I have just had one of those moments where much of my previous “knowledge”
has suddenly been scrambled. Two years as a novice unicyclist and I have
only just realised exactly what a 20" wheel means.
I was nonchalantly thinking today that a 20" muni with a thick tyre would
not be significantly slower than a 24" thin tyred machine. Wrong!
Most of you experts out there will now be saying “Of course, silly girl, how
could you be so stupid?”.
Until I actually went and measured the wheel and rim sizes I had been
convinced that 20" was the RIM size. Only on measuring it do I find it to
be the outside tyre size. I was further surprised to find a 20" muni had a
smaller rim than a 20" road machine, to compensate for the higher profile
tyre.
So, tell me I am not alone, not the only idiot on the planet. Anyone else
game enough to admit they thought Unicycles were measured on rim, rather
than tyre sizes?
Naomi ;-(
–
Honest: I have a perfect hourglass figure…head full of sand and bottom
getting heavier by the minute.
Naomi wrote:
> I have just had one of those moments where much of my previous
> “knowledge” has suddenly been scrambled. Two years as a novice
> unicyclist and I have only just realized exactly what a 20" wheel
> means. I was nonchalantly thinking today that a 20" muni with a thick
> tire would not be significantly slower than a 24" thin tired machine.
> Wrong! Most of you experts out there will now be saying “Of course,
> silly girl, how could you be so stupid?”.
>
> Until I actually went and measured the wheel and rim sizes I had been
> convinced that 20" was the RIM size. Only on measuring it do I find
> it to be the outside tire size. I was further surprised to find a
> 20" muni had a smaller rim than a 20" road machine, to compensate for
> the higher profile tire.
>
> So, tell me I am not alone, not the only idiot on the planet. Anyone
> else game enough to admit they thought Unicycles were measured on
> rim, rather than tire sizes?
>
> Naomi ;-(
20" rims are made for tires which are 20" in diameter
but
rims (sort of) have standard sizes and tires don’t
so
now 20" tires are tires which fit 20" rims which are not 20" in diameter.
so
20" wheels may, or may not be 20" in diameter.
What an amazingly logical system. I can’t believe I didn’t guess that right away. Silly me.
I’m glad that at least there are well definded standards for tire widths.
i feel like i did the day i figured out that adding salt to the water u’re going to cook pasta in actually raises the boiling point of the water and does not (as i believed) lower it
r we gonna start a ‘i didn’t know that about a 20" uni’ club?
i’d like to apply for membership
You’re not the only one to fail to understand this illogical system.
As far as I can work it out, a 20 inch wheel is one which measures approximately 20 inches across when it has a standard tyre fitted - whatever a ‘standard tyre’ means.
So, take the same rim and fit a fatter tyre, and the 20 inch wheel becomes, say, a 20.5 inch wheel.
You may have read of 24 inch unis with fat tyres which are ‘effectively’ 26 inch wheels.
I think that the convention with cars is to measure the rim size, then the tyre size is expressed as a profile: something to do with the ratio of the ‘height’ to the ‘width’ of the tyre section.
Then we express crank lengths in millimetres - but choose sizes which happen to be a whole numbers in inches… 102mm is a weird number until you know it’s exactly 4 inches.
speaking of cranks
i’ve heard an awefull lot about 125mm and 150mm cranks on this forum
imagine my surprise when i take a closer look at the cranks on my noname brand unis and discover them to be 127mm and 152 mm respectively
a rare breed?
or are these the ones that are ‘known’ as 125’s and 150’s ?
No, there are 125, 127, 150 and 152 mm cranks out there. The 127mm=5" and 152mm=6" cranks for the imperial lovers and the 125 and 150 for the metric rest of us. Of course it would be interesting to actually measure them… .
I would say that there are two, or perhaps even three, types of individuals who would fall into this category.
UTC’s who are so because it is a lifestyle choice.
UTC’s who are so because they actually are incapable of comprehending the subject matter
UTC’s who believe they fall into category 1, but in reality fall into category 2.
A language that does not take into account the richness and diversity of these differences is one that most certainly will fail to recognize the ability, abletude, ableosity, and abledness of each unicycling individual and so demean all unicyclists.
speaking strictly for me, i’m UTC 'cause i figure it’s waaay more fun watching other people figure all this stuff out and charge me money for doing it for me
there’s a free-market/genetic laziness issue here as well
not as i understand it
(ignore the previous post just for a mo’)
as i have it, u dont get a 20"RIM
u get a 20"WHEEL, measured around the outside of the tyre
a 20" muni rim will be smaller than i 20"freestyle rim because the extra thickness of the muni tyre will ‘eat into’ those 20"s
it is therefore the combination of rim plus tyre that provides u with a 20"wheel
i think
(very freaky
eric edited his post while i was busy responding so the quote i used dissapeared
very twilight zone)
You could be picky and say it depends on the size of your hub, but in reality if you just use a small pot and have the spaghetti standing on one end then this will produce “single butted” pasta spokes. Alternatively, just place them across the top of the pot until the middle droops into the water and cooks, leaving the ends uncooked, e presto! Double butted pasta spokes!
Remember the mozarella for the saddle, unless you want the Viscount version where you use parmesan:)
That is so much easier than picking out which ones to demean. Besides most of we deserve if for one reason or another, and some of I actually enjoy it.
HA HA! (GASP!) HA HA! (GASP!) HA HA! (GASP!)
( currently discovering this forum as a form of intense aerobic { or, rather, hyperventilative } activity, and therefore, am now { yes, I know, it’s unbelievable! } … speechless )
A pot that is 21 inches in diameter my good man! But then that means you need a really big heat coil on the stove, and have to buy an industrial size stove, and then extra electrical bills. Oh the catastrophy!
