Street uni with Twenty-G tire

Unicycles and Equipment
1

Hey, I ordered a twenty-G tire for my splined freestyle/street uni thing and its pretty cool. It is just like a smooth trials tire but its a little taller. When I first got it I discovered my Bedford and Summit frames were both too small (not enough clearance on top) so I rode it with my muni frame for a little bit.
I remembered a few days ago about an old trials frame Evan made me so I put it on and it fit. It was really ugly before and covered in rust so I just got done painting it and I put it all together.
The parts are:
Koxx hub and crankset (110mm)
Odyssey 7ka rim
Twenty-G tire
Torker LX pedals
Evan’s frame
Right now I have a Torker DX seat on it but it is Cody’s so I will have to give it back.

Here are some pics…

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2

that’s awesome.

how wide is it compared to your trials tire?

also, how did you paint your frame?

3

Wow, that is pretty tall, and wow, that seat is pretty short…

4

I think it’s becuase the seat is uber fat and the frame has a long(ish) seat tube.

5

Its exactly 2.5" wide. And much taller than a trials tire let alone that a trials tires height is added to by the knobs. The tires has a ton of air in it too so its supa bounce.

Also, that frame is going to snap, I need to make a new one.

6

how is it when it comes to riding? i’m sure the short cranks make it difficult to control such a big heavy tyre.

7

Is that a 19" tyre? I might get one of them if it is.

8

Yes. That’s how street unis should be. I’ve always thought that street unis should be a thing of their own, not just a replicant of trials unis. For street riding to really become something of its own and not overshadowed by trials, then the unis themselves should become specialized.

Quite a few people say that ‘street will never get big unless real street unis emerge’. And I have to say I agree. In future, people should start experimenting like Spencer did, by building up a super strong 20" wheelset, comprised of a top end BMX rim, and a decent 20" BMX tyre such as a 20x2.35 or 2.4 slick tyre. The frames should too be made specific to street, such as been relatively narrow to fit perfectly around a BMX tyre, and a decent strong steel designed frame.

This should give street unis a smoother riding feel due to the slightly narrower tyre and a slightly larger diamater rim. Trials unis should be and are based off trials bikes, whilst street unis should really be based off BMXs (ie, street-specific steel frames with 20" BMX rims and slick BMX tyres).

Some people are gonna disagree with me, saying that trials unis allow them to do both street and trials… But, hey, if these ‘real’ street unis really develop as a popular thing, then they are more than likely to improve street riding. It’s just like using a typical 24" commuter uni for both urban cycling and muni-ing, and obviously when you develop something more specialized, in this case, a municycle, then everything can improve from there onwards.

I say, why not give it a go? It’s about time street riding got it’s own special type of uni.

9

Its 20", No one would make a slight mod tire.

10

Nice!

A bit more about the Twenty-g: Twenty-G 20x3.45 tire

11

I like the way you’r thinkin sponge. A street uni should consist of the folowing
-Fat ass slick tyre
-strong frame with long neck seat tube that’s reiforced
-Short cranks
-Stonger bearing housings
-wide pedals
add on people

12

alot of street riders(or at least some) have they’re seats really really low(like within an inch of the seatclamp low). Look at Kevin M. He rides with his seat so low…

for people who don’t do that a long seattube would be desirable though.

13

Brian lundgrens seat is at the clamp. Its insane. It would be low for you miles.

14

For riding it all I know is it is really smooth and rolls really nicely. It feels like I am riding on a perfectly smooth gym floor when I am in the street.
I havent’t done anything at all on it because I hurt my back and I can’t even hop right now, it hurts so bad.

I don’t know why the seat is that low, I just put it on to see what it looked like.

Miles, I just used primer and a couple coats of spray paint.

15

-plastic pedals seem good already
-more compact steel frame, with a design that makes it a tight fit around fat 20"/BMX tyres such as a 20x2.4 slick, or the 20-G tyre, as well, as a strongly designed flat crown that is close to the tyre, making gliding and foot on tyre tricks much better than on trials unis.
-Tough, tough, BMX 20" rims, which are mostly much stronger than 19" trials rims anyway.
-More tyre options, you could choose anything literally, from the BMX range, which is massive.You can go slick, semi-slick, or treaded dirt tyres, and a huge range of widths from 1.95"-2.4" and the one off 20-G tyre width.
-possibly More 48 hole ‘street’ hubs to fit the 48h BMX rims out there, which in turn makes a stronger wheel that’s harder to ruin than your regular 36H trials wheels.

