A few weeks ago I asked some questions about assembling a 29" unicycle for road use and recieved a lot of usefull advice about components etc. (http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31611)
During the thread a few people suggested that I should post an update to let people know how I got on. Now its together and I’ve had a a couple of rides on it and its still in one piece so here we go with the review - if anyone want to ask any questions about it then jsut shout them out and I’ll try and answer them all or if any one has any thoughts on possible improvements let me know those as well
The Machine
Starting from the bottom:
Unicycle.Com wide crom-moly hub(36 hole).
Stainless Steel double butted spokes.
Sun CR-18 700c rim.
QU-AX 127mm cranks.
VP (Shimano DX copy) BMX pedals
Schwalabe 2" Big Apple tyre
Nimbus X 28" frame
Kris Holm saddle
The Thoughts:
I started out on the project wanting to build a wheel and combine it with something that I could get a few miles in on the road at a sensible pace. I built the wheel up with a standard 3 cross pattern - was quite a straight forward pattern after I’d got the lacing pattern sorted. Putting the rest of the machine together was relatively simple with just a bit of seat post trimmming required and everything was assemble with a good application of copper slip
In Action:
My first thoughts are that its so fast! compared to my muni with its long cranks the short cranks and big wheel /smooth tyre of the new uni are very fast - mounting took a couple of attempts again, the whole feel was so different but once used to that its a joy to ride - my two outings so far have been 4 miles and 9 miles and have been averaging about 8mph but thats with stops and a few UPDS thrown in.
Going down steep hills is quite a challenge but I can seem to get it up some fairly sharp rises without any real problems. The only area where its not been ideal ( and this is more down to my lack of skills/ability than the unicycle) is on a half mile stretch of farm track / bridleway on the 9 mile ride - Once off road there was almost no way my skill would let me ride it - on the uneven flat I couldn’t easily get it going and once I did then the short cranks didn’t really give me enough control to negotiate the single track with any confidence. However, the other benefit of the new uni is that its light so it was simply a matter of chucking it over my shoulder and running that bit till I got back to the road.
So in summary, its an absolute dream to ride and the satisfaction of putting it together myself was well worth the effort - Possibly in the future I may upgrade the frame to a custom frame and was wondering about the possiblity of using a frame that would take a 36" wheelset so I could simply swap the wheels over depending on what I wanted to ride - has anyone had any experience of this? So my plan now is to get a load of miles in and see where that takes us - Once again thanks for all of the advice that was offered when I asked the original question
Cheers
Roland
