Just a normal Nimbus ISIS hub.
Rob
Oh okay. UDC(US) has the Nimbus ISIS for a litte more than twice the price of the Super-Wide Hub.
I wonder if they are going to make that rim in black
That’s odd - they’re about the same price in the UK (only £1 difference). Perhaps it’s a cock-up on the UDCUS site?
They already do. There’s a choice of black or white.
Rob
OK, Roger’s spoke supply arrived and I got my wheel yesterday.
Haven’t had time to put it on the unicycle yet, but here are a couple of pics of the wheel FWIW. It’s certainly noticably lighter than my old wheel. I’ll weigh them when I’m doing the swap and see what the actual difference is. I’m guessing about 400-500g (the spokes alone save 200 I think).
Rob
I built up my 36er today and weighed all the parts as I swapped them over. The new wheel has saved a lot more weight than I guessed. For anyone who’s interested:
Old wheel (Qu-Ax steel rim, 12-gauge spokes, UDC extra wide hub): 3125g
New wheel (Stealth Pro rim, 14-gauge spokes, Nimbus ISIS hub): 2155g
Old cranks (steel): 685g
New cranks (Qu-Ax aluminium): 325g
Tyre (TA with about 2000 miles use): 1990g
Frame/saddle/seatpost/brake (Qu-Ax steel / KH Fusion / UDC 22.2 steel / bmx calliper with Tektro lever on steel bar end): 2670g
Forgot to weigh the pedals. They’re just standard DMR V8s (with pedal protectors at the moment).
Overall saving: 1330g, more than twice (almost three times) my guess, and all from the wheel.
I’m now starting to think I should save some weight from the saddle foam and bar end (it’s a REALLY heavy cheap steel one, but swapping it for a light one wouldn’t really make that much difference - I’ll probably cut the foam down a bit though and flatten the profile slightly while I’m at it).
I haven’t ridden it yet - might ride it to work tomorrow.
Here are a couple of pics of the complete machine (sorry about the quality - it was raining and the light was a bit funny):
Rob
Was the old one 48 spoke?
I rode the new wheel to work today. Not at all sure if I like the 125mm cranks (I’ve always used 150s before) and because of that it took me 10 minutes longer than usual, but apart from that it’s nice. I’ll give it a bit longer to get used to the 125s, but I think there might be a bit too much cross-country on my route for those cranks - they’re OK on the road (although my top speed went down from 15.5 to 14.5mph because it felt so unstable, but hopefully that will improve as I get used to them), but on the gravel and grass on the moor they’re really quite nasty. I had to walk one stoney downhill section that I normally ride. And I missed every other freemount 
But it’s the first time I’ve ridden a coker on anything other than 150s, so I’ll give it a chance. I’ve got a pair of 145s as well, so I may end up using those for my commute and keeping the 125s for pure road riding.
Rob
EDIT:
No, 36. Qu-Ax made an exact rip-off of the original Coker with 36 hole steel rim…
I ride 125/150 dual hole KH cranks and as you have an isis hub I highly recommend them. I am also with you that 150s are very comfortable because I live in the mountains, however I like changing over to the 125s for longer distances.
first picture almost looks like a 29’er.
why is it so clean and pretty! crash that thing a few times at high speeds and dirty it up!
I think 36" wheels look more impressive when they’re set up for shorter people, with a lower saddle. With loads of seatpost showing you lose the sense of scale. Those rocks in our wall are pretty big as well, which adds to the illusion… it’s definitely a 36 though, honest :o
I’m not ridiculously tall though - a bit under 6’2", with slightly short legs for my height (I wear 32" inside leg trousers).
Rob
Heh, funny you say that…
I took a nice fall just yesterday when I hit a pothole I wasn’t looking for :). I’m okay though, just a few scratches. The T7 got a little banged up.
I rode 15 miles on Sunday and another 15 on Monday this week - My first decent rides on the new rim. It feels excellent. Powering up hills has never been easier. The best part is how much easier the overall handling feels. It’s much more nimble of a ride.
Give the 125’s some more time. My guess is that you’ll end up liking them a lot more. I went from 150’s as well and also felt a bit unstable at first. But once you get the feel for them, it’s almost as though hills get easier (?). Maybe it has to do with the extra speed you can pick up with them.
I’m going to try 114’s next. The wobble in my wheel at high speeds is starting to bug me.
