I have something to show you :D. As the title says, these two are made out of stainless steel. One for 26x3.8 and one for 26x4.8 tyre.
The material I used is not very strong, but it was the only one stainless and available in the dimensions I desired. So, I just gave it a try. Future shows if the frame is strong enough. I am not worried about breaking it, it is more the bending issue as it is a soft material.
I had three different suppliers, as I have, unfortunately, no possibility to do it on my own. Three different suppliers, one for the frame, one for the other material and the gauge for welding and one for welding.
It is an awesome riding! Much more easier to ride than any unicycle I have ever ridden. A have a 20", 24" Muni, 29" and a 36", so I can a bit compare… My riding skills are very limited, I began last August because of my lovely wife Therefore I will not ride too much with it, otherwise I will forget how to ride the fast 29er…:o
I forgot to weight the frame itself. But the whole 3.8er weight around 8kg and the 4.8er is somewhere around 8.5kg.
Why I choose the rectangular pipes? That is simple: Because I like the look
At the beginning of this project I tried to find several designs, and I had also to be aware how I wanted to (let) manufacture it. So this is as well a reason why I choose it.
I am happy I did it like this, I like it really a lot
Beautiful unicycles! I really like the look of the tubing. As a side note when you wear that Surly Larry tire down replace it with a Surly Nate. The difference is amazing and the auto steer will go down dramatically. Now go get them dirty.
Thanks a lot!
I have the Surly Bud 4.8 now. As I did not know it better I choose this one beacause the knobs seems to roll smooth, the knobs are arranged in the driving direction. I can say on tarmac it works very well. But in curves it is a bit swimming. But this might be because of these littel “hairs” which will fall of when the tyre gets used, at least in the middle. On ways with gravel it is bit swimming. But I do not have any reference. But yes, I know now, that I should have choose the Surly Nate… For now the Bud will do it.
Yes, I know I had no clue what dimensions are needed. The material I took has 1.5mm wall thickness. If I could go thinner, I don’t know. But this material is quiet soft. If it will not handle the loads and stresses, then I guess it will bend somewhere, and not break. This will follow later… If it will not withstand. But till now it seems to be stable enough
As I am a beginner, started last August…, I can tell that it is the easiest and most comftable and well driven I rode till now.
What is very funny, my wife and me thought, that it will be pain to drive uphill because of the weight, approximatly 2-3 kg more than our standard 29ers. But, in fact, it is much more going uphill than all our other unis. I think it is because of its own stability these two Faties have, what makes that I have a bit less to care about balancing and can put mor force on forward power… But it might just be in my brain…
What do you guys think why our two Faties go uphill so well? Cranks have all our unis the same, 145-150mm…
I would guess that they are twice as heavy as your frames…
The unis I build are surprisingly smooth to ride, although they are about 2 kg heavier than all others. I think I have reached my goal to creat these two nice unis. Its fun to ride, and they are cool to ride.
That is why I have launched my new Project II. Thinking of 29+ (29x3.0)… Stainless of course
The bearingholders I let machine are specially made for the rectangular frame. And no one left :o
Fatties are super fun to ride, my first fatty was a steel frame made from cheap bikes… it was super heavy, the welds were really bad and looked bad. I didn’t have a jig at that moment, so the frame was on an angle. The neck was almost centered though. But it rode like crazy. I raced with it on a few mtb races, that beast just rode over anything! Now since I have the wide rim I dont ride it at all during the summer, it doesn’t feel the same. Anyway, I’ve got other setups to ride for the summer
Let me know if you get to make more of those bearing holders made, I’d be interested! I can modify them if I dont like them, but they look fine!
nice
you should try to seel them!
it would be a fatty alternative for Europe.
Flans are really good, but with the current exchange rate are quite expensive.
what would be the cost of a frame?
Oh, I think I will never be able to sell one of those. As I do not have any possibility to machine the things on my own, the parts are very, very expensive. Therefore the selling price would be of course in the 4 digit Swiss Francs, and probably also with a 2 in the first position. OK, I did never thought of selling frames, maybe I could reach a price which would be acceptable, but then I would face other problems. For example the hub I had to modify. A 125mm hub with disc and 32 holes have not enough space from bearing to disc mount, I had to turn the disc flange off and manufacture a new one which I had to let weld on. Then again painting. So expensive…
Roger from unicycle UK supported me a lot with information about dimensions.
At this point, thanks Roger! Without your help I couldn’t achieve my project.
Therefore I will not ride too much with it, otherwise I will forget how to ride the fast 29er…:o
