I just went out and grabbed the wheel and the frame on my Oracle 29 and checked to see how much flex it had by pulling on the wheel and pushing on the frame, it flexed way more than I thought it should with not too much effort. I don’t think it’s the wheel, I could definitely see the frame flexing a great deal. Not impressed.
Good thing it has disc brakes, because it flexed way to much for rim brakes.
I used to ride the steel nimbus frame, it had very little flex.
I got it out on some of my regular trails today and practiced in front of my house, hopping curbs, idling, climbing, etc…
I did not notice that it wore me out much worse than my 24" and it climbs better than I expected. You just have to keep your momentum up. On the 24" I can often keep climbing even when I have to pause for a second at the end of each stroke. I don’t know if it’s the weight of the wheel, the higher center of gravity or the larger contact patch of the tire on the Hatchet, but if I lose momentum on it, that’s it. So overall, while climbing isn’t it’s forte, it’s not a total dog at it either and I was able to climb a few hills that are also challenging on the smaller unicycle.
Downhill is also manageable. You have to maneuver it very aggressively, but roots and bumps are less of a problem, so even though you sometimes can’t force it onto the line you want, it often works anyway.
What was a shock however was the camber. It was all I could do on some angled portions of the trail to keep it upright and I fell repeatedly in places I usually don’t. I found that grabbing the handle with the hand that was on the downhill side helps, but this is a level of camber that I have never experienced before.
Hopping is an odd one. For pogo stick style hopping where you just want to pause or turn 90 degrees, it excels. It’s bouncy, bouncy, bouncy. For forward hopping however, I think the size and weight of it make it less capable.
I’m probably going to continue riding it almost exclusively for the next couple of weeks and see if I can’t overcome the camber issues. I really like this unicycle however and I doubt I will be selling it in the future.
Good deal, sounds like a fun machine. Thanks for the detailed review, very helpful. I’m looking forward to future updates.
I think that all the issues you raise make it more interesting, different and fun to ride as it gives it character. How dull if every unicycle was effortless to ride and just rode in a straight line.
I also think it makes you a better rider and certainly keeps fitness up.
Imagine filling up a 4.8" wide tire with water for the ultimate fitness challenge!
Thanks for inspiring me to pull out my Hatchet and give it another try. I have a similar Hatchet with a 26x4.8 tire. I had the bearing caps too tight, and the brake was misaligned. Once I had those fixed I gave it a try on some local trails. I’m comparing it to my KH 27.5 with a Maxxis Minion DHF tire.
My experience was similar to yours. My uphill climbing was fairly similar, perhaps a bit less capable. I did rub my knees on the tire occasionally, especially uphill. Didn’t cause me much trouble, but the sound and feel was a little disconcerting.
I definitely had more of a camber issue with it. It felt quite squirrelly. This scared some of the hikers I passed as I looked a bit out of control. Uphill on a side slope was particularly challenging.
I’ll take the Hatchet out a bit more often now.
Interesting thread. Not sure if you mentioned @Duff but what is the actual 26x4.8 tire you are running?
I have been riding a hatchet for the past yearish doing something similar to you-see what pros and cons there are for switching to a fat tire for muni.
Most of your observations i can exactly relate to…right off the bat camber and autosteer were the most noticeable cons. The pros were how easily it rode over obstacles and the dampening/rebound characteristics of the large tire volume at low pressures.
Over the past year i made the following changes to my wheel/tire setup for muni riding (downhill and enduro)
Tire/Wheel
Overall Pros and Cons
Pros: Reduce rolling weight/mass, Reduce rolling resistance, Reduce autosteer, Increase climbing efficiency with the smaller diameter wheel, Increase agility with the 24" wheel and the 4" tire compared to larger width tires and larger diameter wheels
Cons: slower overall top speed due to reduced wheel diameter at the same crank length, slightly less grip in wet/snow conditions with the shorter tread depth, less attack angle than a 26" wheel/tire setup
There are also other factors the contribute to these aspects of riding too that can be adjusted like:
seat height (balance between control (lower) and pedal efficiency (higher)
crank length (speed vs power/control)
seat angle (climbing tilt and decent tilt)
crank and axle q factor (how wide your stance is)
Overall i have loved the Hatchet and i think i will keep it as my main muni unicycle for a while. I have a few things i still want to tweak but overall my setup feels pretty “dialed”
I changed my 26×4.8" 60 tpi tire to a 26×3.8" 120 tpi tire.
This transformed my Hatchet as well. Probably not as much as your 24×4.0 120 tpi tire but probably just a little behind yours.
The autosteer and off camber issues are drastically reduced now and the Hatchet feels more lively now.
I managed to do my longest non stop ride to date. I did 25 km in the cold winter weather (-8C to - 10C).
It was on the road and well packed trails…so no hard terrain.
