I am planning getting a 36" Unicycle soon, and I like the look of the new Qu-ax 36" on Unicycle.uk.com.
I read that it didn’t have a braking surface, so brakes are going to be out of the question. Does anyone have one of these? Is the hub good, or would I be better getting a Unicycle.com 36" instead?
The Qu-ax has an aluminium rim, and ISIS axle. Is the wide hub, and option of a braking surface of the Unicycle.com 36", worth the weight of a steel rim?
UDC also sells an aluminum rim that can take the wide hub and has a braking surface, similar to the Qu-Ax rim but called an airfoil…did you already know this and just don’t want it? or did you only know of their steel rim?
Well, sure the aluminum rim costs more than the steel rim, but on UDC US you can get the “Deluxe” 36" with the aluminum Airfoil built into the wheel. I assumed it was the same on UDC UK, but after a quick glance at their site…I guess they don’t…so you’re right.
I’ve got one and Dustin Schaap has it also (he had probably the first one )
I can provide you with some images of the rim if you want. I suppose the problem with brakes is due to the side of the rim
being not straight (it’s rounded a bit inward) so the brakes wouldn’t probably work correctly. Here is the close-up of the rim. Mind, that this perspective makes the inward rounding even bigger that it is in realilty.
I’m not the authority on 36ers, but from what people said I deduce wide and extrawide hub were invented only to make
the wheel less flexible. Now, since the Qu-ax wheel has 48 spokes and there is probably no need for wide hub as it’s stiff
enough already (I suppose… I had no comparison), am I right? Plus, narrow hub gives less wobble.
If the 48 spoke rim really does increase the stiffness comparably to a wide hub, I’d think it could be rather awesome… The wheel might be heavier, which is not so good, but having a narrower hub is supposed to improve the achievable cadences.
I think udc uk will sell you a uni with the airfoil rim if you phone em up.
With the wide hub thing, a narrow hub doesn’t make much difference if you don’t run brakes anyway.
The Qu-ax is 48 spoke though, which is a downer, because it means you can only ever upgrade to qu-ax parts, as the standard for all other parts is 36 spokes.
I wonder if that curvature is too deep to shape some Magura brake pads to match it? It sure would be cool to have that Isis hub with some Isis double drilled KH cranks.
The problem with that is that is it’s even slightly off true at any point, or the bearings or wheel has any wobble in it, you’ll get very uneven braking.
If you really want the double-drilled cranks, you could use the UDC isis hub or the KH isis hub on a normal coker anyway.
It looks great, I can fit a V brake to it with adaptors, and if I want I can upgrade the rim in the future. That was a good point that if I went for the Qu-ax, I would have to use Qu-ax parts.
Why the v-brake over the maguras? you can get them dirt cheap (like £10.50 for the set on my N36) on ebay and you’re going to need some fairly specialist v-brakes to clear over the top of the frame.
A UDC 36" with a calliper brake may be a better option, and a cheaper option. I have a few weeks to decide.
I don’t really want to go down the Magura route for a 36" unicycle, I will only be using as a way to slow down on hills, not hold the wheel firmly stopped as you would with a trials unicycle.
The UDC 36" is out of stock just now though, I wonder if it will be back in stock soon?
Actually, trials unicyclists don’t use brakes…only trials bikers. Mostly muni riders use Magura brakes for descending hills and stuff, and I believe they use Maguras not for their stopping power (you don’t want to lock up the wheel on a unicycle, for obvious reasons ) but rather because V-brakes can’t fit around a 3" tire.
They’re fine to use on a coker, if you’re careful about applying them, they don’t lock the wheel.
I don’t know if I will use a brake anyway, it my be fine with out one.
I am planning on using the unicycle for a local duathlon next year that I normally do with a road bike, and it has a few decent hills to descend. I will try it without first.
Like I have said, I have a few weeks to decide which unicycle to get.
All this feedback helps though, I would never of thought about the frame fouling a V brake on a Nimbus, but it is quite obvious now. This forum can be a big help at times.
)
) but rather because V-brakes can’t fit around a 3" tire.