Just a couple of pictures of the new uni: the Bacon Slicer. The frame is only a basic Nimbus I, but it’s the wheel that matters most. I have put a new tube in, bought a track pump, and put 130 psi in.
Man that KH really shows how tiny the Bacon Slicers wheel is! It looks great!
One question though…Why on earth is that Muni clean?? It should be encrusted with mud and dirt!
The Dartmoor meteorological jetwash.
Seriously, yes, it is embarrassingly clean. :o the Holy Roller is dirtier. I gave the KH a good wipe down because it seems particularly susceptible to rust on all the steel components.
Ahh i see. Ok well go and get it real dirty before you embarass it with more pics of it clean!
U-Turn is building me a Jack Shaft geared uni that will have a thin tire like the bacon slicer and I was wondering how yours handled once you got up a head of steam??
JL
wow! how does that thing ride? It must be really wobbly, but easy to pedal. Must turn like a champ too!
Is it a 27" roadrace bicycle rim you used?
The rim is a Mavic Open Pro, 700c, for 36 spokes. It is a popular rim for serious road riders - time trials and that sort of thing. The spokes are plain gauge because the hub has quite large holes in the flange. (The builder needed to use washers.) The hub is a Suzue, which is the same as used on my Pashley 26 Muni.
The tyre is 700 x 23 c, Continental, with Kevlar bead. The tube is ultra light weight.
As for handling. It skims along nice and smooth and fast, but I know that I would be able to sustain higher speeds for longer on a slick 29 er. The thin tyre makes it very sensitive to even tiny changes in resistance - rough tarmac instead of smooth, slight humps and bumps in the tarmac, that sort of thing. As demonstrated in the thread, “One of My Rasher Decisions”, it is also vulnerable to pinch flats on rough ground and ballast.
On the other hand, it is fantastically responsive - virtually no inertia or momentum. The steering is not quite as easy as the 28 mm tyre on the Road Razor, but that may simply be the tyre profile or pressure, rather than the narrowness.
The ride is, er… firm. No softening of the bumps at all.
There is no practical advantage whatsoever - many people have told me that the whole idea is very silly indeed - but how many of us unicycle primarily for reasons of practicality?
One aspect of unicycling that I love is that every road and every path is a different challenge on the return journey. Easy down slopes become tricky up hills; simple little drops become kerbs to climb. The tiniest hill or puddle can catch you out if you get complacent.
However, on the Coker I have long been at the level where I can remove my helmet, Camelbak and sweater, put my sweater in my Camelbak, replace the Camelbak and replace my helmet, all whilst cruising along a grassy riverbank at a steady speed. The Road Razor, and now the Bacon Slicer, put the second by second challenge back into riding when I lack the time or energy to go looking for steep hills and deep sloppy mud on the Muni.
And anyway, it’s nice to have a special toy.
That looks like nothing I could balance on.
When I look at that I just can’t help imagining a very sleek frame with close tire clearance tapering out to the proper hub width. That would be just plain sexy.
That’s the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw it.
I rode my 29er for a week with a 700 x 25 tire while waiting for a Nanoraptor to arrive. This was during winter, and the skinny tire really sliced through snow drifts in the street.
Mojoe
to sum it all up…nice
yeah, but now its got a Nimbus long neck on it, anyway thats a great pick of how much extra room the crown has over the tire.
its the same for the 20" size, which i sent back…why would a frame thats supposed to be an “expert” class frame have a mile of extra tire clearance!?
(still waiting for a Visa to be credited)
GROOVY UNI!!! What size are the cranks? It looks like can get up quite a bit of speed on that thing!
What a silly unicycle.
If there happened to be a hockey tournament this saturday (say in Derby ) and you happened to come to it and just by coincidence had this silly unicycle with you so we could see it that’d be cool.
Joe
You have a Visa? I thought you only traded for uni’s? Hmmm, so is this the quickest you have unloaded a new uni?
It looks great Mike.
If it was your only Unicycle I would say you were mad, but when you have a selection to choose from, it is very different from everything else.