My dream unicycle would be a 29" wheel with fixed gear 1:25 so it would feel like a 36er. No need for shifting. It would be fun enough to have a 29" with a lighter and sturdier wheelbuild than a 36er and with an abundance of rim- and tyre options. Are you listening, Santa Claus?
1:25? Wouldn’t that feel more like a 725er?
(Sorry, couldn’t resist).
I wonder when we will see unicycles with one fixed gear ratio (apart from 1:1) on the market.
what’s a 725er? Do you work for Santa Claus?
the thing is I don’t need shifting, just a higher gear ratio for my 29er so I can go out and shop a decent light weight road tyre and rim.
36ers are the mammoths of unicycles
I think you meant 1:1.25, right?
If you were building a uni just for the road with a light rim and tire, I would think a higher gear would be better. A geared up Schlumpf 29er (~42" effective wheel diameter) with an offroad worthy rim is pretty good for all but the steepest roads. The lighter you can make the rim and tire, the easier it would be to push a higher gear.
You could build something with a jack shaft like the Red Menace
I don’t think you could get exactly 1.25 but 1.22 is pretty close, or go slightly higher with a 1.44 gear.
Haha, you’re right 1:1.25 it should be.
I would be perfectly satisfied with a 29er that could make the same speed as my ungeared 36er while being lighter and easier to transport. A schlumpf hub is heavy and how often can I make full use of a virtual 42" wheel? For me an ungeared 36er has the ideal gear ratio for road use but the wheel itself is heavy and flexes. Hence a fixed-gear 29er is my road uni dream.
I agree that a lighter 36er tire is in order to improve the 36er road experience, but I’m not sure why you think they flex too much. What kind of 36er are you riding? I’ve heard that the new KH36, despite its “narrow” hub, doesn’t have any problems symptomatic of flexing (like brake rub), and that the steel frames are actually to blame for most of the flex problems.
I’m not saying you should use a Schlumpf hub. I was just comparing your proposed gearing configuration to what I’ve had experience with, and I know for a fact that virtual 42" wheel feels pretty good on the road to me.
Personally I’d rather have a lighter wheeled 36er than an equally geared up 29er. There’s far less that can go wrong mechanically, the larger diameter wheel rolls over bumps better, and you stand out more with other vehicles on the road.
The schlumpf in high is pretty similar to an ungeared 36 in terms of difficulty, because the wheel is so much lighter (rim,tyre + tube can weigh less than the coker rim alone). Although I’d typically use 1 step up on the crank length on the 29er (125s on mine vs 110s on the coker).
The difference between 1:1.25 and 1:1.55 is something you could easily make up for by changing crank length on the standard schlumpf - as a plus, you’ll almost certainly be moving towards the optimum crank length for your leg length unless you have super short legs.
If anything though, it’d be nicer to have a higher gear so you could use nice long 150mm cranks - I’ve done a bit over a thousand miles on mine with 150mm cranks, and it is nicer than using silly short cranks, but only similar speed to coker with 125s, I never could spin them up all that fast.
Joe
Yeah, my nimbus frame flexes. If I grasp the brake mount and press my thumb on the (airfoil) rim, little pressure is needed to move the wheel sideways. Perhaps I would be more satisfied with a KH36.
This design first appeared on penny farthings back in the 19th century. It made it possible for short persons with smaller wheels to keep up with their friends on 54", 56" or whatever big wheel size they were using. This design was probably a direct evolutional link between the penny farthing and the safety bike.
It is an interesting concept but to bulky and too heavy. I am waiting for someone to make a hub with fixed gearing.
We are all different - I value my 125s so much more than the 150s 
I think that Harper would give you plans for one if you asked him.
Look up the “Harper Hub”
That’s exactly what I was thinking when I read this thread. I imagine, with a bit of thought time, so help and a welder, it’d be pretty doable. I can’t see it being too dificult. The hardest thing would be figuring out what gears to use and getting the chain tension right. But deciding on the right size crank length before the cog sizes.
Sounds like a fun challenge. I’d like to build my own unicycle completely from old bike parts so that I can have it exactly as I want it and have some jaw dropping!
There’s a guy in Sydney, Dangerdog on here (I’ve forgotten his real name) who did it: