I’ve been unicycling since christmas and its ReAlLy fun. I first had a little schwin thing and now i hav a '05 KH Muni. ITs awesome cuz my friend and i go Muni a lot. Anyways… We ride a ton in the street out front of our houses and we try all sorts of drops and tricks and stuff. I watch videos of guys doin INSANE trials and freestyle tricks and both seem like something i want to learn. Which uni should i buy, a Trials or a Freestyle?
Trials
if you think you’ll do both…get a trials. you can do really good freestyle on a trials uni, but you’ll break it pretty quick if you try to do trials on a freestyle uni.
I have tried both, and I find trials to be much more fun, but I feel more acomplished if I learn somthing new in freestyle. It sounds like you would like trials better though.
It’s really up to you, but one thing to think about is since you already have a Muni, which can be used quite effectively for trials, it might make sense to get a freestyle. If you are actually going to do freestyle seriously, there is no substitute for a good freestyle unicycle. Also don’t agonize about it too much, if you are anything like me you will want both very soon.
That is all to true. Once you get one, you have to have one of every kind, and then some!
id get a trials only becuase you can pretty easily do freestyle on a trals uni, but on the other hand if money isnt too much of an issue, id get a qu ax $300 and a LX for like $90 i think that might work…
CHase
I use a qu-ax trials, and that is the only uni I use. It woeks well for me, so far I don’t need a freestyle unicycle. Get a trials!
I agree with some of the other posts - both trial and freestyle have there place. Freestyle can be very graceful and fluid, and having those abilities can translate into other areas (such as trials).
Serious freestyle unis are lightweight & narrower framed (with smaller rubber) than you would use in trials. The Miyata is probably the best recognized freestyle unicycle. I can do turns and spins so much easier on the Miyata than any of my other unicycles.
You already own an awesome KH muni. Why not consider a serious trials and also a separate freestyle ride? After-all, you can’t have just one…
One problem with doing some freestyle moves on a trials uni is the long cranks on most trials unis. Most trials unis have 150 mm or 140 mm cranks. Those cranks work fine for trials but can (and will) hit the floor when doing freestyle moves.
125 mm cranks would be better for freestyle stuff and still be long enough for street. You’ll loose a little bit of leverage for trials where you may be jumping from and landing on rocks with odd slopes and angles.
Anyways, consider getting a trials uni that has optional shorter cranks available. The Koxx-One trials uni has 110 mm and 125 mm cranks available. The 2005 KH has 127 mm cranks available. The Qu-ax has 127 mm cranks available.
Also realize that trials uni are generally not indoor safe. The trials tires leave marks on the floor and they usually have metal pedals. Freestyle unicycle are generally designed to be indoor safe so you can ride in a gym or play indoor hockey.
so basically, get a trials,
and a freestyle tyre and freestyle pedals in case you want to go indoors.
A freestyle tire won’t fit on a trials rim. Trials rims are special 19" rims while the freestyle rims are your typical 20" BMX bike size. A tire for one won’t fit on the other.
There’s a nice Miyata deluxe on Ebay - but I think it’s a 24"