Well, 3 of us went for a snow MUni ride today. Carl is a very good rider, but he blew me and jeff (both good riders) away!
Carl was on a 3" tire (24") Me and Jeff were both on 26x2.6".
We were falling left and right, while Carl went on and on.
Midway into the ride, I noticed I was able to drop my air pressure lower than what I had it at, and this helped. But now, my pressure was too low to do any drops, or anything crazy.
I never figured the 3" was so great (as in to be manditory) over the 2.6 for off roading (and it may be better, but it’s definetly not an incredible difference that you need to go out and get one)
But if you ride in the snow, judging by what I saw today, you NEED a 3" tire! We were zig zagging about, and fell about 10 times more than the 3" rider (no midget jokes, please)
I was already gonna make my next wheel purchase a 24"r, and now, I think I may need to order Darren’s new 3" frame to go along with it.
I’m still holding my ground on Profiles, though. They’re a waste of money
I think tread pattern/tire preassure might matter more than the straight fact that it’s 3" wide, but I’m sure the bit more tread thats making contact the better…
And please, dont call it SMuni, its almost as bad as Tuni
We teach people in our club to unicycle using the Wall, or if we had one railing method. Then sometimes we use the hand support to help out in getting people comfertable from riding away from the wall. I find it also sometimes helps if people are having problems with the intial getting on and pedaling forward to tell them to use the wall with one hand and then their other hand goes on your shoulder and you grab the seat so that they can not fall. Anyone can ride a unicyle like that.
The youngest person we have taught in this way is probaby 17, but its how I learned and dozens of other people in our club have too. If only more people got as into it as me
From what I’ve read the rim width and tire pressure make a huge difference, probably much more than tread type or a half-inch difference in tire width. Ice bikers use very low pressure, say 12 psi, for basic riding, with a very wide rim, thus giving a large contact patch. The Snow Cats rims, designed for snow (duh), are about the same width as the Sun DoubleWide rim. Ice bikers are also keen on adjusting tire pressure to match snow conditions.
Good idea. Always blame the equipement! Is Darren getting the new frames in Febuary? (My birthday month. Considence? I think not!) Will he accept a trade-in?
No worries Andrew, come to london this Saturday morning, there’s a trail here (you haven’t been) that is fantastic, packed down, hilly (but not too hilly) and it’s gonna be a riot.
(this will be good training for you for the 24hr race!)
Carl and Jeff will (most likely) be coming our, too. There is a mountain winter film festival in London on saturday. Email me for details if you want.
Just to clarify one big thing it isnt Smuni it isnt suni it isnt any of that crap it will be called enonomous because when the "mous is read upsidedown it says snow and when “enono” is read backwards it says On One thusly snow on one or enonomous. Muahahahahaha. Oh i ride a 2.3 IN SNOW ALOT AND I HAVNT HAD ANY PROBLEMS BUT I GUESS THATS JUST ME. crap, darn caps lock oh well.
