hard tails in conditions that some would use 8" DH bikes, and some ride tech XC on rigid fixed gears.
BUMP
WUNI VID!
Man I enjoy riding.
Does anyone know if there is still a manufacturer or retailer of reeder style handles? A while ago there were tons of left handed one left, but I’m wanting to try the right handed version, on a KH drilled CF base.
I want a left one. Ditto!
So, I would assume you would reccomend a 26" unicyle if you would like a smother ride and if weight doesn’t bother you to much?
I will vote for a 24" Muni any day over any other size wheel for Muni. I also prefer the fun hardcore trails that include rock gardens, drops and logs. I also find it harder to balance on something skinny with a larger wheel for some reason, maybe because center of grav is higher, but i don’t know. I choose a 24" because of its ability to withstand heavier abuse, not too heavy, and its not so big where you can’t jump certain obstacles. I don’t know how ppl can ride good Muni with a 29"er, especially if you don’t have a brake,lol.
Again it’s not the wheel/rim size, it’s the beefiness of the tire. Match that to your riding style and you’re good to go. If you want to pound down piles of rocks and drop off things, the fatter, heavier tire is going to serve you well. If your tastes are more mild and your trails are less rocky and droppy, a regular MTB tire will be fine.
Fat tire or skinny? Again a 24 x 3" tire is 26" in diameter. A 24" Miyata tire (what I rode for my first several years of MUni) is about 23 1/4". So do you mean 24" tire or 24" rim? The riding you described suggests 24" rim with a beefy tire that’s probably 26".
John stop confusing the kids, I am not going to going to start calling my 26" muni a 28" Muni, that would confuse all the british people who call a big 700C tire 28 instead of 29 like us north americans.
If we want to be specific we could go with bead seat diameters call a 24xanything a 507, a 26xanything a 559, a 29/28/700C a 622. Don’t forget the oddball sizes like 650B (584) and the poorly named 27" (630). 
It might actually really help differentiate between a 20" and trials wheel by calling them 406mm and 387mm.
I for one really like my 26X3 but I go over more roots and rocks and don’t do too much big drops etc. Skinny road wheels can be really fun too for precise maneuvering trying to avoid obstacles instead of just rolling over them like with a 3" tire. I never really got on well with my 24, didn’t roll as well as my 26 over the rough stuff and didn’t hop as well as my 19. I understand why people like them but they just don’t seem to fit my riding styles. I would like to try a 29 with a proper wide tire and eventually build up that 32 that I have had in the back of my mind since November for some fast XC.
So do you mean 24" tire or 24" rim? The riding you described suggests 24" rim with a beefy tire that’s probably 26.
to John’s question yes i mean a 24" rim. the tire may come out to 26 but who really measures or worries about that? I love the 24 because its the best all around wheel size that can do most everything, its just not the best at any one thing if you really think about it. its right in the middle of everything, thats why its so great.
Go 29" you will love the speed and the flow and it hasnt ever stopped me from trying technical stuff.
People keep coming out with this 24" is 26" thing and it keeps being silly.
24" denotes the rim size. Everyone who sells bikes / unicycles knows this, you buy tyres in 24" size, which denotes which rim it goes onto. A 24" fat tyre is quite big, but nothing like as big as a 26" fat tyre. Because almost everyone nowadays rides fat tyres for muni, a 24" tyre is nothing like a 26" tyre.
By saying a 24" tyre is a 26", you just confuse people into thinking that there’s not 2" of difference between a 24" and a 26" tyre, which for all tyres that people use, is not the case.