I think it’s onto a winner. To really kick this off, brands should start making unis like this. Nimbus, KHU, Koxx, and Qu-Ax could all start making proper ‘street’ unis, with the sole intention of street, designing a tough 20" rim made for nothing but strength. As well as street-specific frames as described above. Just generally, make street riding a real thing of its own, not a branch-off of trials. Just think about the wheels street riders buckle the hell out of? A decently built 48 hole strong BMX rim with a 48h splined hub, with a nice slick tyre is a surefire winner over trials wheels, as they are stronger, in general.

16

Yeah Sponge, I like the option of choosing between hundreds of tires instead of the 5 or so good trials tires out there.

17

Trials unis are becoming more and more specialized as we speak. Just look at the XTP! :roll_eyes: .

Street should move on as well, I think, it’s the way forward for any discipline that wants to become successful.

A long time ago, several decades infact, BMXs and 20" trials bikes were practically the same, the trials bikes were copies of the old 60’s and 70’s styles of BMX bikes. But, as the years moved on, the two different types of 20" bikes became more and more different to eachother, and now they are almost perfect for their respective riding styles.

BMX/Trials bikes from the 70s-ish were almost identical, now:

BMX:
-Tough, short, steel frames, with 14mm dropouts for the needed strength.

-steel hollow cranks with multi-splines (think KH Onza/Profile style stuff) as well as the steel pinch-bolt type cranks with 8 or 10 splines (think Qu-Ax/KH 2004).

-chunky flat pedals (Odyssey JC pedals are a typical example)

  • wing-style handlebars, almost always steel.
    -short, fat stems.
    -sometimes BMX frames and forks don’t have any brake mounts for brakeless riding.

Trials bikes:
-Reasonably tough, long, aluminium frames, with 10mm dropouts.
-aluminium solid cranks, normally square taper or ISIS (never Profile/KHOnza type stuff).
-caged low-profile grippy pedals built for strong grip.
-either ‘flat’ or ‘riser’ handlebars, almost always aluminium
-very long stems.
-almost all frames and forks have 4-bolt magura mounts, or disc brake mounts

Just see how different those two have got, and the two sports have gotten so good as a result of the bikes becoming more and more specific over the years. If BMXs and trials bikes remained relatively similar like Trials unis and so called ‘street’ unis do, then BMX and biketrials would never really be as big or successful as they are now.

I think the Koxx XTP is the first of many CNC machined aluminium unicycle frames, soon other brands like Onza, Qu-ax, and KHU will be catching on. Flat crowns will probably start to disappear on trials uni frames, and CNC’d curved crowns will start to become standard.

If trials is evolving so much already, why shouldn’t street? 2007-2010 are probably going to be the years we see unicycle components really become specific to disciplines. We may even see a dramatic difference arise between Freeride and XC unis. Of course different disciplines overlap eachother here and there, but having a specific uni for a specific discipline helps loads: just how much better are freestyle unis for freestyle than trials unis? Just how much better are munis than 24" commuters at mountain unicycling?

Just my thoughts, put into debating-mode :o :roll_eyes: . More street riders should be brave about this, and do what Spencer has done, like when you next break something on your trials wheel, get yourself together a GOOD 20" BMX-orientated uni wheel, and see the difference.

18

one thing I don’t like about having unicycles completely specialized for each style, is then you practically need a uni for each style. I would get both the muni and freesytle uni I want, but I feel like I would barely ride each of them. If you had specialized street, trials, frestyle, muni, and XC unis, then you would barely use each one.

19

You’v seem to have proven that multipul unis for one style is doable.

20

Most people are truly in love with only ONE unicycle discipline. Any other less important disciplines to them, can quite easily be done less and less. So, for example, I’m totally crazed about trials, but occassionaly do a tiny bit of muni and street when I’m bored. I’m sure others are like this too.

But, if you’re properly into more than 1 type of unicycling, then why not just get more specialized unis to suit them? Because, as a result, that discipline that you are riding, will become more fun to ride as you have a unicycle that’s far better suited to it. Almost any unicycle can be used for almost any discipline (with the exceptions of the big wheels) but not quite perfectly… Still doable though!

If your true unicycling passion is one thing, and everything else is something extra to do when you’re bored, then one uni is fine really. But if you are really into loads of unicycling disciplines, there is little reason as to why not get a good specialized unicycle for each discipline, so you can get the most out of it.