Have you considered Mad4One cranks? I use some triples on my g26 which are 148, 129, 110 - might fit the bill just right for you. I believe they ship to Aus
That seems like a good plan, if you’re measuring your climbs on strava you’re taking your hill climbing fairly seriously. I didn’t go out of my way to do hill climbs on ungeared 110’s but I don’t recall having trouble with the hills on my regular routes.
As with learning lengths you have the right idea start long and gradually shorten it. I went from 165/150/125. You could easily skip 165 as I found them absurdly long but that’s what the previous owner preferred at the time. I skipped over them very early on.
I often thought 138 would be a great size for geared riding but never had a pair to try so I stayed on 150’s for quite a while until I moved to 125.
As with anything just put them on and try it out. The only problem I had was relearning how to shift with different crank length positions as you get used to where they are at certain lengths.
Thanks so much for your considered insight Unigan.
I think I will get a new pair of 138mm VCX cranks. I’m thinking that once I put cranks on the Schlumpf I don’t want to be changing them, based on the video by mindbalance.
I have a spare set of Kris holm 125/150 spirits, I think I can use as last resort, if I am really struggling with the 138mm but not sure if they will fit a schlumpf. The Q factor may be not good with 125mm hub.
By the way, hope you get a good resolution with your schlumpf bearings.
I’ve cobbled together a re-creation of @saskatchewanian’s now-classic table, and updated it for sickos tiny cranks and tiny wheels. Also added 32" wheels.
I was too lazy to recreate the individual color-range formatting rules and corresponding legend, but here is the google sheet if anyone would like to further improve it: unicycle gearing - Google Sheets
I don’t want to open up editing to the world but feel free to duplicate and modify
Thanks. Looks like 48" is missing from the table (geared 32").
The addition of 48 to include geared 32 inch mistakenly assumes that the gear ratio of the Schlumpf unicycle hub is 1.5:1. Same for other columns in saskatchewanian’s table such as 43.5 and 54. In fact the Schlumpf gear ratio is 17/11 which is about equal to 1.545. Therefore, 32 inch in high gear is equivalent to approximately 49.5 inch. Also, “geared” does not always equate to “using a Schlumpf hub”. There are (and were) quite a few custom (home-built) geared unicycles as well as the commercially available Hunirex, with a wide variety of gear ratios.
In my original post in this thread (from 2008!) I proposed a generally applicable formula, rather than a course, incomplete and somewhat misleading table. But then again, some people are like “Formulas? Aaargh!”
Yeah, I’m familiar with the formula of course and use it in the spreadsheet to make the table. The table is handy though as a quick reference when comparing different setups. I find myself digging it up pretty often both for my own usage and when discussion about wheel and crank sizes come up on the unicycling discord server.
Agreed that the table-approach falls apart a bit once you start talking about gearing, especially beyond the one “common” ratio provided by a schlumpf.
I added a “gear ratio” cell to the spreadsheet, and a completely separate sheet for gear ratio=1.545. I deleted the “virtual” wheel size columns > 36", though added 52" since that size tends to come up at least in my conversations (as one owned by a member of the aforementioned discord)
The cells that have gear ratio values smaller than 1 refer to setups where the cranks extend beyond the wheel radius. That would be a bumpy and impractical ride. Oh well, the other extreme in your tables (45 mm cranks on a Schlumpf-geared 52 inch wheel) is also utterly impractical.
I would say maybe from 1.5 even. The cranks actually extend beyond the stated length to the middle of the hole, and the width of the pedals must also be considered, when going fast or turning. I can confirm that this is an issue with 16"/150mm, which is “only” 1.35.
I have it on my bucket list to try out a ratio less than 1, and see if it is possible to ride more than 50 m without a UPD.
Correct. 1 is kind of a theoretical minimum, in practice the minimum is larger.
That’s interesting. I’ve seen a picture of a “zerocycle”, basically a unicycle without spokes, rim and tyre. “Riding” it might not be too difficult (I never tried), because it’s basically not riding but stepping with a weird gait. If the wheel is present but its radius is smaller than the crank length (like what you intend to try), it may also not be so difficult if you treat it like stepping with short riding transitions in between. If you would try continuous riding, that’d probably be hard - and bumpy for sure.
When the weather changes I plan to put the 45mm cranks on my 54 inch wheeled penny because… well… because.
Not for normal usage as I am not a complete madman but I have to try, right?
Do you ride your penny with a farthing or without?
I’ve been dreaming of having a ~50 inch unicycle myself some day I was thinking whenever the 64 hole penny farthing hub comes back in stock at UDC UK I’d order one myself. I’d probably just have it to look at it for a while, but if I ever find a frame builder here that’s willing to build me a very silly machine, well… I don’t think my wallet will be happy!
These could also be achieved in some sort of penguin/giraffe setup, like this one: 4 inch mini unicycle small unicycle chain juggling balance show clown - AliExpress 18
which I suppose implies I ought to extend the wheel size down to 4"
@unitortoise That gives me some serious Stuff Made Here vibes!
Indeed, you’re right