So I gave away my daughters beat up old Miyata 24” unicycle to her best friend that was moving out of state and then found out that it was a treasured possession of my daughter.
It’s going to be pretty big for her and I will have to cut down the frame to about 2” above the crown. Then I’m going to disassemble and strip the entire thing down and paint the frame, rim and hub with 4 color green paint, Chromacoat Range - Cus I think the shifting colors ought to make it pretty cool for a 9 year old. I’m going to put 125mm quax cranks on it as that will make it both faster and will let me cut a little less off the frame. I’m debating whether I want to paint the cranks or not. They’re kind of a high wear item and I’m not sure the paint will hold up well on them.
The saddle will be the air saddle in the picture. She’s been coveting it. I’m going to bolt a set of bicycle aerobars to it, as she likes handlebars and that will keep things light. Lastly, I’ve got a like new 26x2.35 Big Apple on a mountain bike of mine that ought to make it roll pretty fast.
Well, we had leant it to her friend for several months already, it was in pretty rough shape and her friends mother was terminally ill, so I just told her friend to go ahead and take it with her when they moved.
Yeah… get your daughters permission before even considering giving her stuff away next time.
My mum gave away one of my dresses to a cousin, and I only found out when I said I couldn’t find it… it was a special Chinese style one that looks great on me.
Anyway, we got it back…
As to the new uni, does she want it painted?
And, I’d go with trying the original tyre first, I had a Big Apple tyre on my 29er and it was horrible.
She’s in Japan currently visiting the inlaws, so she doesn’t even know I’ve bought it. When she gets back I hope to have it all fixed up and ready to go. And her friends mother died 4 days ago, (never smoked, stage 4 lung cancer, early 40’s), so I don’t feel too bad about giving her unicycle away. It was one of those things that I could see coming and at the time I just wanted to do something nice for her friend. My daughter has a unicycle crazy dad who will build up a new unicycle for her. Whatever trauma she has to deal with, her dad giving away one of her toys will be nothing compared to her friend losing her mother.
I looked into camber issues, and from what I can understand its the different curvature of the tire as it rides on an angle. A BA tire has a very curved profile, so as you ride on an angle I can definitely see how it will pull to the uphill side. On the other hand, they roll beautifully and are fairly lightweight and puncture resistant. I’ll see how she likes it and if she thinks it sucks I’ll put it back on my mountain bike.
From what I’ve read, some of the camber issues can be resolved with higher pressure. She’s pretty small and likes a much lower pressure than I do though so we’ll see how that works out. The tire that’s on there has an extremely square profile, so although it may be heavy it shouldn’t be camber sensitive.
I definitely wouldn’t bother painting the cranks. The factory paint only lasts a short while before I wear it off of a zeroish q crank and silver matches the spokes anyways.
I could see the color-changing paint on the frame, as the sun hit it while the frame was moving. Just a quick glimpse, but it looked like it turned out just as it should have. Just like the rotating model shown in the link you provided. I’m sure she loves it!
