It is great, I was out for a ride round town tonight to get used to it, and I got on quite well. I set it up with the Big Apple tyre, and set the cranks to the 125mm size, to get used to it as a road machine.
I will need a bit of time to get used to the smaller cranks, and I will need to get used to the tyre on steeper cambers of some roads, but I think I will get there.
Free mounts went quite well, I will get better, but I can see me getting somewhere with this set up.
My moving average on the short ride I did tonight was 7.5 mph, which isn’t bad for a first trip, I know I will get a bit faster.
I didn’t get on well with the 36", but the 29" feels more comfortable, and not anything like as scary.
I haven’t had any issues with freemounting mine with the cranks on the 125 setting, but have, ironically, UPDed several times trying to get going after holding onto a pole (at a traffic light, for instance). I’ve had much better luck with just hopping (if there’s not enough room to idle) when I have to wait for a car. But I’ve not put many on-road miles on mine yet. I’m still waiting for a knobby tire with good on-road manners.
Nice ride and welcome to the 29er club. They’re really great machines. I built my own but based it on a KH29 rim, UDC extra wide hub and a Big Apple tire. It rides great.
I am planning to do a Duathlon next year on a unicycle, and the route has some big downhills on it. I thought the 36" would be suitable, but the brakes were really hard to use. I tried the V brake set up which was a mistake, the rim just isn’t suitable for V brakes.
The KH29 seems to be just the job though, if the route was flatter it would be fine for the 36", but with the 29" I will cope better on this route, and have a more versatile unicycle to use at other times as well.
I think it was you Cathy who said that You “felt in control of your 29”, but your 36" controls you".
That is how I felt, and on hills that steep, on legs that will have ran cross country on hills for 13 miles, on a 18 mile cycle, I think the 29" is that way to go.
I haven’t tried a V brake. My Magura brake works great. Downhill roads are really where the 36ers shine over 29ers. A 36er feels more stable and doesn’t require as high of a cadence for a given speed. Using the brake effectively does take some getting use to, but as backwards as it sounds, going faster downhill is easier once you learn to brake well.
Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have a lot to throw into this conversation. I rode my Nimbus 29" in Indiana’s Hilly Hundred last year and plan on riding it this year on my nimbus 36"
heh, thanks. The Purdue University unicyclists do it every year. Our write ups will be on silentaftermath.com after the weekend </site plug>…
anyway, I really need to get some 125mm cranks as I’m running 112s on my 36. i’ll be sure to let the differences between the tour on last years 29"/112mm and this years 36"/125mm be posted
Is it just my imagination, or is there a general migration from 36res to 29ers going on at the moment?
When I PX’ed my N36 for a 29" Schlumpf, I had what I can only describe as a vasectomy feeling (I’m still a man, but not as much of a man as I was). The great feeling of the Schlumpf in high gear gives me a huge buzz though, so I’m really not worried about it.
I know there’s always a desire to post about how great a unicycle is, particularly when you first get it, but I don’t think I’ve seen any “I don’t like my Coker” type posts, so wonder if people are just keeping quiet. Or am I just reading too much in to it?
My problem with the 36" was the mainly the brake problem, the rim flaired at a couple of points causing the brakes to jam on. The 36" wheel is quite a beast to control, with the steel rim, and the tyre, it picks up quite a bit of energy.
First impressions of the 29" are very different, the wheel is a lot lighter, making it a lot easier to get on with, and free mounting is a lot easier.
Not for me. I live in a constant state of falling in love with both sizes of unicycle. I ride the 36er along the prom and love it best. Then I ride the 29er in the hills and love that best. Then I ride the 36er … and so on.
In fact, I have just taken the T7 handle off to send it back for some repair and riding the 36er without it, is like having yet another unicycle. And I love that one too.
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