Based on the Who has completed a 100 mile ride? thread it looks like about 100 that have posted that they completed a 100 mile ride. Lilkey several that have not posted.
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Hello @Buson_Bill
I want to support you in following your big dreams, but you should adapt the timeline to your abilities, individually. And this only time will tell.
Right! The number I gave was a pure estimation based on nothing 
So, yeah, maybe 200 people have completed a 100-mile ride. Still not a lot 
Okay! I’ve got a deal set up. I am buying a used nimbus oracle that comes with a disc brake and has 36” wheel on Saturday. Then I’ll start learning it like crazy. What handlebars should I buy?
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you shouldn’t ask. Everybody has his own ideas, but I really like these:
like the top one with 2 cow horns 
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Okay sorry for asking lmao!
Don’t be sorry but it’s a rabbit hole. The KH bars are fine of the shelf component. They offer plenty of adjustments to dial in something that works for you. But they are weak in the sense that they mount to the saddle (which is not that stiff) so you can feel quite a lot of flex when you put pressure on them. They also have a tendency to need a bit of re-adjustment after a hard UPD. I’m not a fan (and yes I own a set but I only used it for a short period of time before it was retired to the drawer).
I would rather recommend you built your own. It can be cheaper and more stiff. There is a long thread with a lot of great ideas here…
I will promote my own setup (you will find a part list a few post before and even a more optimized setup I did a few posts later). I know my setup is not with a unicycle “banana shaped” saddle but it will obviously also work with that.
And good luck with your ambitious project.
Congrats. I have the same uni and love it.
I was going to comment that I agree with Maxene that that’s a tall order.
The fitness sounds like no problem.
But I really think you should be very comfortable with controlled dismount and preferably freemount on a small wheel before learning the 36, as it’s way harder and potentially more dangerous.
That being said, I also just “made the plunge” and bought a 36 and learned it in a few weeks myself. However I had a lot of experience with both 24" and 26" and also a little with shorter cranks. I couldn’t free mount the 36 at first but I was comfortable dismounting and braking downhill. After about 6 months of commuting 2x15km 5 days a week, I couldn’t really imagine having done a ride of that length (and my cardio fitness was top it was the core muscles and the crotch and not crashing when I was tired).
Start with long cranks (I used 165mm for the first week as I had them, but 150s would work OK). For the 160km you should learn sub-125, probably in the 100-117 range. Otherwise you can’t really use your strength and fitness. But you have to build up the control before you can control shorter cranks.
I would recommend not adding handlebars until you have a lot of control. You don’t really need them until you’re doing long distances and mastering short cranks is more important for going fast. And handlebars make crashing at speed more probelamtic.
I did the CFM Marathon (42km) last fall with 36"/89mm but without handlebars (yes, I wasn’t very fast and I’m more a Muni and freestyle rider). But with 125mm and handlebars I would have been slower. OK, the handlebars help relieve pressure on longer rides, but I think you should first be riding 10+km without a dismount.
So, it’s doable but going to require learning very fast and getting a bit lucky.
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Nice used score.
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I like the Kris Holme touring bar. It comes with a straight and a curved bar it’s very adaptable to different riding styles.
One more handlebar tip - don’t put em on until you’re past the phase where you’re constantly falling over and dropping the unicycle directly on the handlebars. They’re not fragile, but they’re also not invincible!
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My 36er is an Oracle as well 
I bought it new and I’m hoping to hit my first 1,000 or so miles on it in the next couple months. It’s easily my favorite unicycle out of my fleet.
On mine I’ve opted for the Nimbus Shadow handle set (which looks very similar to the KH set though I think the base is different). Like others mentioned it’s best to get used to riding the 36er without the bar installed being it’s likely to get dropped a lot.
Another thing about riding with a bar is it takes some time getting used to. When I first installed mine I still balanced a lot with my arms, so I often would have to let go of the handles for balance corrections. Over time though you’ll adapt and be able to balance with the lower body instead and be able to keep the hands on the grips 
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Wow that seat looks like a real bicycle seat, what are the benefits and disadvantages?
True it’s an ISM seat. They are “split nose” saddles supposed to relieve pressure from the sensitive parts on regular bikes and they seem to work great on unicycles as well. I have them on five different unicycles between 24" and 36".
The advantage of using an ISM (or any other regular bike seat) is that there is significantly less chaffing on your inner tights but you loose all the control that you usually have by clamping your tights around the saddle. Also bike seats gives you almost unlimited number of options to find one that suits your behind perfectly. As you are an experienced road bike rider you probably already knows what works for you.
A word of warning is that you need a handlebar if you want to ride with a regular bike saddle. And you will also need to master holding at least one hand on the handlebar all the time and ideally both hands on the handlebar most of the time.
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My wife did an 80km ride on a 24" in her first year of riding, when she still couldn’t freemount. I’d entered her to do 40km of a 160km relay race but she decided to ride the next section.
There’s a big step up to a 36", so you could consider trying a 29. I think one of my first distance races was 80km on a 700c unicycle, and it felt pretty scary how high you sat and how fast you went.
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I recently ordered a 29 with 114mm cranks for a distance uni. You should try out 29 with 125mm, and I recommend buying it from Mad4One.com. They have high quality unis and are far, far cheaper than unicycle.com’s unicycles. Also, if you don’t know the difference between ISIS and cotterless, the ISIS is much higher quality. It will not break as easily, and it worth the extra money, because if your hub and cranks break, you need to pay a lot of money. Good luck on this!
Im getting very comfortable on the 36” wheel! I just did 8 miles in 1 hour and 11 mins and I’m pretty tired. My average speed was 7 miles/hour so for an imperial century it will take me a very long time. How should I continue to train long distance and increase my average speed?
Also, as a safety measure, if I can’t increase my average speed I will start the ride way earlier than all the bicyclists (probably 1 or 2 am). They start at around 6 or 7 am, and the event runs until about 6 pm (18:00).
The event is in early September, so I have over 2 more months to keep training. Where should I go? What should I do?
Thank you!
Bill
Practicing high rpm on a smaller wheel would be easier and safer. Your technique for various terrains could most likely also use some work
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What‘s your usual cadence on smaller unis? Is there a big difference between 36er and smaller wheels?
Maybe it’s possible to choose shorter cranks - they usually let you spin faster. But since you just started your 36er adventure it may be a good idea to wait until you really got the hang of it before aiming for shorter cranks. To some extent the speed will automatically increase as your experience grows.
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I’ve found that gaining speed and efficiency just kinda comes with saddle time. I found early on I didn’t really want to try to “force” gaining speed since I would have more UPDs on the 36er (Not fun when traveling at any significant speed for me!), so I just tried to ride longer distances at my usual speed. More saddle time, more good I say
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