Right 36er it is, no more changing my mind!

Right after flirting with a Guni idea the sensible option is a 36er

After a nice chat with Roger from UDC it seems my fears about a 100 mm oracle disc hub on a 36 makes for far too acute spoke angle and a poor wheel, on top of that there is big demand for 36" builds so they are out of spokes :frowning:

The good news is I have been offered a Triton frame 36" for a good price so will have to live with an external disc or maybe stop being be a tart and run a maggy rim brake as I was hardly upset by the performance of them when I used them.

Need to get a Waltworks tyre ordered as well, has anyone got one shipped to the uk yet?

Still mulling other parts at the moment but it will probably be a big version of my 29er

so initial thoughts

Triton 36" frame
kh36" wheel
Green d-brake
green echo seat clamp
Impact Naomi saddle
Waltworks tyre
29 inner tube
165/137 spirit cranks
Nuke proof electron pedals
hope / clarke 2 piece green rotor
Shimano brake
CF seat base

And so the build starts, no going backā€¦

ā€¦ hmmmm Guni Muni :stuck_out_tongue:

I must say I am jelly.
I totally want a 36er for my second uni. Iā€™ll be scouring the used section for months to come to try and find a used one for decent. Have fun!

Get the 36" Oracle with the Oregon hub.

Why?

  1. you can run low q cranks and have the same width as a standard uni with Moments/Spirits or you can run medium to high q cranks and adjust the fit and stability of the uni
  2. you can run a hub mounted rotor and choose any crank you desire
  3. the uni comes built and ready to ride, warranty as well, plus the Oracle frame is likely lighter and stiffer than the Triton.
  4. itā€™ll be cheaper in the end.

Not to start a debate over aluminum vs Ti, been there myself, and Triton is a good product, but Ti is flexy and aluminum is less flexy, so on such a big frame Iā€™d go with aluminum.

But of course you have Ti envy, I can sense it even thousands of miles away, so go ahead, do what you gotta do :roll_eyes: but Iā€™m telling you, the extra wide hub is the way to go, it makes a huge difference for seat comfort and off road stability. I had a KH 36er a while back and it is not even in the same ball park.

I know Roger would take care of you if you wanted the Oracle 36 wheel rebuilt with the stronger Oregon hub.

Otherwise your build looks sweet :stuck_out_tongue:

Frame material is pretty pointless for most people coming from years of bike riding and arguments bike.de di a fantastic blind test on a range of riders on covered up bikes of all materials with the same equipment and nobody could select which was which. All the ā€œsteel is realā€ crap did my head in, for me Ali wins due to weight and price, Ti is a bit more ductile at the same weight hence they tend to be a bit more heavy but I grow tired of chipped scuffed paint so a natural Ti finish looks good for decades and is a bit of eye candy but totally frivolous I agree

Right I may have changed my mind again :stuck_out_tongue: Just about to go for a dawn ride on the 29er and just thought how perfect it feels and how it will still be my 90% riden uni with my big street 24" next so spending Ā£1000 on a 36er seems crazy.

The money my mum so kindly gave me was a special Christmas treat due to a family death and specifically to treat me for something Uni related so where does that leave me.

Now I am thinking if the 29" seems my perfect ride then maybe a custom Triton 29 with no maggy mounts, left side disc mount cable clips in a 125mm bearing width for an Oregon hub and a slightly wider height crown to take a Knard tyre with good mud clearance!

That would get used massively and be something special to reflect the special gift of money.

Now you have to be behind that Ben even in crap Ti :smiley:

I have a 28, 29 and 36.

No doubt about it, the 29 is more versatile.

No doubt aout it, the 36 is more fun in a range of circumstances.

If you want to ride for an hour or two at a time and cover more than 10 miles in an hour easily, ride on and off road, and feel that you are on ā€œthe real thingā€ then a 36 is the only thing.

If you want to ride tougher cross country and Muni, or transport your uni easily, then the 29 is the better option.

Had a fantastic ride on the 29er reaffirming my view that just getting a spangly frame for no real reason for my beloved 29er maybe the way to go, but the damage my Hans Dampf tyre is taking from the sharp rocks I ride makes me think the Knard 3x29 will be killed so fast and is not grippy enough for the muddy sections.

So maybe just a normal width Triton with a left disc mount is all that is needed?

Anyway itā€™s academic at the moment as Dmitry kindly got back to me and is snowed under for the next few months so is unable to take any new orders :frowning:

Seriously does nobody want my money :stuck_out_tongue:

36ers sold out everywhere, 36er spokes sold out etc etc

What a position to be in

I donā€™t think the Knard will be the best traction wise either, but it should be good. The casing durability is a bit of a concern since it is such a light tire.

The concern about traction is the muck is valid with the 29er. The selection of tires available does not lean toward good ONE wheeled traction. The Continental Mountain King 2.4 is great on bikes for getting about but a horrible muni tire due to squirm of the knobs and the casing weirdness.

Iā€™ll say it again and wait for others to shoot me down: The Dissent is heavy, but it has traction. Iā€™ve raced somewhere around 15 or so MTB races on it (most in the 10-15 mile range) on my KH 29. Itā€™s the only tire Iā€™ve trusted in the slop on the 29.

The sidewall casing has a bit of a weird transfer towards the bead. Proper pressure is critical. The casing has held up well to rocks. Iā€™ve heard people complain of the pull, but sometimes that traction keeps me from going down in the off camber muddy bits.

Iā€™m not arguing against the Hans Dampf. I havenā€™t tried one. Iā€™ve been happy with the Dissent and have 2 more in the pile. Iā€™ll pick up a Knard as soon as I can. The Dissent doesnā€™t slow me down.

A 26" wheel has a MUCH better high volume BURLY tire selection. 29" downhill 2.5 tires just arenā€™t out there. The drawback to the 26" is that it is definitely slower when chasing bikes.

Based upon your posts Feisty, you will be disappointed with the gram counting on the Dissent.

As far as the high traction, burly, high volume tire end of things go, I donā€™t think we get all 3 without 1000g+ weight.

I loved the Conti Rubberqueen (same thing) on my 26" and killed that within a few weeks on the flint stones.

The high volume of the Knard is what is interesting but as well as the tyre eating flint on the dry sections the mud is mad for most of the year so the mild tread of the Knard would just slip all over the place.

If you havenā€™t tried the Hands Dampf you owe it to yourself to give it a go, decent volume, wide light (800g) and gripy as anything gets without being too squirmy. The armored sidewalls is a bonus and stiffens the light tyre up nicely. There is even a Gravity (Downhill) version where the Snake Skin armor goes over the whole tyre and doubles up on the sides although it is abut 1000g I believe. The only issue people seem to have is the price which is just normal for me coming from bikes.

I donā€™t think anyone goes back from a Hans Dampf :slight_smile:

mud small.JPG

Since you have all the other sizesā€¦a 36er is going to make the most unusual ride, other than that I suppose a guni is the next step :roll_eyes:

I love my 29", it has been my go to wheel for a couple years, never lets me down, only seems small when Iā€™ve been riding the 36er a lot. I donā€™t know that anything can really make a unicycle ride less like a unicycle; i.e. comfortable like a bike, but a fat tire can make a big difference in terms of ride quality and ā€œforgivabilityā€

If you get a chance to ride a fat tire like the Larry, the first thing you would notice is that it rolls over everything and is not ā€œdistractedā€ by terrain, so it is more stable and more comfortable to ride. The downside of the fat tires is that 4" of rubber is heavy and has a tendency to go straight and it can be a lot of tire to manage at low and high speeds, so not the greatest tech tire. But to be fair, the fat tire craze developed out of snow/sand riding, so they are not supposed to turn quickly or go fast.

The Knard 29 x 3 is going to be light and narrow for a fat tire, 850gm vs 1200+ gm for the lightest 4" tires, so it is not a true fat, but it is enough extra that it could make a positive difference. The casing is pliable and resilient, Surly knows what they are doing, so I wouldnā€™t worry so much about cutting the tire on rock. Think of the Knard as a super fat and more durable version of the Racing Ralph.

In terms of traction, no tread really matters when it gets slimey, so really when we talk about traction we are looking at dry traction and edging on semi firm conditions. The Knard is not going to be a carver, it has a rounded profile and a soft casing, so completely different from a Hans Dampf. Dry traction is going to be great, the tire will conform to hard surfaces and friction well, just like the 4" tires. In terms of speed, the tread will be faster than chevron treads, so easier riding that requires less effort. I expect it will also have less autostear due to being narrower and lacking chevron knobbies.

For me, the Knard is going to be my distance rider over varied terrain, cushy and stable to take the edge off the ride and let me relax more. It will also be my snow and mud rider when I donā€™t need a super fat tire. What the Knard wonā€™t be is a fast DH carver, for that Iā€™ll hold onto my Hans Dampf. Depending on how it rides, I may build up a super light wheel set for the Knard using a P35 and a 32 hole Oregon hub, but first I gotta see how it spreads out on the Dominator 2 rim.

