Nimbus Monster for snow riding?

looks heavy

I rode one for a few minutes… It’s really hard to turn because the tire is too fat, also it’s pretty heavy… got for a Surly Larry!:stuck_out_tongue:

The rim is weak from what I’ve heard. Lots of threads on this already, including one I made a while back I think (and was consequently told there are already threads on this)

anyway, probably fine for riding around in the snow, but nothing too heavy.

Looks cool as hell. Based on the price…I don’t think we’re dealing with the kind of uni that can do the things that you really would want to do with a uni like that. Not for long, at least. Do you know of any stronger uni’s with…4 1/2"…tyres?

honestly, if you want a strong uni with a tire that wide, get a surly large marge rim, and

. . . someone around here has a picture posted of it. . .

sew 2 tires together, and keep most of the tred from each, so it makes the tire wide, I believe he did it for that exact application (snow) and you could potentially put a 4 1/2 inch wide tire on a large marge rim, IF you can get it to seat properly, which is debatable. Even then, you’d have trouble finding a frame. Plus the tire would be so tall and wide that your legs would be stretched out.

I would have expected that a tyre as wide as that would be the least suitable for snow. I think it would slip and slide all over the place.

I also get the impression that this tire would slide around. This wheel is built for show, on a chopper-style bicycle. I don’t think it would be good with abuse.

My major snow riding experiences are with 24 x 1.75" tires, many years ago. You can have a blast in the snow, but you get what you get in terms of traction and flotation. I would definitely go for a MUni or Trials uni for best snow performance. And traction.

Having once watch Zyllan, when he was about 12 years old, ride a DM giraffe down the same slope as kids sledging, I would not dismiss a standard 20 inch tyre for snow. Maybe the high pressure contact helps.

When I was younger, I had a Jeep that was set up for trail use. The best tire set up for deep snow was either very wide (35 or above) with very aggressive, widly spaced tread and low pressure (Super Swamper Boggers with tread like a farm tractor) to “float” on the snow and still dig in for traction, or super skinny (27 or 29") with regular winter tread and high pressure to “cut” down through the snow for traction on the ground below. The skinny tires had to be very tall though as not to snow-plow with your frame.
The tire in the pic seems to have neither of these qualities. I don’t think it would do well in snow, but it probably would do fairly decently in sand.

That appears to be what used to be called the Boomerang. I bet unicycle.com just gave it a new name to boost sales. If you search for “Boomerang” you will find lots of comments from people who’ve ridden them.

All show, no snow.

Like the guy with the jeep, we want big wide high flotation tires to stay on top or tall skinny tires to cut through the snow. I would not consider anything with a wheel smaller than 26" for snow riding, even if it had a 6" tire, it just would not have the angle of attack of a larger tire. 26x3 is good, 36x2.25 is also good, and if conditions are right 27x1-1/4 can be a blast.

I am the guy who sewed two tires together. I haven’t been riding them this winter because A- I haven’t had the time or energy to go riding and B- I sold the frame that can handle the extra width but a new one is on the way.

I’m not sure that Juggleaddict thought of you. Your project is/was to sew two tyres together to get a larger diameter than the source tyres. The way I read it, Juggleaddict referred to cutting two tyres “lengthwise” and keep most of the tread of both, in order to create an extra wide tyre. He might be confusing things though, as I wouldn’t know who has made a wide tyre this way.

this is what he was thinking of. I have also made a couple 29" tires like that.

I never connected two tires end to end so to speak but would one day like to attempt it with a couple rims. This is where you might have gotten that idea.

Yes indeed, and somehow I had picked up the idea that you had also made a test tyre already. But I don’t know how I got to that thought, I’m apparently totally wrong - my bad. Cool projects BTW!

thanks : ) been looking for that photo

I got a Sun XL yesterday, which is pretty much the same idea as the Nimbus Monster, and tried it out on the snow and ice. Here is what I noticed:

1.) Basically it is a gimmick, but still A LOT of fun.
2.) The larger wheel is very heavy and if you are only used to riding a normal 20" will take some time to handle. You really have to use a lot of power on it.
3.) The wheel is super grippy and rode across both rough and smooth (like glass) ice with very little sliding problems.
4.) For packed snow it did great. Most of the bumps and divots are absorbed by the tire allowing you to just ride.
5.) On fresh powder you will get stuck. Well not stuck but you will get tired before 5 minutes are up.

I hope this helps. And I bet there are at least a hundred better ways of riding on the snow or ice, but as for the Nimbus Monster or Sun XL they are not ideal for new snow.

Bad combo, wide tire and small diameter, probably dig a hole and get stck, then due to weak rim it woudl not be suitable for hopping.

If you wanna ride snow, get an LM and a Larry. I’ve been riding snow on my Larry for a couple months now, does extremely well, makes all things possible even slimey mush. It’s my go to muni when conditions are less than ideal, also greatfor general muni.

If I didn’t already have a Surly Karate Monkey, and I lived in a climate with much more frequent snow, I’d totally get one of these. These Surly Pugsly’s have been ridden the length of the Iditarod trail (many times over) so they have proven to be the ultimate snow bike, thus half of one, i.e. a Large Marge rim with Larry or Endomorph tire would be the ultimate snow unicycle. To see these bikes in action checkout the Iditarod Trail Invitational (my dream race, on foot)…

A LM and a Larry cost a good bit more than the Nimbus Monster, before you even buy the rest of the unicycle.

Wow fat tire! Look like hard work on snow! I am sure some kind of tire would do well on snow! I like to try on snow! Weather reported said that right now is 71 percent of USA have snow! That’s a lot of snow… almost every states except Florida! I know one member of this forums live in Key West, Fla… lucky!