Looks great! I’ve always loved the way the Maxxis logo accompanies the blue KH frame, super classy.
How did it ride? I just bought a Kris Holm 29er and am not sure what modifications to do first.
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Yeah, not sure if it anecdotal or not but carbon absorbs vibrations better than aluminum and it does feel a bit more smoothe than the aluminum rim.
The weight savings are nice too. And I find you can get a carbon rim from Nextie or Light Bicycle for cheap but they are well reviewed. Just check if it’s hookless or not as hookless rims need tubeless tires that are more expensive.
I tend to already get higher end tires for my uni for the weight savings and performance though.
Here’s a few:
The “Front Collection”. (Parental Discretion Advised: Some bicycles are visible in this image): These are the ones that get ridden “more” than the rest. In the back you can see the A-frame of my 9’ giraffe, which is disassembled; a future paint project for some living room art. Also back there are my 45" wheel, my old Coker, my hand-cut Ultimate Wheel and a bunch of others.
The “Museum Collection” (pictures below). These are mostly for show, or otherwise seldom used. Most have a story or something interesting about them. From the left:
- Two Univega unis, early 80s. These are basically Miyatas with Univega stickers (reversed colors on the one with the plastic bumpers)
- Oxford (1970s), from the garage of Bill Jenack
- Loyd (1960s), with original seat. Found this on eBay. Loyd Wicker Smith sold/licensed his frame design to Schwinn around 1967; that’s where the Schwinns came from
- OGK (1990s?), Japan. Another eBay find, from a seller in Connecticut. Probalby moved to USA and their little girl brought her uni with them, only to find out unicycles are waaay less common in this country! It has a built-in kickstand.
- Pro (1970s), Japan. Bought this for $15 from a newspaper ad. It had no seat, but for years it was my Handlebar uni.
- DM Ringmaster 20" (1990s), on loan from Bronson Silva
- DM ATU (1999-early 2000s), with upgraded Fireball tire, also on loan from Bronson Silva
- Columbia (1970s), 100% made in the USA!
- Original Semcycle (1985), with fully radial spokes
- First Miyata Unicycle in the US (1978) Predecessor of the Miyata Deluxe models, that were very popular through the 80s and 90s, this was in the collection of Bill Jenack. They sent it to him to promote the brand. It’s pictured in a 1978 issue of the Unicycling Society of America Newsletter, being held by Michelle Cline of the Jenack Cyclists
- My original purpose-built Muni (1996), I tried to squeeze a 26" mountain bike wheel into a 24" Schwinn, with a lot of tire rubbing on the flexy frame
- Langenberg, Germany (1982 or 3), made exclusively for gymnasium use
- Chris Reeder Trials Uni (circa 2000), Trials wheel, square taper Taiwanese hub, reinforced seatpost. I think it also had a Reeder handle on it
- 20" Schwinn (1970s), This was one of two of those that won the gold medal for Pairs Freestyle at Unicon I
Better views of the above, left to right:
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Here’s the rest of the so-called “Museum Collection”
Left to right:
- 20" Miyata Deluxe (circa 1984), Yes, in those days they all had 24" frames! This was my Freestyle uni for medals at Unicons I-IV, and almost Unicon VII, but the frame broke and I had to borrow one for my Freestyle performance there. I replaced the frame, but soon after that got my custom-made Wyganowski-framed Freestyle uni, which I still have. It’s heavy, but extremely sturdy!
- Roger Davies carbon fiber Muni, sith ThudBuster seat post (1998), This is the only one to have aluminum pins holding the tubing in place. Awesome, super-light uni, but only fits “skinny” tires
- A cheapie (1970s), This is from the time period when people would “find” unicycles for cheap, or free, and give them to me. Nothing special, but at least it has air in the tire!
- Troxel P.O.S. (1970s), This is the one you hear me disparage when talking about learning to ride. Plastic tire, tricycle “wheelset” nylon bushings instead of wheel bearings, short cranks, high Q, little plastic pedals (mine never came off). The best feature on this one is the long seatpost, which allowed me to have it at an appropriate height for my 14-year old size. Same seat as the one next to it, which was not bad considering the short amount of time you would be on it
- DM ATU (1999). This was the first unicycle you could buy with a splined axle. David Mariner is the DM, and ATU stands for All Terrain Unicycle. You can see Kris Holm taco the wheel on his in one of his early videos, riding down a stairway railing. It’s a sturdy beast!
- 24" Concord, Japan (1970s). I bought this at my local bike shop in 1980, used. Never rode it much, because I already had a Schwinn; it was meant as a backup or learner. Good solid uni for its time, except for the seat, which was bendy crap
- Iverson (1970s), another cheapie from a garage sale or similar; don’t know why I kept these. Air tire, Messenger saddle (better than most)
- Handmade 5’ Giraffe by name slips my mind at the moment of Wichita, Kansas. Bought this one from Tony Blanco, a professional performer in the NYC area in the early 90s. I’ve kept the fat, yellow tire, but not repaired the flat. The wheel appears to be fairly bulletproof
I’ll try to fill in the missing bits later, but I’m not at home this weekend. I’ll also try to fill in the rest of what’s hanging in the other part of the garage…
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So the fleet has changed a bit, but I’m down to 2 unis, and 4 wheels:
Carbon 29" Duo
Finally got all my parts for a carbon 29 x 2.6, and a 700c x 45c build. Both using lightweight carbon rims, TPU tubes, D-light spokes, and the lightest tires I could find with some tread.
The 700c uses an aluminum hub for further weight savings, it will be paired with custom 90/114/140 VCX cranks. 100/125/150 on the 29".
The 29" is currently 11lbs on the frame. The 700c saves 2lbs of wheel weight and makes the whole uni under 9lbs.
Both are for unipacking and being my commuter Unicycles depending on terrain, with the 29" also being my winter commuting wheel.
I find my control has gotten really good so massive weight reduction will hopefully help me get up from 15/16 kmh average to 18-20 this season hopefully.
Both have matched pedals, seat post collar, and nipples in red for the 700c and purple for the 29
Because I found I never use it, and for ease of swapping wheels, I’m going brakeless on both these set ups. If I’m in a hilly area on trips I’ll have extra crank holes for them.
24/26" build
Built as a travel uni but I’ve been using my 24" quite a bit this past Canadian winter (24 x 2.8" tire)
I noticed some extra room in the frame so I built a 26" wheel with some cheap parts and put some 75mm cranks on and this thing flies.
It’s great for going out to the stores or mixing with transit. I’ve been doing closer to home unipacking trips this winter so the small wheel is nice to add a bit of extra ride time.
With both unis being really quick to swap the wheel between I think it will be fun to play around with depending on the terrain, trip distance, but still having the ability to do muni on the bigger wheels if needed.
Air saddles on both as well for extra comfort.
The 26" and 700c builds will definitely have their limits in terms of how rough of terrain I can use them on, but for my light gravel/road riding that takes up the majority of my riding I’m hoping good things and high speeds with the tiny cranks 
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Hi Denny,
welcome to the online unicycle community.
Where is local for you?
Dawson
I live in Durango, CO. Was on the board in earlier years as Carey but forgot my log in stuff.
How about you?
DW
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I sure wish these came in a 36er. Nice Hatchet.
Hey Denny,
ja, I live in Calgary, Alberta. And I get the login shcmogin stuff. Password management is a tricky bit in our society for stuff we do online. So, I guess welcome back is more appropriate.
I currently ride an international “uni-beast” Qu-ax 26" (frame from Quebec), saddle from Costa Rica, Hub from UK, rim from my garage, tire from a local online deal, magura brakes that I bought from Germany, and a handlebar which I have modified from a Mad4One saddle handle extension (from Italy).
At this point I mostly use it to commute, but I haven’t done much snow riding, so in the winter I just ride my bike to work and back. I have been working on trail riding, but I haven’t been able to master dropping, nor hopping over obstacles. Work in progress. I’d like to work on Mountain Unicycling this summer, and a distance goal is a 58km ride in one go (with stops is ok).
Ah, I guess I blathered on a bit.
Dawson
I rode this 29er in the Iron Horse Classic where cyclists race the old train from Durango to Silverton. My goal was the first 10 of 50 miles but I went on to ride 15. Too hard for me to freemount anymore I turn 72 this year.
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Wow, thanks for that. So, my 58 number that is my goal is because I am 58 this year. Obviously a goal like that gets more difficult each year. Ha. I didn’t make 57 km last year, but I think I improved a bit anyways.
Cheers!
75mm cranks on a 26" without a brake!
How’s stopping?
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I ran 75mm on a 24 for a while with no brake and yes slowing down was hard, especially on hills (of which we have a few around me). Like you I think a brake on a 26er setup like this is the way to go unless it is really flat everywhere.
So if I’m going full speed 16kmh+, I have to jump off the back and put most of the energy into my feet to stop. Generally though I’ll ride to the terrain and stopping isn’t too bad. If there is pedestrians or a stop or something unknown coming up I’ll slow down a bit preemptively, but generally can stop within a few meters of most objects.
Tiny cranks are sorta my think so I’ve been riding 100/90 on my 29" for years so a lot of it carries over. My city has lots of small hills too so a brake hasn’t been needed in most of my riding. Not to say it’s a flat city, but the hills are really only big enough to be a bit of extra effort to get up.
Short cranks I’m on board with, as my 36" has always had 110s (as the shortest Spirit cranks made), but for me the brake is an essential part of the short crank package.
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That’s right. I also ride my 36 inch uni with 117mm cranks ans i don’t want to miss my Magura MT 7 Pro on the Uni. I ride in a city with much traffic and i’ve often pit stops for cars, people they standing around or other rhungs where you can’t go fast with the Uni. Most of the time i ride very slow because there’re steep upgill and downhill and bad conditions to ride, loose plattes or something else it doesb’t make fun to ride but the other option is walkimg and i don’t want to walk to my work the 3 km one way.
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Same it’s 13km for my each way and it’s sooo much nicer than a bike or bus
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I’d like to give credit where credit is due. Any of you that unicycle 13+ km or 8+ miles each way to/from work have my respect. Last weekend, I completed my longest ride ever, and it was 8.1 miles. And, I didn’t complete it quickly enough for it to be considered as a commute to/from work.
As one biker called out to me while passing me as I was mounting my 36”, “Respect!” .
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program of admiring each other’s unicycles…
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