I can see myself getting to like them on the road, but for my half-xc route to work I think they’re a bit too short. I’ve never been much of a road unicyclist anyway - that’s what bikes are for! That’s probably why I’ve never really become comfortable at high speeds on my coker - my top speed is around 15mph; any faster and I feel really unsafe. It amazes me how people manage to ride at 20mph without crashing on every tiny ripple in the road.
Actually the climbs weren’t too bad on the 125s - I almost made it up the steepest bit of my route (about 1:6 for nearly half a mile, with little bits probably 1:5), and I only stopped because of a horse in the middle of the road. I think I could have JUST made it to the top if I’d had a clear run, but there was no way I could mount on that hill (I can’t do it on 150s either). Downhills are a completely different matter though - utterly scary (and the new rim/brake block combination hasn’t bedded in yet 
)
Rob
I agree. I’ll get a brake sometime in the future. I hate downhills.
Just thought I’d post an update after a few more days’ use.
I put the 145mm cranks on and they suit me much better for my usual route - I think it’s just too rough and hilly for the 125s, at least until I get MUCH more used to them on the flat first. I also changed the brake blocks (cheap ones that came with the BMX brake) for some decent Aztec ones and the braking is now extremely smooth and controllable, meaning I can ride faster down steep hills without the feeling of losing control.
The lighter weight of the wheel is very noticeable, making the unicycle feel much easier to ride and balance, especially on the rougher parts of the route.
An unexpected bonus is that I really like the reduced Q of the standard width hub. I had a super-wide hub in my old wheel and was a bit concerned it might end up too flexy with a normal one, but I wanted to use ISIS cranks so it had to be a normal hub. I know a few people who ride normal width hubs with no problems, so decided to go for it. Wheel flex is no more than my old tank-like wheel, and the narrower Q feels really nice to ride (it’s actually even narrower than my muni because I’m using QuAx straight cranks). I didn’t think I’d notice the difference (it’s only an inch narrower after all, and I’m quite tall), but I’m sure it feels better.
So, overall I think it was a very worthwhile upgrade. I’m still no sprinter on a coker (although my top speed has been up about 1mph to 16mph on the new wheel), but my actual average speeds and journey times have improved noticeably. Now to find somewhere flat to get used to those 125s…
Rob
I would not mind having the pedals less apart. My 36er has the super-duper wide hub mainly because I belive the size craves it. If someone can convince me that the wheel won’t become weaker with the normal hub I will relace it. I just hurled my (very) Q-ed quax cranks into the lake (yes, figuratively). Having to pedal in cowboy-fashion is a nuisance.
The wheel is certainly slightly stronger with a wider hub - nobody can deny that, it’s just a fact. But I reckon it’s strong enough with the normal width hub, and if the spokes are nice and tight the flex isn’t bad either. I think the people who complain about wheel flex are mostly using Magura brakes, which needs to be set up quite close to the rim. With a caliper brake the pads can be set up much further apart, so brake rub isn’t a problem. I can JUST get the rim to brush the brake while honking it up a really steep hill, but it’s really not a problem. I swapped to a normal width hub on my new wheel purely because I wanted to use ISIS cranks, not because I was unhappy with my old super-wide hub, but since I’ve had it I do like the feel of the lower Q. You could try some straight cranks on your existing hub - my old hub with straight cranks had about the same Q as my muni with ProWheel cranks. My new ISIS hub with straight cranks is considerably narrower than the muni.
The longer your legs are, the less you should notice a given change in Q, but I’m fairly tall and I’m sure the narrower hub feels nicer to me.
Rob
I have another reason to downgrade to normal hub - my spokes are a tad too short for the airfoil rim. A smaller hub would get them a little further into the nipples. But on the other hand I have maguras and the reason for me upgrading to airfoil, super-duper hub and nimbus frame in the first place was that the brakes were chafing the rim. So I better brood some more on the matter before I take any action.
Only by a miniscule amount - probably hardly noticeable.
You’ll certainly get a bit more flex with a narrower hub, leaving the rest of the components the same. With the amount of clearance you get with Maggies (i.e. not much) you may need to keep the flex to an absolute minimum, which means using a wide hub. All the people I know who use normal width hubs in cokers have caliper brakes, so I can’t comment on whether it can be made to work satisfactorily with Maguras.
If you’re not using straight cranks then just doing that would be an improvement - as I said, my setup with super-wide hub and straight cranks was no wider than my muni with ProWheel cranks. I don’t think I’d be desperate to swap to a narrower hub if I wasn’t buying a new wheel anyway, and given that you use Maggies I’d say the extra bit of stiffness with the wide hub probably outweighs any benefit from the Q reduction in your case.
Rob