This thing is AWSOME.
I got the upshifts pretty good, although with 150 cranks I have to put my toes on the pedals so my heel can reach the shift button. The shift is a smooth transition into 1.5 mode and just tonight I got a few successful downshifts, the downshifts seem to be more difficult than the upshift.
Tonight I tried some shoes that the rubber soles were not so sticky/grippy and it definetely helped with the shifting.
Riding in 1.5 mode is sweet once you get in rythym, one of the adjustments that made the biggest difference of all in handling and ridability was done at the rail adapter seat mount, on my first couple rides I had the seat post clamped on the rail adapter approximately were a stock seat post would mount and just set the seat angle at the desired angle and it seemed to ride just like my other N36er which has same type seat mount but once I shifted I would have to pull up on the T7 handle so hard to keep balance my arms got tired, so I started trying a few things and the trick was moving the rail adapter seat post as far towards the back of the seat rail adapter as possible, now I can cruise pretty smooth once in rythym.
While out riding yesterday I was on a somewhat flat road and had a smooth rythym going and a road biker caught up with me and rode with me a short bit talking Uniās (said he rode as a kid etc) but before he rode on he said āDo you know how fast your goingā No ā17mphā Awsome ride.
The rythym of this thing is cool, know how when on a 36er and spinning away you wobble, well when in geared mode you dont do that, it is more of a relaxing sway from right to left with everystroke the motion kinda reminds me of skating.
Its funny how 17mph feels very fast on a regular 36er, but hardly feels fast at all on a v54! I had a similar experience last week riding around town.
I passed one of those radar signs that show how fast cars are going. I was just putting around, but the radar showed that I was going 13mph (I felt like I was going 8mph). I went around the block, this time giving it a little juice, and the next pass I was going 18mph.
I canāt wait til the KH hub comes out so I can build a shiftable 36/54.
I almost forgot, when first shifting into geared mode and if I power down on the pedals the Nimbus frame will flex causing the rear frame tubes to barely rub the tire.
a shiftable 36 seems like a pretty cool thing. I found that for almost all hills, a 36 is a great gear for climbing. That combined with the ability to shift up and crank away on flats/downhills seems like it would make a really solid distance uni.
Have you had any issues with the slight ādisconnectā between the wheel and the cranks introduced by the gearing? This is where I hear a lot of people saying gunis fall flat. I know that itās a lot easier to maintain a slow uphill climb on my coker than on a bike (the closest analogue I have to a guni, really) and that it feels like it takes incredibly little backpressure to stop a geared wheel short as compared to ungeared.
that said - Iād really like to have a schlumpf attached to a 36er wheel, it seems like something that would be worth experimenting with.
I have a harper-hub based 36er, which has some slop. The Schlumpfs have less. Some people who have ridden my unicycle have found the slop to be bothersome. Frankly, I completely tune it out. Itās more of a mental thing.
Once, I went from riding my v54 immediately to a Schlumf based 29er. After I rode it briefly, I had to get off to make sure it was actually geared up (it was)
How does going down steep hills with no brake feel on a 36" guni in geared mode? I would think that the downhills would hurt your legs more since it would take more to control and slow downā¦but I guess that is where a brake comes in handy. I was descending a long 8 mile stretch of 7-8% gradient on my coker the other day with 150mm cranks and my legs were definitely feeling the strain of not having a brake.
Iām not sure it really takes more to slow down, especially if you have longer cranks. Maybe a little more effort.
The thing Iām noticing is that fast isnāt scary. OK, it is scary because you know a crash will suck!
I did a ride this last Sunday with other riders, and blew past them on the downhills, including a Schlumpf 29er. It doesnāt feel that fast because youāre not spinning like mad. When my cadence starts to get high, I know Iām in trouble.
I didnāt have a cycle computer with me, but Iām guessing I was somewhere around 22 mph. I could easily have gone faster. Ungeared, I hit a brick wall around 18mph.
Mike conveniently omits that last weekend, he had his ungeared 36 and I had the Schlumpf 29er and I was blowing past him on the downhills.
Our RTL training is verifying my intuition on geared unicycles; the highest effective gear ratio is the fastest unicycle on flats and downhills. On uphills, itās more complicated, and also more rider-specific. On the Mount Diablo climb, I was faster on the Schlumpf 29er in 1:1 mode than any of the ungeared Coker riders, but itās not clear thatās a generalizable result. (Personally, I think it is, but weād need to do more testing).
I could definitely see how a 29er ridden by someone who is good at spinnig uphill could beat out cokers on an uphill run depending of course on the run and the riders
Iāve found the coker to be a nice gear for hill climbing in general though, and if Iām on pavement I can ride up all but the steepest of hills.
If the owner could give some technical info on the wheel, Iād sure appreciate it.
What is the depth of the alloy rim, i.e. from the outermost edge at the bead to the innermost, measured as a straight line height & not curving in? (Iām assuming itās not an airfoil rim, but if it is then I already know this measurement.)
What is the hub flange diameter, measured from the center of a spoke hole to the center of the opposing spoke hole (on the same flange)?
ā¦