Short(ish) cranks convert here

Isn’t a 24” cheating with 89mm cranks? I think you should step up to a 48” wheel .. uhm 36”

Whenever you feel the need for breaks just put on even shorter cranks allowing you to pedal smoothly at a higher speed

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Agree, I noticed multiple times how my cadence got up once I engaged the brake. It‘s easier to push against a brake than to backpedal. I need more reserve without a brake, but with a brake I know I‘ll be able to stop even when riding closer to my limit.

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Yeah, @ruari told me about your riding habits. I don’t think I’m as fearless as you are. :innocent:

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My first unicycle was a Club 26” that came with 150mm cranks. I rode that way for about a year or so until I decided I’d like to change things up a bit :cowboy_hat_face: I can’t remember if it was reading here that prompted me to try shorter cranks, or if it was browsing the unicycle parts section of UDC. Anyways, my first pair of cranks I bought was 125mm for the 26er. It took me a while to get used to it, but after a while I realized there was no way I wanted to go back to 150mm (at least for road riding).

Since then I’ve gathered many more unicycles and played around with different setups for almost all of them. I like to ride my unicycles from point A to point B so most of them are running shorter cranks

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Ready to reconfigure my unicycles. 89mm (just because I was ordering anyway, not using them for now), 100mm for the 24’’ and 114mm for the 29’'.

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So it is time to use the 89mm. I can’t believe they are comfy to ride with.

I’m using 80mm on the 20, 114mm on the 28.
Both are good combos.

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You’re absolutely right! Surely such enormous cranks are untenable for the casual rider. Personally i stick with the much more manageable 75 mm cranks.

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Every topic here seems to drift off-topic, so here are my two cents. Last week, I watched about a dozen teens doing some technical MUni. One kid rode the section really fast without stopping. He tried to explain his strategy, but the fact is that he was the only one who had not learned to use brakes.

Most kids had to walk the section, though.

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I started riding shorter cranks to try and stay competitive in cross country and downhill at UNICON. I used to ride a 24” for both and at the time a lot of people were going to bigger wheels. In 2016 I rode the downhill on a 24” with 110mm cranks and made it through to elite finals. After that I started using 110s all the time and honestly it was a game changer. As long as you keep your momentum up, you can ride anything. I even think climbing is easier on short cranks, you don’t get that slow half-rev plod that you do with long cranks.

I had to go up a wheel size (two actually, I ride a 27.5 now) eventually to stay competitive. I have 125 cranks, but I have a carbon rim and modern tyres are so much lighter than the Duro I was used to on the 24” that I will change them for 110s eventually.

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