I have no intentions of letting this baby collect dust.
Have you seen Waalrus’s threads on his coasting Muni? He’s proven to me that this is most definitely a doable endeavor, and I truly anticipate being able to ride this much like I would a normal 36er.
There’s been a lot of speculation on whether or not a 36er would be ‘easier’ to freewheel on; I want to find out.
I feel that given enough time and effort, a coasting 36er would be completely insane on down hills.
Plus there’s enough doubt that it can really be done to make me want to try.
If it proves to be feasible (and I believe it will be), I’m going to get a new frame as well to better fit my hub.
Just had an idea, it isn’t going to help now, but in case anyone else is rebuilding a wheel and unsure of spoke tension it might come in handy. Take a sound recording of you plucking the spokes before tear down. That way you could tell how close you are to the original when you put it back together.
Killian, please please please video your first attempt and post it.
That would work if you used the same spokes as the previous build, or were confident they were the same diameter and material. (and used the same diameter hub and wheel) A thicker diameter spoke will come up to tension faster than a thinner one, and will sound a lower note. I think a tension meter is probably the only reliable guage. (Although years of experience would probably be a good substitute.)
I will do my best to get video. My camera takes video, but I’ll need to figure out how to post it.
For now though, I still need to get my wheel set up for tubeless, and do a final run through to make sure everything is in order before I put cranks on and throw it in the frame.
I will also need to do some handle bar configuring, since I don’t wanna turn my newly purchased aero bars into hamburger.
This project should give the unicycling community important new information which we can use to make future decisions. There’s always the chance that something like this simply remains a novelty but even if that’s the case we can still learn from it. I haven’t ridden a 36" freewheel unicycle but I have ridden 20" and 26" freewheel unicycles and a 36" fixed wheel unicycle. I believe the 36" freewheel will be more stable at higher speeds, will roll over obstacles more easily, and there’s a good chance it will be easier to coast than smaller wheels. However, it will also be more prone to UPDs. I think there will also be an opportunity to pedal more on the 36" than smaller wheels. On a 26" even slight pedaling on flat ground quickly gets up to speeds where you no longer need to pedal. I wonder if the 36" will be more like pedaling a small wheel up a slight incline which is relatively easy.
One reason I haven’t built a 36" freewheel yet is I don’t have a great place to practice it. I wouldn’t want to start out on the street. A low usage road or bike path would be great but that’s not available to me. I’m also planning on building a 3.8x fixed gear 20" freewheel unicycle around December. That may have some of the projected benefits of a big wheel (in this case a virtual 76" wheel).
I’m not sure how useful it would be for a 36" freewheel unicycle but I threw together a quick tutorial video from footage I shot on 6/23/2013. I already was able to ride fairly well but the first half of the video I’m doing switch stance for extra authenticity.
Tried tubeless conversion again today, and no dice.
Guess it’ll be a tubed 36er freewheel.
I bumped the wheel into a door going out and had to do some yanking on it to get the tire on and off, so now I think I’ll go back and check for true again. I’m probably anal, but I always worry about banging my rims on stuff… :o
Tonight is game night. Got the frame on, a seat in, and tire inflated. I’ll get some video and see if I can upload it.
For now I’ve left the brake off. I know, I know, it’s essential, yadda-yadda, relax. I’ll add it later once I get the mounting figured out (of the brake lever). Or maybe I’ll decide I don’t need it.
This is without a doubt possible. I’m able to freemount fairly easily, and riding isn’t a problem at all. I can coast short distances, and they just keep getting longer. With a brake, I don’t think you could stop me. The hardest part, is that in my head I can do it, and I just need to apply that to my feet. It’s almost refreshing learning something new like this though. Harkens back to 22 months ago when I first learned to uni.
I cannot emphasize enough, this is doable.
I got some vids from my ~1 1/2 hr practice session, I’ll post as soon as Youtube decides to get over it’s heart attack and upload my videos.
Waalrus, I’d like to shake your hand some day. I really think this could be the future.
Of course, I’ve only been going at it for an hour and a half. I may plateau and never get any better; but I really have a hard time imagining that you’d go anywhere but up.
Also, anyone have an idea how durable these hubs are? Before I was freemounting, I had mount using chain link and hop the uni to turn it the direction I wanted to go. I wonder if hopping could do any real harm to the hub.
First off great job on the progress you have made on your first day of trying, amazing stuff. From your videos it seems the slightest movement of your hips backwards caused by leaning your torso forwards leads to many of your UPD’s. As you already know you have no back pressure to recover from this so you have to stay either directly on top of the of the center of balance and hub or be a little bit in front of it (so you can catch your self by peddling).
So I think one of the keys to success in figuring out how to ride a coaster uni is figuring out what would be a good body posture that will keep you hips a little bit forward of neutral. Perhaps arching you lower back in a way that makes you belly stick out will be a good body posture to keep your hips forward. I just tried riding with my standard 36er with my back arched that way and it definitely feel pretty awkward… but it did keep me hips and center of balance above or in front of the hub, while making it much harder to get my center of balance behind the hub. But this is all just wild speculation because the only coaster uni experience I have are on BC wheels, which seem like a total different beast. Once again, awesome stuff! I look forward to hearing how you progress and the insights you gain while trying to tame your giant coaster uni.
Totally agree with you there. As soon as you get behind the wheel, you’re down before you can even think about it. Problem is, if you try to stay in front of the wheel, it forces you into peddling. So you have to work to find that perfect middle spot right on top of the wheel, it doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I’ve gotten up to around 10 feet of coast.
Thanks Shmolagin for the imbed.
Thanks everyone for the good words. This has been a blast so far, can’t wait to see where it goes.
Nice job, I can’t see the vids from work, but from everyone’s response it sounds like the 36er wheel is easier to coast than a smaller wheel.
You mentioned getting forward to maintain balance, which necessitates pedaling, which then makes you go faster…you need a brake to help modulate speed in places where coasting is tougher.
The brake allows you to pedal against the resistance, which provides some support and keeps you from going to fast.
Good job, I’ll watch the vids from home tonight.
So, anyone wanna buy my 24" Nimbus Muni Coasting Uni?
I know, I know, it’s essential, yadda-yadda, relax. I’ll add it later once I get the mounting figured out (of the brake lever). Or maybe I’ll decide I don’t need it. 
Success!!
