It’s finished!!! (pretty much). Today I finished building the wheel of my 24" custom muni. I only have one problem which is that the frame I had built has one leg shorter than the other. We temperarily solved the problem by using a cut up can to make a shim. Now the wheel is sitting straight, but I’m still disappointed. I’d just like to make the point one more time that the 24" x 3" Gazz is only 10mm smaller in diameter than a fairly large 26" tyre. This really amazed me. I think I will end up buying some 170mm Profile cranks instead of my current 150mm ones (that wasn’t my doing). I’m wondering how long this tube will hold up that I’m using because it’s actually a 24" x 1.75" tube! That’s the biggest we’ve got at the moment at the shop but I’ve ordered a couple of 24" x 2.35" tubes.
The tyre ended up fitting into the frame with about 2mm clearance each side. I’m pretty happy with this and I’ll still get the legs crimped to give me some more clearance.
Riding this machine is quite a bit different to riding a 20" unicycle as I’ve discovered. The first thing I noticed is that it’s really fast compared to my old uni. I left the shop after building it at 8:30 tonight and was riding around in the dark and I actually experienced for the first time what it’s like to UPD at about as fast as you can comfortably run. It makes the dismounts a lot scarier. I’m currently running 20psi in the Gazz and I weigh about 60kg. Is this alright or should I use less pressure? I’ve still got a long way to go until I feel as comfortable as I did on my 20" but I know it’ll end up being much better.
I was a little disappointed with my hopping height and length with the new uni. I’m hoping this’ll just be due to the lack of light, tyre pressure, and/or my ankle that’s still healing. I’ll get back to you with my results. Luckily, I took now some stats for jump height and length with my old 20" so I can make some comparisons.
There is one thing in particular that I find quite interesting. I also experienced this when I began unicycling and got over the problem quite quickly. When I’m riding my muni, I tend to be forced to turn my upper body (except the head) to the left and lean as though the saddle is further left than the bottom of the wheel. It feels rather awkward and eventually starts to hurt my stomach. Can anyone please offer some advice on correcting this. I suppose it’ll stop pretty quickly anyway.
This muni really is huge! I haven’t really seen people getting as excited as me about the size of the Gazz but I find it amazing. This said, The unicycle is still lighter than I thought it would be. I’ll measure it later on.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. Now I’ve got to get an early enough night to get up early tomorrow morning before school and go riding. Sorry I don’t have any photos yet but my neighbours just had a baby and I offered them my digital camera. Obviously they accepted.
As you can imagine, I’m thrilled. My quest is finally over (except for the paint job and seatpost clamp). Now I need a name for her.
Andrew