I just thought I’d write a review of my new Triton Muni which I built up this week. It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed anything but I’ll review it as a complete unicycle rather than just the frame.
Here are the specs:
Triton 29" Titanium Frame
Nimbus ISIS Hub
Quax 145mm aluminium cranks
Snafu Sealed bearing pedals
Kris Holm 29" rim
Wheelsmith Double Butted spokes
WTB 29" inner tube
WTB 29x2.1" Motoraptor tyre
Cromoly 27.2mm seatpost
Kris Holm Freeride saddle
Getting it together
First off I’d like to thank Unicycle.com NZ for saving my project. I’m still waiting for a lightweight Kris Holm Aluminium seatpost to arrive from the UK, but I think the UK postal service has it somewhere between UDC UK and New Zealand. So Peter Bier from UDC NZ kindly donated a seatpost so that I can put the unicycle together. Thanks dude!!!
Thanks also to Dmitry from Triton and Sponge from this forum for making this frame possible. I had a few hiccups with getting the wire transfer to Russia, but in the end we managed to pay for it by Western Union. I ordered the frame just before Xmas and it arrived a week ago.
The frame is quite different to the 20" (obviously), and there were a few crucial dimensions that Roger from UDC UK helped me with, and thankfully it all fits together perfectly! It’s always nerve racking ordering the first one, but so far all the dimensions are perfect.
Customising the Ti Frame
This is the core of the unicycle even though frames in general aren’t as crucial on unicycles as the wheelset itself.
I needed a frame that took the new ISIS hubs whilst being low profile, and had adequate clearance for a 29x2.6" tyre. I don’t think that exists as yet, but my 26x2.6" tyre slot’s in there comfortably.
It also needed a short seat-tube (because I’m short) but long accomodate a 100mm adjustment (ie allows you to use 150mm cranks down 50mm).
The frame weighs just over 600g on my kitchen scales, which is about 500g lighter than my previous YUni steel frame.
Wheel
There weren’t many choices for the hub. It had to be ISIS, but the only ones available are built for trials. So the choice was really between the KH ISIS (which was blue and didn’t match the frame) and the Nimbus which was black. Anyway, it’s heavier than it should be, but works well. I was after something that would handle off-road better, and the KH rim is the widest 29" rim I could find. It gives a squarer profile and greater volume to the tyre which rides better off-road. I prefer rounder profiles on-road, but I’ll write a review next week once I’ve ridden it with a Big Apple tyre.
Wheelset came in about 200g heavier than my previous one, but that was with a heavy hub and heavier rim.
The ride
I took it for a quick spin this afternoon. About 20-30km up mainly gravel and singletrack. The first thing to notice is that this thing feels solid! Not even a hint of flex in the wheel or the frame. I had to lower the tyre pressure more than I run normally just to keep from being bounced around on the unicycle.
The frame is beautifully finished. The welds are very tidy and everything centred nicely. The only gripe was that the top of the seatpost was slightly rough, but that is covered up by the seatclamp anyway. There is also some crud in my frame, as you can hear it when you shake the frame up and down (not something you’d notice when riding!). Otherwise, perfect!
I had a long slot cut into the seat-tube which gives the option of cutting down the seat-tube if it was too long (it wasn’t). However, it seemed to help improve clamping of the seatpost also. The bolt was tightened fairly loosely with no hint of twisting of the seatpost. There was ample clearance for the Motoraptor tyre, but no problems with the frame rubbing on my legs/knees.
The wheel feels pretty heavy though, and it doesn’t seem to accelerate quite as well as my old set-up, but the wider profile rim provides the tyre with extra traction up steep climbs. I was able to climb up a few loose gravelly hills I normally have trouble with. Coming downhills it seemed to roll well over bumps, but it didn’t seem as responsive as my old MUni. I think it’s partly the overstuffed saddle and slightly shorter cranks I was running (normally 152’s, but only 145mm were available).
I was a bit disappointed with the Nimbus hub, which started rusting over the lettering before I’d even put the unicycle together and gone for a ride. It’s now sprayed liberally with WD40 but still disappointed with that seeing as the hub was unused at the time. As I mentioned before, it is overbuilt overly heavy for this MUni. There is no reason to be using a trials hub for a XC Muni. I can’t wait until something lighter comes along.
The Quax cranks were great. They felt and looked pretty solid, and were reasonably light compared to most of the heavy trials cranks that are available for the ISIS hub.
Q factor is good, thanks to the straight Quax cranks, although I think it’s still slightly wider than my Suzue/Schlumpf cranks set up previously. I haven’t measured it yet. I know this because I’m getting very little tyre rub on my knees (I angle them inwards when riding fast)- it get’s rubbed raw when I’m racing.
The KH freeride seat is probably the best KH seat yet. My original intention was to put my carbon seatbase on it, but the new seat is so stiff I don’t think it will make any difference apart from adding more ‘bling’ factor. It’s also the flattest KH seat out there which is what you need for riding MUni or Road. The only problem with it is that it is overstuffed, and could lose a little bit of profile up front as well as thickness (although some of this is to do with trying make a curved seat in a flat seat I think!). Perfect if you ride a horse, not so good if you ride a unicycle. Nothing a liberal carve up with a breadknife can’t fix.
The rest of the set-up is off my old unicycle. I use sealed bearing Snafus because that’s the most stable platform I’ve used, and still my favourite pedal. It is pretty heavy though. You could probably save 2-300g by switching to something lighter.
Overall the unicycle is very slightly lighter than my old 29’er. The frame is much lighter but the wheel slightly heavier. It feels more solid and better for off-road then my old 29’er. I’ll be testing it on the road next week during The Uninam Unitour. www.uninam.net
Here are some photos:
