Hi all again.
So Im interested in buying a better, but still affordable unicycle than the old schwinn i just bought.
Only looking to spend up to $150.
So far what Ive discerned is that at my 5’5" and 130 lbs, for my purposes which include
learning to ride in the first place as a total newbie
still want the unicycle i purchase now to be useful, durable, in decent shape & enjoyable and somewhat versatile after ive become a more competent rider.
Useful for normal flat ground riding, with capacity for some tricks and off road riding to some extent. As in at least on bumpy ground, off curbs, grass, etc…
Cotterless crank arms.
Comfortable, wellpadded seat. which ive heard excludes Savage seats.?
Splined hub.
And no “lollipop…” Okay, what is a lollipop anyway? Sounded like it has something to do with the seat or neck of the unicycle? And why is the lollipop to be avoided? And what is it exactly? Any photos, so i know how to recognize it to avoid it when purchasing in next day or two?
I likely want a 24" unicycle, as my inseam from groin to ground is roughly 29"
Any recommendations?
Seems torkers are mostly sold in the few bicycle shops here in the San Francisco bay area where i live.
Torkers are a good buy in your price range. A lot of us who are newer to the sport started with Torkers. The LX is great for starters. 20 or 24" are fine.
Where in the Bay Area are you, if you don’t mind me asking? There are two pretty active groups centered around Berkeley and Santa Cruz.
yeah, torker, sun, or even savage unicycles are good, don’t even worry about lollipop bearing holders, they are just fine for a beginner unicycle, they only fail when you start jumping and doing tricks on them. for a higher quality unicycle they are poor; however, they are fine if you are planning on upgrading, many of the people here would be glad if they upgraded earlier, but upgrading is a good thing, because it leaves behind semi-rideable unicycles for new people to pick up and become riders with… wow that was a lot longer than i expected to write up!
anyways, good luck on picking a unicycle, and ride well.
-skrobo-
p.s. torkers are good, just stay away from the CX it is NOT WORTH IT at all, you will have a sore crotch if you ride one!
and a really good unicycle for the price is the nimbus, but i’m not talking cotterless like you asked… i’m behind the suggestion that you go splined if you go up. otherwise, just get a good seat, and maybe some pedals… is there anything else wrong w/ the schwinn?
A unicycle that is great to learn on, and yet versatile, doesn’t exist. I would say the most versatile uni would be a 24 or 26 muni, but they aren’t so great to learn on. A simple 20 " is the best to start with.
After that, you must buy more unis. Most riders here own more then 3. It’s a bit like golf clubs. There is no putter that will be useful later, on the fairway.
You must spend 80-120 ish $ to get an ok 20 " starter uni. If you have the money, buy a nice KH freeride seat for it. Don’t spend a lot of $ for your first uni.
Your second or third uni is the time to blow cash. You will know what you want by then.
A cheap uni is better then an expensive one in some ways. You can loan it to people later, as a learner. Even if you are rich, your friend may not wish to borrow your 400 $ uni. But if you tell them it was only 75 $ when it was new, they will feel ok taking it.
For a good starter uni, Sun and Dimension look ok to me. A nice seat will set you back almost as much as the uni, but it’s always great to have a great seat, and you can move it to other unis later.
This is a pretty good deal, because they will ship free. UDC US will charge about 25 $ to ship a uni, so getting free shipping with an 85 $ ride is a factor.
Honestly, I’d recommend a cool Torker DX or that splined Nimbus muni someone posted above. Both will be bombproof enough for you to lend to any of your friends, and, though you’d be spending $150 more on those than you’d spend on a cheaper, less sturdy unicycle, you’ll end up NOT wanting to spend another $260 to get one of the good unis after having already spent $85-100 on one you can do nothing on except ride around a parking lot. I learned about halfway on my friend’s Qu-ax Monster (24-inch MUni, a beastly thing), and bought my first unicycle, a Torker DX, after another couple months of not riding, and finished up learning and got decent on it. I never once used anything less than a full-fledged mountain uni to learn on, (so I don’t know why people are saying munis are hard to learn with), and I KNOW I’d have regretted buying anything less than the Torker DX once I took the plunge, because, even though I didn’t start out riding down stairsets and doing big drops, it wasn’t long before I was, and if I’d gotten a $100 starter uni, I’d have just needed to spend more to get the DX or something better. Even if there is a solid argument that you’ll spend longer learning with a muni, it can’t be much longer than 10%; I’d gladly spend an extra 10% of time learning if it meant I’d have a MUni right off the bat. Saves money, too! I find mountain unis EASIER to ride, because they’re so beefy and sturdy they tend to keep you up a little better.
Also, because my trusty ol’ DX was so strong, I never had any qualms whatsoever about loaning it out to people so they could learn with it. I told them, hey, crash it, throw it, kick it, do whatever you want; you won’t break it! And it never broke under anyone… except me, but I abused the ever living $#@! out of that thing . :)! Wherever it is, it still works just great, I imagine, but it was stolen a while ago, and I miss it!
For learning I think it’s silly at this point to buy anything other than a Torker LX 24" or 20". The 24" is more versatile; the 20" is better if you think you’re going to get into doing gym tricks. There’s no need to spend more than that for a starter, when you don’t even know how much interest you’ll have in the sport.
Although if you already have a Schwinn, you may not need to buy another uni right away; Schwinns are kind of heavy, but they’re reasonable unicycles for a learner. You may want to just learn on the Schwinn and then pick up another uni when you’re more clear about what kind of unicycling you want to do.
I’m not trying to knock nice fat tire unis. But my learning friends prefer the skinny tire 20 to my KH 20. I also remember my KH 24 was real hard to turn when I first bought it, as my second uni, about a year ago. Oh sure, it turns fine now, but for new riders, on smooth surfaces, a skinny tire is better.
Then spend 5 times as much and buy a KH or Koxx muni , once you are sure you are into the sport, and know what you want. Sun unis are well made and won’t break unless you try to do jumping stuff. If you get to that point, spend your money then, on something cool.
Buying a fat tire uni up front will actually slow your progress IMHO. Not that much, if someone loans you a KH 20 to learn on, that’s ok. But seriously, a skinny tired 80 $ Sun with a good seat is better. Fat tires are slightly harder for beginners, in my experience. So an 80 $ Sun is a wise choice, no matter if you are poor or rich. You will always want another uni LOL.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions! Very helpful.
I am right next to Berkeley, in El Cerrito. Great to know there are unicycle groups around here, as Id looked online for some local groups but did not find any yet. Do you know who, where they are and any contact or group meeting information for them?
Weird thing is again i never received any email notifications about any of your responses to my original thread question from uniccyclist.com .? Not sure why their new thread reply notifications are not working?
I think likely I am interested in the munis, at least for their durability / ruggedness. Yes, I would prefere to spend a little more to have a unicycle that Ill keep using and that is durable enough to hold well under strains of more rugged riding.
Though I have yet to be able to stay upright on the unicycle yet. Its been raining alot here when ive had time to get on it so havent done much since buying the schwinn, other than holding on to a bookshelf in my very tiny kitchen ( @ 3’ X 4’ open space ) to simply experience being on it and trying to feel how to stay upright. Definitely challenging at this point simply staying upright.
They is us. http://berkeleyunicycling.org/. Unicycle basketball every Tuesday night in Berkeley (if it’s not raining) is a great place to meet unicyclists and learn to ride; there are fences and rails you can work on.
-You cannot have cotterless cranks and a splined hub together. The cranks have to match the hub. This is a spined hub. This is a cotterless hub. The cranks have to match either of these, therefore the cranks are called either cotterless or splined alike.
As you may observe from the picture, the splined hub looks and is much stronger. Therefore, if you think you’ll ever be doing anything on your unincycle that will put strain on your cranks and hub, the splined variety is what you want.
I recommend you learn on the unicycle you have, if it is rideable.
Then, you can advance your skills on that maybe until it breaks, giving you time to save up for a torker DX 20" (assuming you’d be doing more trick-type riding) or a torker DX24" (if you were going to do more Muni/normal riding around). Obviously both wheel sizes can handle both styles, however each does their own job better than the other, if you get what I mean:p .
“You cannot have cotterless cranks and a splined hub together. The cranks have to match the hub. This is a spined hub. This is a cotterless hub.”
I would interpret “cotterless” to mean anything that doesn’t have a cotter. Note that in the links shown, they refer to the square one as a “tapered square” or something of the sort, not a cotterless.
That’s fair, though traditionally “cotterless” meant the “new” kind, which replaced the need for cotter pins. Splined came later. Words like cotterless, clipless and “unsharp mask” (for you digital photo editors) kind of suck when you get away from their original meaning.
That’s why a lot of us here say “square taper” when referring to cotterless. Nowadays you basically have a choice of cotterless or splined, which is nice as those are good and better. Cottered cranks and axles were always lousy for unicycling.
If you hook up with the Berkeley group, there are three main areas of riding: Basketball, MUni and road. For basketball, a 24" wheel (not knobby) is best. For MUni a beefy wheel is best and for road, you really need something bigger.
You mentioned you had a Schwinn. Why not use that to learn to ride on? Then you can invest in a nice MUni for the trails, and possibly either fix up the ol’ Schwinn for basketball, or buy another new unicycle later. That’s what most of us end up doing…
I don’t know of anyone sane who would refer to a splined crank as “cotterless.” That we refer to square taper cranks as cotterless is only due to the history of the one type taking over for the other–which happened some 30 years ago.
. :)! Wherever it is, it still works just great, I imagine, but it was stolen a while ago, and I miss it!
