I was thinking of doing exactly the same thing a few weeks ago (UDC UK had Hatchet frames but no complete hatchet unicycle at that time) and I spent a bit of time looking for 36 hole rims. Things seem to have definitely moved to 32 hole.
I ended up on St John Street Cycles website, where they have a bit of choice of 36 hole rims for both 26" and 650B. I didnāt look at what widths of tyres youād get away with on any of these rims.
There are some Mavic and DT-Swiss rims there and stuff at various price points. Interestingly I spoke to a guy from DT-Swiss on a trade stand at the Fort William MTB World Cup Downhill at the beginning of June and he said they didnāt do any 36 hole rims. In the end I was thinking that I might just go with a Dominator 2 rim.
I havenāt actually done anything about this yet, I stalled on it when I saw they had fully built Hatchets in stock, but I didnāt really want to spend that amount of money.
Iāve been looking at exactly the same and couldnāt find an alternative to the Nimbus rim that seemed worth deviating from unicycle specific components.
So, I got the Nimbus rim and 125 cromo hub, got Sapim strong 2.3-2.0 spokes and laced the wheel last weekend.
Worked a dream, very easy to build a well dished wheel (for a fat rim).
Thanks DRD for the links which I will have a better look at later.buying a full hatchet sure is a lot of money but hopefully by building it I can save a little and I enjoy building my unicycles.
Hi tinkerbeau thatās great to hear you did what Iām hoping to do,did you go for 26 inch 36 hole nimbus dominator plus rim then and where did you get that from as unicycle.com have frame and hub 36 hole but no fat rims ?
How about buying a 32H hub and get the full choice of rims? As long as you are still in the EU, buying in Germany is as easy as buying in the UK for you. Just a few days longer delivery.
The unicycle world should definitely move on to 32H hubs. I favor Q-Axle and there are no 32H hubs at all available. I also have a Hatchet and could replace the original 26-inch 36H ISIS wheel with a Q-Axle alternative but QU-AX does not produce 125mm-wide hubs eitherā¦
Depending how much youāre willing to spend, there are fat carbon rims at www.lightbicycle.com that give you a choice of hole counts - I think there are a few people who have built these into Hatchets to good effect but they do cost quite a bit more than an aluminium rim!
I initially started off with the notion to build with a carbon rim, just for the sake of it really, and looked at the LightBicycle rims (after seeing Ali Clarksonās YouTube wheelbuild video using them) but thought Iād need to get a custom drilling for 36h. I saw that you had built a wheel with a carbon rim and was going to ask you what you had done. Iāll maybe look at this again now, thanks.
I did wonder about just going the 32h route but thought that there was probably a good reason why there werenāt many 32h unicycle hubsā¦ Iām sure a 32 spoke wheel would be more than strong enough for me but it was just one of those doubts that lead to further procrastination (and thinking that sticking with a Dominator rim was probably the safe bet).
A good motivation for 32H rims would be the possibility to purchase good quality tubeless rims that are easy to set up with a tubeless tyre. The Hatchet original rim is a pain in that regard.
Has anybody got experience with the tubeless setup on this rim?
I asked unicycle.com US about it, who Roger from UDC UK thought knew about that, but they suggested 32 hole rims ?!?
I have the wheel built up but am away on holiday now (with a conventional 26 uni in my suitcase) and will try to set it up ghetto with a 24 split inner tube when I return. Would be nice to hear of any experience beforehand as the rim definitely doesnāt look anywhere near tubeless ready and will probably need padding up to help seat the bead.
How did you manage it, Aali, even if āa painā?
I totally agree that a 26 fat rim these days should be tubeless ready.
The only alternative I know of, the Weinmans, are also not. I had them on my fat bike and replaced for DT Swiss rims (32H).
Having said that, the Dominator is of course a perfect match for the Nimbus fat hub; the offsets are alike so that the whee isl symmetrically laced.
I got on very well with 254 mm spokes on both sides.