Josh at UDC USA rode a Knard 29 x 3 for a couple month, then sent it to Roger at UDC UK for testing and specing the Oracle 29 frame. Before riding the Knard Josh rode a Gazz 3", then more recently a Larry and a Nate, but after riding the Knard he said it would be his go to muni tire. I know Josh, I know what he likes and how he rides, if he liked the Knard that much, itā€™s going to be a very good tire. I have a Knard on order, Oregon 29 wheel is already built, only four weeks until it arrivesā€¦a late Christmas for me :smiley:

You have a lot of unis, so you pretty much know what you like. If youā€™re looking for improvements on the 29", then a wider spaced hub and a fatter tire are going to be the biggest changes you can make outside of adding a Schlumpf.

As for the 36er, pretty much everyone needs a 36er, and thatā€™s all Iā€™m gonna say about that :stuck_out_tongue:

That picture of the muddy road, is that what you ride? Yuck! That is a mess, more like a bathtub of slime than a proper double track, you all need to work on drainage!!

If I was heading out for a ride on that road, Iā€™d take a fat tire because it would motor through the mud and it wouldnā€™t care about holes and unseen irregular surfaces, but all that weight would be tiring, so for a longer ride on a muddy road Iā€™d go with the Knard or a 36er if I could find a line that was not taking me through potholes. I think you would trash a Schlumpf riding that kind of mud and water all the time, esp. If you are already trashing regular sealed bearings, but there are others who would tell you to go for it.

That was an extreme section to be fair but it is pretty mushy in parts but it is solid underneath as the whold down land is a lump of chalk and flint so where it runs off it is fin just in the lower parts or place were water collects the surface bud turns to slop so a knobbly tyre works well to dig in to the harder surface. In the valleys where there are rivers that ges very slippy and again big knobs are a must. The attached pictures are the more tame bits of the hills which you can see rolling off into the distance

I use a similar tread patern on the knard on my MTB (lots of smaller lowere blocks and they do work well in the dry but where I ride they pack out and turn into a slick in seconds.

I have been riding these trails for 22 years (21 mtb 1 Uni) and have used a fair few tyres

The Conti Rubber Queen and Schwalbe Hans Dampf have been by and far the best

As for Unis I need every permutation known to man I want to ride a 36 and I want to try all sizes of Guni but I havenā€™t that sort of cash at the moment :stuck_out_tongue:

In reality I donā€™t need anything new, my 29er is technically perfect I have a sweet 19" Trials and 24" big street / Muni so a 36" would fill a hole but having a young family I have very little time to ride any more Unis (not that it stops me buying them :p.

So basically I want everything, but canā€™t afford it and donā€™t need anything, yet being a tech/kit junkie I love buying new bits and trying them out :stuck_out_tongue:

That clears things up :wink:

DSC00465.jpg

downs.jpg

thoes are wiled! why dont you get a oregon?

Photos always make things look flatter, but to me that territory looks perfect for a 36er.

As for the young family factor: Unis are great for riding with kids when they start on bikes (Kris Holm pointed that out to me, and as usual heā€™s right).
So get them going on little bikes, and youā€™ll have a great excuse to ride!
Having kids also should reinforce your conclusion to go with the 36. Kids are more impressed by the 36 than any other uni. So are adults, particularly the female variety. :slight_smile:

lol was waiting for that I donā€™t tend to stop half way up a hill to take pictures :wink:

Tell that to Pamela Sue Anderson.

Feisty, Up until a few days ago I was set in my ways. Uniā€™s and Bikes were for the road and 4x4ā€™s were for the mud. I had to see what all the noise was about so I threw a Walmart 2.25 MTB tire and 150 coker cranks on my old Torker LX 26. Played around for a couple hours this morn. on mud, gravel and such behind my house. It was an absolute blast. Nothing like road riding at all.
Coker for riding to work and another for Muni. My point to all this is, if you are limited and canā€™t own them all (like most of us), then own the variety. In your case I say go for the 36. You know a 29 hands down. That 36 will be able to do something unique to itself the 29 canā€™t. Anyway thanks for opening my eyes to a different style of riding, even tho I will have to upgrade soon I can tell.:smiley:

jona
How did you fit a 2.5 into the LX frame? Was there about 1/16" clearance? Iā€™m asking because I had to shim mine to fit a BA 2.15.

No it has 1/4 inch or so on the sides. the top clearance was my concern with a little less than a 1/4 inch. This is a cheap folding Chin Sing tire so I donā€™t know how the measurements compare to better tires.

Newobā€¦that was a 2.25 in the torker not a 2.5

Yeah, those pictures are showing some really sweet 36er riding, esp. that dry ā€œfaintā€ double track, you could haul arse on that trail, just forget about a guni you need a 36er!!

Oops, right, thanks for the info jona!