Those who have been in this forum many years may remember my many tales of adventures on my various unicycles back int he day.
One of my favourite unis was dubbed “the Road Razor”. It was a standard early Nimbus chrome frame with a Y crown, red anodised rim, 110mm cranks and a Continental Gatorskin 700c x 28mm tyre. I loved the tyre, and rode many miles on it on and off road, and had some great adventures.
I then got above myself and had a custom wheel made up with a Mavic Open Pro rim. I tried that with various narrower and narrower tyres, eventually getting down to 700c x 20mm. With the fairly deep rim and the super-skinny tyre, I christened this unicycle the Bacon Slicer. I sold the Road Razor.
I grew tired of the narrow tyre bursting every time I hit a grain of sand, and eventually gave up and chucked a Schwalbe Marathon 700c x 35mm on the Bacon Slicer. Sadly, it became a bit of a “nothing uni” being neither as capable as my KH29 nor as challenging to ride as the old Bacon Slicer.
Today, I have put a new Continental Gatorskin 700c x 28mm on the Bacon Slicer wheel. That means the tyre I used to have but on the better quality wheel. It’s matched up with some very light 114mm cranks, a nice light original Miyata saddle and some light metal-pinned plastic bodied KH pedals. Early indications are that it will be fun to ride.
Thanks. Until Covid and lockdown hit us, I had got out of the habit of riding regularly and was just doing the odd 10”“20 mile ride every few weeks. Right now, I’m riding 2 or 3 times a week, even fitting in a ride after work.
I took Road Razor 2 out this evening on a regular local circuit. The tyre is smooth and almost silent on the road. We don’t have big hills locally, but it climbed and descended the steepest of them easily. I soon got into the old habit of “fencing the trail” rather than “bludgeoning” it as I would on the 29. On the way back, I was riding rough ground into the teeth of about a force 5 wind, so that was entertaining. All in all, a pleasant hour or so. The tyre has converted a dull unicycle into a joy to ride.
When I rode my skinny wheel it was a 27x1-1/4 at 120 PSI and my other unicycle was a 26x3. Very different beasts. You definitely need to pick your line more carefully with the thin tire. My favorite was in spring when the ice would start melting off the road leaving skinny melt-water paths carved into the road with solid pavement underneath. It was also fun cutting through slush that would otherwise completely bog down a wider tire.
With @Mikefule and his “Road Razor II”, @unibokk with “The Unibokk Sprint” and of course @GizmoDuck with “C3”, I am getting a little jealous of this skinny wheel action.
It’s a shame you can’t buy unis like this direct, without doing a wheel build.
It’s quite a specialist taste. A skinny uni does less of the work for you on uneven ground. I would not be surprised if unicycle.com would make one up for you for a small fee. I bought a cheap frame and a hub then got a local bike shop to build the wheel. Everything else apart from the rim and tyre is standard uni parts.
Makes me want try a skinny tire! I finally got used to running my 32” at high pressure. I hated the small contact patch before but i now appreciate the benefits of low resistance so a skinny may be fun. Gonna start rim shopping for a good deal
