Greetings,
I was just wondering how many people MUni on a trials type Uni? It seems like it would be a lot lesst work to ride bumpy trails on a 20" wheel with a great big fat tire than it would on a 24" wheel?
Just curious…
Having never muni’d on a 20", I would have to say that this would
be a wasted effort and not very enjoyable. I have ridden a 20" around the block and felt that I spun and spun and got no where. It will take you forever to cover any distance and the smaller tire could create problems when you ride along a slope.
YOur best bet is to go to a 24" and do trials with that. Kris Holm
uses a 24" for many of his trials moves. If you get the video UNIverse, you will see this.
It is really a good comprimise.
Go with a Gazz JR. at 24 x 2.6 or if your frame can take it, a gazz
24 x 3.0.
Work the maze.
teachndad writes:
I would agree with that, I have a 24 x 3.0 gazz and it’s great but my son uses a 20 x 2.25 Maxx Daddy to great effect though he tends to ride hills rather than distance so speed is less of a factor for him.
Gary
Re: MUni or Trials?
A large diameter wheel rolls over obstacles much more easily than a small diameter wheel. As the obstacles get closer and closer together, as is the case for a nest of roots, a small diameter wheel will be more likely to drop into the spaces and stall in the dead zone of the pedal cycle.
A large diameter wheel and associated tire are necessarily heavier than a comparable small diameter wheel and therefore more difficult or tiring to hop with. If you were to use the small diameter you would be doing more hopping out of necessity but you would be doing it with a lighter wheel.
As someone who did 20 miles on a 20 incher the other day, I feel qualified to contribute… (The main ball bearings on the saddle top are still swollen.)
A 24 inch wheel is 20% bigger than a 20, which means 20% more progress per revolution, which means 20% more speed at a given cadence. A 26 inch wheel is only 8% bigger than a 24.
So, for speed and distance, the step up from a 20 to a 24 is significant, whereas the step up from a 24 to a 26 is less so.
For rolling over obstacles, the bigger the wheel the better. I call this ‘rollover factor’. A big wheel is less likely to trip up or fall into a wheel trap.
But people who are cleverer than I am often try to jump or hop over obstacles, in which case the weight of the uni becomes significant, which gives the 24 the advantage over the 26.
And for manoeuvreability, the 24 turns noticeably more sharply. I notice this often: when I’m on a 26, I often think, ‘Oh, I’ll go down that side track one day,’ whereas on the 24, I decide on impulse to go down it now.
And then we consider hills, both up and down. The ratio of crank length to wheel radius is important here. I can easily climb long slopes on my 24 that I couldn’t climb on my standard 26 Muni. The difference is phenomenal. It can be rectified by fitting longer cranks on the 26, but this makes it less comfortable to pedal, more jerky, and more tiring. So the longer cranks cancel out the speed and distance advantage of the slightly bigger wheel.
Which means if I had to buy a new uni for muni tomorrow, I would buy a 24 if I thought I was going to ride extreme stuff, and a 26 with normal cranks if I intended to do long distances on rough trails.
But back to the 20… I spent 15 years with only a 20 before I discovered Unicycle.uk.com and found I had a wider choice, and I’ve done lots of footpaths and rough ground on a 20, and I really really don’t recommend it for anything but playing on. You can do more tricks and stunts and hops and jumps on a 20, but it is not really a vehicle. For me, the fun in muni is in exploring forests and tracks, not just going over the same few obstacles time and again in a small area, so I like the ability to cover a bit of distance.
Re: MUni or Trials?
I’ve done some light offroad riding, first on a 24" with 5" cranks.
Then onto a 20" with 5" cranks which was an improvement because of
more leverage. Irregularities in the terrain were an issue but not a
major one. Then I put 6" cranks on my 24" and that was about equal in
offroad ability to the 20" (though somewhat faster), it’s the same
leverage factor. So where I rode, wheel diameter (with respect to
trail irregularities) was not much of an issue. All three combinations
were basically “general” (as opposed to trials) unicycles with a 1.75"
width tyre. I plan to buy a 24" MUni within a month or so.