In hindsight, though, I wish I had bought the 125 Nimbus hub in the 32H version so that it fits āproperā fat rims ā¦ i might still do that if I canāt set it up tubeless ā¦ and find out if 32H is strong enough for my 100kg.
Has anybody got experience with the tubeless setup on this rim?
I asked unicycle.com US about it, who Roger from UDC UK thought knew about that, but they suggested 32 hole rims ?!?
I have the wheel built up but am away on holiday now (with a conventional 26 uni in my suitcase) and will try to set it up ghetto with a 24 split inner tube when I return. Would be nice to hear of any experience beforehand as the rim definitely doesnāt look anywhere near tubeless ready and will probably need padding up to help seat the bead.
How did you manage it, Aali, even if āa painā?
I totally agree that a 26 fat rim these days should be tubeless ready.
The only alternative I know of, the Weinmans, are also not. I had them on my fat bike and replaced for DT Swiss rims (32H).
Having said that, the Dominator is of course a perfect match for the Nimbus fat hub; the offsets are alike so that the whee isl symmetrically laced.
I got on very well with 254 mm spokes on both sides.
In hindsight, though, I wish I had bought the 125 Nimbus hub in the 32H version so that it fits āproperā fat rims ā¦ i might still do that if I canāt set it up tubeless ā¦ and find out if 32H is strong enough for my 100kg.
If you drop them an e-mail with a rim from their website and ask for it with 36 holes, chances are theyāll do it, or at least recommend one they can do 36 holes in, but it looks like at least some of their fatty rims can be bought right off the site with 36. Mine was off the shelf and didnāt have anything custom about it, but they did ask me if I needed the holes offset in a specific way or anything like that (I mentioned using it with a disk brake, but as Schlumpfs need the EDB style rather than hub-mounted there was no dishing) so presumably a different number of holes isnāt out of the question!
thanks for all your help and links,i am just adding up costs and wether to order just hub 32 holes from germany and then frame and few other bits from the uk or just do all from germany.my frame,hub,seat and brake mount comes in 13 pounds cheaper all from germany.
ive not decided fully yet on which rim but currently thinking of using a dt swiss br710 26 inch 80mm 32 hole, is that a good choice or any recomendations ?
I can only report my experience with the DT Swiss rim for a normal fat bike.
It was easy to lace into a straight wheel, and it seats tubeless tyres really easy. Iāve used both Maxxis Mammoth 4.0 and On One Floater and can get them to seat with no problem at all. I also run the Holy Rolling Darryl, which I thinks doesnāt seat the beads quite as easily but, with what looks like less drastic cutouts, maybe it is a bit more durable for unicycle use?
I do not run a fat tire, but have ridden tubeless for many years on Mtb and now run tubeless on the Muni. If you are planning to go tubleless, I would choose a closed rim. That is easier to seal by rimtape.
I now have hub,rim and have ordered my spokes so hopefully I have done my measurements correct so I can build wheel up then get some photos up of my build so far next choice is which tyre!
So, I finally have it all together, with some pre-existing parts added to a new frame, Nimbus rim and the 36H hub.
Given that the rim is not designed for tubeless, I went with a Jumbo Jim liteskin that I had and am running this tubed for starters because I am keen to take it out. Maybe at a later point I will try to set up the Nimbus rim tubeless ghetto / split tube with lots of padding. Iāll try to post a photo of the rim only with the rim tape to show the amount of padding that would be needed to raise the centre section of the rim for easier seating of the tyre.
I needed to apply a sheet of 5x30mm rubberish straps (do not know the proper term for it, a link to the site I purchased it https://www.puuilo.fi/epages/puuilo.sf/fi_FI/?ObjectID=1905559) on either side of the rim for the tyre (Jumbo Jim 4.8) to be snug enough. In addition to the gorilla tape I applied first of course. Has been holding up very well and it was easy to inflate the tyre after the rubber straps, just using a normal floor pump was enough.
next choice is which tyre!