Ok. Now I’m feeling a bit more stable on the 29er and can get up some speed on her, I feel the need to destablise myself and get some shorter cranks.
I’d like some opinons on the advantages and disadvantages of shorter cranks on the 29er (I’m riding with 125mm cranks at the moment). Thanks.
Cathy
Wow. Nice job Cathy. I started w/ 125s on mine and didn’t feel like I had enough control so I switched to 150s. Still don’t think I’m ready to give up that level of control (What level of control? All too often, when I pass someone on the sidewalk they look like 
) and go back to the 125s. I do remember that they felt very smooth, however.
If you can ride on 125s, then you can ride on 110s. No doubt about it.
For freemounting, the seat will be 15 mm higher (negligible).
For general riding, you will have 12% less leverage - which will affect acceleration and stopping distances. However, you will have about 12 percent more cruising speed on the flat.
So, cruising speed on the flat, maybe you gain a mile an hour or so. Journey times may be about the same (depending on obstacles). Up hills will be less difficult than you probably think, but down hills will take a bit more nerve and control. Steering at low speed becomes more precise, and the uni feels more of a thoroughbred.
If you try 110s and go back to 125s then you will notice the dancefloor effect, and your riding will be 10 times more confident than before.
A cheap pair of 110s (for square tapers) is a good investment. If you are at the Dartmoor MUni weekend, I can lend you a pair. I have loads of 'em.
Well, that’s why I want to talk about it rather than do it.
I think part of my personaility is to enjoy making things difficult for myself. Whenever I even start to feel comfortable, I like to destabilise myself.
Actually I had 150s on my 29er to begin with but my legs are way too short for 150 cranks on any unicycle. I have very short legs, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Cathy
Unfortunately I wont be there (this year). Will have used up the month’s ‘uni time away from home’ at the BUC. 
Maybe I’ll buy a cheap pair from Roger. Seems like it’s time for me to invest in one of those crank remover thingies as well then, instead of visiting the LBS.
Cathy
it definitely does. Different crank lengths are better for different people. The shorter your legs, the less annoying it will be to pedal in small circles, and vice versa. Throw in a bit of personal preference and you’ve got a crank length!
I’ve always had 125s on the 29’ers I’ve ridden, and I’m going to have them installed on my coker. They’re a nice balance of leverage and speed IMHO, and they seem to really work with my leg length. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give em a try! whether or not they work for you, you’ll still be a bit better for it - I’ve found the more configurations and different unicycles I’ve ridden, the easier all of them get to be. Experimentation can’t hurt (especially if you have armor on)!!
Hey Cath
I ride 90mm cranks on my coker, I think you can easily change to 110mm on your 29er… I bought a set of cranks myself (90, 102, 114 and 127) and I can change 'em any time I want to, maybe that’s an idea for ya. 110 is worth a shot, if you don’t like it you can always change back. My next choice would be the 114/110’s.
Toodles
Dustin
I started with 102’s but found them too squirly when slowing down and hard to control down hill. Hill climbing wasn’t as bad as I thought though. (I didn’t like 125’s on the Coker either for the same reasons).
I ordered 110’s put on some 125’s for a while, they felt huge after 102. I’ve had 110’s on it ever since, very similar leverage as the 140’s on my Coker.
Shorter cranks aren’t for everone and I’m very impressed with anyone who can control super short cranks on a 29er or Coker.
dance floor effect¿
I come from a biking family… plenty of spare crank pullers down here! 
An expression I’ve used and explained before, although a long time ago. In rock climbing, there is a phenomenon in which you find your way onto the tiniest of narrow ledges. You try to climb higher and can’t make it, so you retreat back down to the tiny ledge. After you have done this a few times, the familiar tiny ledge feels so big and wide that it’s like a dancefloor. That is: if you keep trying something very difficult, then when you return to the merely difficult, it appears easy.
Cath: I am not a good rider (I learn slowly) so here is my story with 29" and cranks.
I bought a 29er with 125 cranks and just could not manage the thing so I started using 150 cranks. Feeling more confident I switched back to 125 and quickly went to 110.
Now this is my prefered size!
except over very technical terrain (I love trails in the woods) I just prefer 110 even for climbing! As I’ve said in another post it gives me the feeling to have a shorter “dead spot” -some answered it is an illusion … so may be they are right-
When my toes will have finished healing I even consider to switch to 125 on my Coker (which I still do not master 
!) -but may be this is too early but looking for “dance floor effect”… time presses: I do not want to be ridiculous on a 10km race held in late July 
I thought you meant that once you’d been up on the dancefloor and made a complete idiot of yourself then what used to seem stupid now feels normal. :o
Rob
An equally good explanation. Why, do you know anyone that’s happened to?
Err… nope… honest guv I were never there.
I planned to run 110s to start on my 700cc wheel (debating width and type of tire) but I have 140s to get used to it if I need to.
I am not particularly good technical rider (about level 1.3) but I bought my 700c with 110s, mounted it first time and could idle it straight away. Somehow, there seems to be an effect that larger wheels can tolerate shorter cranks. 102s on the 20 inch felt silly; on the 28, they felt fast but controllable. I think it’s partly the style of riding that larger wheels invite, and partly that things happen more slowly, even though you’re moving faster.
Don’t be afraid of fairly short cranks on big wheels. A change from say 150 - 140 is only a tiny percentage - fine tuning for preference. A change to 110s (or similar) makes the uni totally different, but not necessarily harder to ride.
On my 700c, I’ve used 110s, 125s, 102s and 89s. Of those 4 sizes, 125s were the least satisfactory - they just made it feel like a particularly ungainly 24. 89s were a bit limiting in the cross country stakes; 102s suited me for long fast rides on the flat. 110s are a good general purpose size.
My 29er came with 125s on it, which was great… for a couple of weeks. I started to feel that my legs were moving a lot for a little result. When I swapped to 110s, it was instantly noticably faster. The other noticable thing was a bit less controll, and a much longer stopping distance.
Almost all of my journey (East London in to the center) is pretty flat, so hills aren’t an issue, although the couple of times I’ve been elsewhere, it is more tricky on the decent.
The control side of things doesn’t take long to get a hold of, if you are comfortable with 125s, so that really is only a short term problem. The stopping distance still seems about the same, even after a few hundred miles of riding, but I am getting much better at anticipating things 
For the cost of a cheap pair of 110s (and, lets face it, on a 29er, you’re probably not going to appreciate an expencive pair that much more), and 15 mins to swap them over, it’s well worth it. After you’ve done 50 miles or so, if you’re not happy with them, or not confident, then it’s no bother to swap back… but I doubt you’ll want to swap back.
STM
Thanks for all the input.
I’m off to order 110’s and a crank removal thingy in the near future.
Cathy
I got my 29" just one and a half week ago. I got it with 102er Cranks and a Magura break. The plan was to go fast on the uni and to use to uni to ride to work every morning. Therefore I need the break, because in the city it’s to hard to stop with such a cranksize.
Anyway I make a little test how fast I can get on the uni. So i’m riding home from my grammy with my mom and dad (they both on a bicycle). We decided to make more way and ride way through the field. I’m going really fast on the uni, so my mom can’t follow me on her bike and she told me, she was driving really fast (so, i’d guess she was driving ~25km/h maybe a bit more) and yeah this was a lot of fun at all!
But what I was wondering was it felt like I have a geared uni. So, there are more tempos you can easily drive with such a cranksize. The point is to ride and the rotation of the uni is still “round”. So, there are different tempos where you can ride “round”, that what it makes you feel you have a geared uni. Pretty cool
Ride On
gossi