Klaas Bil
On Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:59:18 -0500, jason
<jason.6eomz@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>
>Greetings,
>
>I was just wondering how many people MUni on a trials type Uni? It seems
>like it would be a lot lesst work to ride bumpy trails on a 20" wheel
>with a great big fat tire than it would on a 24" wheel?
>
>Just curious…
>
>
>–
>jason
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>jason’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1014
>View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/18751
>
Re: MUni or Trials?
— teachndad <teachndad.6epby@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
> YOur best bet is to go to a 24" and do trials with that. Kris Holm
> uses a 24" for many of his trials moves. If you get the video UNIverse,
> you will see this.
Originally I rode on a 24" for everything because it was impossible at that time to get short
splined cranks (ie the Profiles did not yet exist).
Now I think the choice really depends on your motivations.
If you are a MUni rider who’s idea of trials is to go on a ride, and then hop around on boulders
and rocks during that ride, then a 24" (with 3" tire) is definately the way to go. I strongly
believe that having trials skills on a 24" uni is one of the best ways to get better at MUni. If
you only do trials on a 20" then the 24" will feel like a pig, even though you can actually do
most of the same moves when you get used to it.
That said, if all you want to do is pure trials, then a 20" is the way to go for most (although
not all) moves. It’s just lighter and easier to use, not to mention easier to chuck when you
fall.
So ultimately it’s best to have both. That’s too bad in a way- one of the best things about this
sport in my opinion is how minimalist the equipment is, and that attraction decreases with
specialized gear.
-Kris.
>
> It is really a good comprimise.
>
> Go with a Gazz JR. at 24 x 2.6 or if your frame can take it, a gazz
> 24 x 3.0.
>
>
> Work the maze.
>
>
> –
> teachndad - The Munieer
>
> Rod Wylie
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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Re: Re: MUni or Trials?
Hold that thought. For me, there is enjoyment in riding near to the limit of my ability, and in a sense, having a more basic machine makes that limit more accessible. One downside of owning better unis than I used to is that I now have to search harder and further for challenging places to ride.
It is a common human failing to keep improving things until they’re nearly as good as they used to be.
i do trials on a MUni, its not that bad, id say go for a 24" rim, than a 20". only thing is that its heaver, and easier to warp the rim.
I’ve spent most of this summer riding around on my 20" and done quite a lot on the dirt trails in local parks. the only other size i’ve ridden is my new 28"-er so I’m quite curious as to what a 24" would be like.
The 20" is a bit duff at riding over little obstacles, but its good for getting up and down steep hills.
It’s also great on the pavements as it’s safe to ride around pedestrians and you can ride it really slow when you’re stuck behind a group of them. This is important to me cos i don’t drive, so if i take my uni anywhere i generally ride it.
Finally, I’ve been looking through my old issues of ’ the catch’ which was a magazine for jugglers in england- it’s interesting to see the articles sent in by the guys who pioneered the Muni thing, the general tone of the editors seemed to be bemusement, and I get the impression that they took the articles to humour the writers; I bet they’d have been a bit surprised if they could have seen into the future at how popular the Muni thing has become.
Anyway these guys were using 20"-ers cos that was the standard size for jugglers etc then, so maybe there should be a category of Muni that uses 20" wheels out of respect for the origins of the sport!
RE: MUni or Trials?
> Anyway these guys were using 20"-ers cos that was the
> standard size for jugglers etc then, so maybe there
> should be a category of Muni that uses
> 20" wheels out of respect for the origins of the sport!
Wouldn’t that be like having a penny-farthing category in the Tour de
France?
As Trials gets more popular, we will probably divide competitions between
20" wheels and larger ones. But on the trails, I hope we will “save” all the
jugglers out there from suffering on 20" wheels in any kid of off-road
racing…because we allow any wheel size, namely something faster and better
at rolling over the terrain. 
As for riding the 24", I suppose you’d find it to be around halfway between
your 20" and your 28", Technically. You can do most all the things you can
with your 20", though it will not be quite as light or maneuverable.
Stay on top,
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
jfoss@unicycling.com
www.unicycling.com <http://www.unicycling.com>
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