I have been riding a Unicycle for over 12 year. The past couple of years I have not even touched it though. As I was about to leave for a climbing trip I discovered we couldn’t bring mountain bikes. So I busted out the unicycle which had been hanging on a hook for awhile. While not climbing on the trip I was riding my uni. First time ever taking it down dirt trails. Its a blast! Found a Slickrock style granite playground! Well, this is where im getting…
My old Uni is an old Zepher (?). Beginner street uni. Im sure it will break if I keep this up. I want to get a new dirt uni. Nothing too pricey. Maybe $250 max. What size tire am I looking at? Brands?
Could you guys help point me in the right direction to get on the trails!
If you’re a “real man” the direction is up! Down is for posers, or for people who rode up first.
The wheel size you want is either 24" or 26". 24" usually means a very fat downhill tire (that measures close to 26" anyway); very strong but not very light. Nowadays there are more and more great choices for 26" wheels as well; lighter and still pretty strong.
From there you just need to shop around and choose a vendor/brand. I’d start a unicycle.com.
Like usual John is right. I really like the 26x3 size but it is pretty much the heaviest setup you can get. Since you have a mountain bike you can experiment with the various 26" tires you have for your bike but I think you will find that at the very least you will want a 2.3 or wider for unicycling the trails.
The Nimbus unicycles are generally really good value. Both the 24 and 26 are a bit over your stated budget but it is not like they blow it out of the water like a KH.
I think I’ll go for the 26" because I got some buddies that own a Mtn Bike shop and I could get hooked up with tires. How many coponates are interchangeable from Bikes to Unis? I know the frame, seat, seat post, hub are not. If I was going to put together my own MUni could I use Mtn bike tires, rims, cranks, and peddles, spokes? Am I missing anything?
I have both a 24" (3.0 tire) and a 26" (3.8 Larry tire) uni. By far, I spend most of my time on the 26" set-up, the effective diameter is actually slightly bigger than a KH 29" wheelset. I think the only time I will be on my 24" Surly set-up is for technical muni/off-road trials type of stuff where hopping and sketchy balancing is involved… probably just because I have the 24". If I didn’t, I’d use the 26" muni.
You can use mtb tires that are in the >2.4 range. If you look at dh tires you should find something. There’s a good thread that reviews various tires.
Spokes are spokes, so as long as they are the right length you’re good to go.
Most mtb rims are 32 hole, so that will limit the choices a bit unless you go with a 48 hole uni hub in which case you can use a 32 hole rim. You will want a really wide rim. Something like a mtb stock trials rim would be appropriate.
Cranks could be used, but you will have the spider on the right side. That’s not a big deal, and if you want you could hack saw it off. Or, you could get a crankset with a removable spider.
For pedals you want something with good grip. BMX platform pedals are the norm for MUni.
It’s fun to build one up, but when you add it up I think you’ll be surprised how close the price will come to just buying a Nimbus.
I find myself looking at trials bike websites for good unicycle parts. they have the wider rims and shorter cranks than standard mountain bikes.
3.0 is the standard for mountain unicycling tires. We don’t necessarily need tires that wide but the cush factor of those wide tires is really nice since most don’t use suspension. I have used tires down to 26x2.3 for XC rides and they have worked quite well.
One of the parts of a unicycle that most affects how it rides is its rim. If you are going off road go wide. Wider than you would normally consider. 47mm is normal, an Alex DX32 is considered narrow.
I have 160mm bike cranks on my 26" MUni but I would suggest getting a couple pair of Qu-Ax or Nimbus light ISIS cranks in different lengths to see what you like. When you find what you want then spend the money on good cranks that can take some heavy pounding. Just to give you an idea I like 160mm when using a 26x3" tire but will go down to 145mm when riding a lighter 2.3" tire. 150mm is probably a good starting point.
Forget the price of a Nimbus, my pieced together unicycles often cost more than a KH. But then I am using KH quality parts.
This is good info! Im thinking im just going to save a few more pennies and buy the Nimbus 26" MUni Cycle. I was doing the math and It does save much at all… Plus Ill get free shipping. I was also thinking a cheap alternitive but wont last long is Torker LX 26" and put a MTN bike tire on it. I know it will break but It will get me going sooner. If I stick to the sport Ill upgrade. Any input on that?
Personally I’d just go for the Nimbus, but if you’re fine with riding the LX until it breaks and then spending an overall bigger amount of money, that’s your choice.
I do dig the sport.
I’ve had my Uni for 12 years but has been collecting dust for a few years. I spend a lot of my time in the mountains and never thought about bringing it until my last trip. It re-sparked my flame to uni mountains but not for streets which my old uni is for.
I went with the nimbus 29" and love it so far, the extra speed is nice on long rides! Although it can be a bit much when the trail gets narrow and twisty, because I am learning speed control yet and the extra momentum seems to send me off track…
And the 29" tire can climb over obsticals a bit easier.
the sad part is, it’s almost double your inital spending limit at a staggering $429 bone stock Maybe I should just spend the $ and have bryce get me a set of brakes to fix my momentum issue?
Getting crappy equipment then upgrading will end up costing you more and you will be spending all that time riding crappy equipment… get yourself a decent uni.
on the subject of brakes. generally I ride without but there are times when they are more than nice, almost necessary. (CMW comes to mind) I would get comfortable riding everything without the brake then add it once you have the basic technique down.
I would half-heartedly agree with this statement. I thought the same way until I knee-jerked and bought a set of maggies for each of my unis (except for my trials) from Bryce… After I installed them and got used to engaging them while keeping my balance, I can say that they helped me progress.
I am now able to more smoothly ride downhill on a greater variety of terrain and my distances have greatly improved on my 36-er because I am not frying my legs on downhills. That being said… I live on Mt. Tabor, a descent size hill so the closest trails are not flat and most of my road rides start or end with some climbing. I can truly say that having the brakes helps me to progress… I can’t necessarily say that not having them would be better or worse, I just know that the learning curve smoothed out quite a bit after I learned how to use my brakes.
I am not saying that people should not use brakes. I think that they can help in almost every situation where gravity is greater than rolling resistance.
It is just that it can be a whole new skill to learn and maybe you shouldn’t be trying to modulate a brake the first time that you try riding down a rough slope.
The reason that I don’t usually use a brake is because it is fairly flat here (it is Saskatchewan after all) and I haven’t gotten around to fixing my Maguras which have both sprung leaks.
Maybe I should just spend the $ and have bryce get me a set of brakes to fix my momentum issue?