Anyway i love my Hatchet a lot more now because of this tire change. And it still has that “Fat tire” look that first attracted me to get one.
Nice! from a width perspective the 3.8 and 4.0 probably feel almost identical. Are you running yours tubeless? what rim width are you running?
I’m still using a tube. I mounted this tire on the stock 80 mm rim.
I’m using the Maxxis FBR 26x4.8 that it came with. I’ve ridden a bit more since my last post and have since increased my tire pressure to around 15psi, or at least that’s what my Ryobi inflator indicates. At that pressure there’s a bit less autosteer and camber, but it’s also a bit less forgiving on small bumps. I can also slam it into bigger obstacles like curbs however without it hitting the rim. In order to overcome the autosteer and camber issues, I’ve taken to adopting a very firm grip on the handle and constantly keeping upward pressure on it. I also switch hands to generally keep the downhill side hand on the handle. Doing this I managed to ride a section of trail that I hadn’t been able to ride due to camber issues. In terms of climbing I still can’t match the performance of my 24", but it’s about equal to what my 27.5 with 145mm cranks could do.
I’m enjoying it so far and steadily improving and it definitely can do things that skinnier tired unis can’t, so I plan on riding it until I feel I’ve reached a plateau and then compare it to the 24" again.
One thing I’d like to stress about the Hatchet, I don’t find it significantly more tiring or fatiguing to ride than a thinner tired uni. When I go for my regular rides I don’t feel more winded afterwards. What really stands out is it’s disadvantage in maneuvering and staying upright on uneven ground and it’s advantage in rolling over obstacles and soft terrain. It’s a total tradeoff, but one that has advantages on either side. It just rolls over uneven terrain better unless that terrain tilts to the side or you have to turn quickly.
Same here I don’t find my Hatchet more tiring than my Nimbus 27.5 “.
The trade off is more comfort and stability.
But after riding the 4.8” tire for a while then switching to the 3.8" tire. I still get all the benefits as before but now the negatives like off camber and autosteer is greatly improved.
So i feel downsizing the width to 3.8" gives you the best of both worlds.
I’m still thinking about the Vee tire speedster… 3.8 for road riding
I may eventually go to a smaller tire on it, but I already have a very capable 24" muni so for now I’m mostly interested in learning firsthand all the pros and cons of a very big tire. Also, I can’t help but think that the autosteer, camber, rollover ability, etc… are all interrelated and part of a spectrum and that by going to a 3.8" tire you gave up some advantages along with the disadvantages. I’m not saying the 3.8 isn’t a more capable choice 90% of the time, but a bigger tire is simply going to have more cushion and flotation ability.
I do notice however that very few skilled riders seem to be riding on very fat tires on a regular basis and I’m sure that’s not coincidence.
The variables are for sure interrelated. so it depends on what pros you are looking to keep and what cons you want to reduce.
going from a 4.8 to a 3.8 will allow the uni to be more nimble and have a smaller width contact patch that will reduce autosteer and camber because less of the tire is on the ground. You will reduce the air volume by a factor so you may have to run slightly higher pressures than the 4.8 which will change the dampening/rebound of the tire when rolling over rocks and roots and such. the question remains how much cushion and float do you want without having a ton of rolling resistance and agility loss. it depends on what type of trails you ride. 4.8 on Black Diamond level downhill stuff would be hard because of the amount of lateral agility and control you need in my opinion.
Exactly. What I’m trying to determine right now is what my own capabilities are when it comes to managing a big tire like this and what advantages it gives me. At this point I think that many of my problems are due to unfamiliarity and my skill level in managing it is improving rapidly. I imagine that within a couple weeks however that that fast learning curve will disappear.
Top riders are usually riding fast in addition to hard. However, even if fat tires are now good, they are not the most suited for fast riding because of the bounce factor at some pressure.
However, some are quite light for their size (i.e. Schwalbe Jimbo Jim) or aggressive in their tread (i.e Surly Nate or Lou) so no problem riding hard with comfort.
It is a different way of riding muni that benefits a part of the riders population. Even if I could ride whatever size of muni, my muni ride has been 4.0 or more for years and I am not looking back (especially as choice and quality drastically improved since the first fat tire circa 2005 
).
I haven’t noticed that fat tires seem any slower. I think there is a bit more exertion involved with pedaling one, but relative to the greater exertion of climbing or standing to ride technical muni, I don’t think it is very significant. The real issues in my limited experience are getting that fat tire to turn when you want it to and keeping your balance while riding across an incline.
I think sometimes a bit of it is intentionally making things hard/interesting for ourselves.
I love riding the Holy Roller 24" tyre offroad. No it doesn’t grip or roll over everything like fatter/more aggressive tyres can but it sure is fun. At least on a 24" there aren’t that many local trails that I would find fun without adding some additional complexity.
That’s part of the reason I like freewheel too - it opens up a whole new line of thinking for old trails.