With your carbon fibre muni, I think that’s because people moaned about the prototypes being built too wide, so he made the final ones with a narrower crown. Roger’s first prototype one fits a gazz (not sure if it’s 2.6 or 3 though) with room to spare. What a nice unicycle (although no brake and periodically needing to be glued back together means it probably is not as practical as my nimbus/pashley franken-muni)
Joe
24" vs 26" vs 29" vs …
It all depends on your riding style and the types of terrain you typically ride. Everybody’s situation is different. Unfortunately as isolated as most of us are it is difficult to try out a bunch of different sized muni’s and then pick the one we like best. I started out on a 26" simply because I already had a bunch of 26" mtb tires lying around. For me and my style of riding the 24" is perfect because there are very few “easy” XC type trails around where I live, basically it goes from flat and easy to steep and rocky a the drop of a hat. For me having that little bit extra lower center of gravity on my 24" had made my riding so much more enjoyable and easier on this type of terrain. I’ll admit I did have a tough learning curve adjusting to the 24" vs 26" when it came to “ease of rolling over stuff” but now that I’ve adjusted I think it’s as easy as the 26" ever was. Plus as a runner I don’t mind the 24" being more spinny on the flats vs a 26" or 29"; heck I’ve done several 50km to 80km single track trail rides on my 24" with no issues so I think it’s a keeper for me! I’m just waiting to get my KH/Schlumpf hub so I can have the ultimate 24" machine!
This is pretty funny to read. People have been talking about how good shorter cranks are for a long time. I got conned into buying 170mm profiles in 2003 and I instantly found them awkwardly long, and got 145s as soon as I could. At the time the Unicycle.com hype said that they recommend 170mm cranks for any 24x3" unicycles. I wonder if this was spurred on from George Peck’s advice and clung to for a while. The wisdom of shorter than 170mm cranks has been around for a very long time but it seems only more recently people have been paying attention. It is not until KH changes his crank length that everyone follows suit. I agree that the 170s are good for the steepest of trails but I ride everywhere not just on the steepest trails.
Even Roger Davies and Nathan Hoover have known about how sweet 150s are since the year 2000. Mikefule has always had good crank length advice. It’s a pity I didn’t read those threads and find out more advice before buying my unicycle- I got into the forums soon afterwards when I made an email account since Ihateclowns.com became a pay email site.
The confusion comes in when people compare a 24" MUni tire with a 26" MTB tire (about the same size), or when people recommend 24" wheels to newbies who may not realize the big difference between a conventional 24" wheel and one set up for MUni. I think this confusion isn’t going to go away by ignoring it, but I admit it’s too “messy” to keep going into such detail. That’s why I think I like to say 24x3 when talking about a MUni tire size, for instance. Regular 24" wheels are not great for MUni, you need the fat tire for good performance. So it’s 24x3 (even if it’s not that wide) or 26" normal-sized MTB tires. Or 26x3 for ultra-beefy.
Yes, mine’s pretty narrow. But when the 3" tires became popular, they mostly didn’t fit any of the frames on the market. That included the Pashley, the only frame at the time that was made for Muni!
They’ve known, but back then Nathan (and most of the local hardcore MUni guys were using 170s or other long sizes. Of course this was appropriate for the trails in and around Santa Cruz, which could be pretty steep. I remember being able to roll through areas where they had trouble because my 150s were less likely to hit things. Shorter cranks for difficult terrain have only become popular since brakes have become more commonplace. Without brakes, the shorter cranks can be hard on your knees if you ride a lot of steep terrain. Currently I use 160s on my brakeless Wilder. Most of the time they’re a little too long, but they’re great on the tough stuff, which is what that unicycle is for.
Completely 100% off topic, but I made this by copying + pasting this page into wordle.com. I was simultaneously surfing here and found wordle, so i decided to test it. It’s really cool, and I’m really bored lol.
Back to topic, who’s going to Moab this year to do some MUni? And what kind of cycle will you be bringing? (I’m going to bring my torker 24" for the actual riding, and my bc wheel for the first day at the skatepark)
I really want to go to Moab if i can afford it. if i drove it would be about a 22hr trip. I don’t know if i can afford it though. I have never gone yet, and only been to CMW once so far.
Moab is amazing, go if you can, you won’t regret it. I went the last two years, and would do almost anything to go this year, but it might not happen.
Bump
when i’m riding Muni, i often strike rocks/logs/other objects on the trail with my feet/pedals. this usually causes a UPD.
do other people have this problem a lot?
how do you prevent it?
is it a matter of getting better at recovering from pedal/foot strikes?
or is it more a matter of preventing the strikes from happening by being aware of where the pedals are and hopping or steering to avoid the object?
i realize shorter cranks would probably also help (i’m running 150s on a 24" wheel) , but that would also make climbing more difficlut and reduce control overall.