Yes, they are hard to ride. Yes, I need to wear “leggings”. Yes, I will suck.
Nonetheless, i’m getting one…
I want to ride off road, so I am looking at the Nimbus 28", which is the same as a 700c or a 29er. I believe this size wheel will be easier to ride and will be more stable on the trail. The stock tire is essentially a road bike tire, 28c, which is probably not going to work for trail. I am looking at bumping up to a wider tire like what would be used for cylecross or road touring on rough terrain. The tire widths in this category are ~40c or 1.5", some are as wide as 45c or 1.75".
So now to the meat of my questions:
What is the widest tire that will fit on the Nimbus 28" UW?
Is there any other brand of UW that might be better suited for my intended use?
Is a 24" truly harder to ride?
Is the 26" sold by Semcycle an option?
Does anyone make a 36"?
Is this not the dumbest idea I have had to date?
I have actually seen another film of someone riding a 36" ultimate wheel off road doing drops and all. Very impressive. It might be my next project.
By the way is it easier to ride the larger or smaller ultimate wheels?
The larger the wheel, the easier to ride. It’s also easier to ride “disc” type UW’s like in the video above, than to ride “cranked” UW’s.
Ben, you could also try taking the wheel off of some of your uni’s and trying those out. That way you may end up with a better rim/tire/quality?/etc.
The seatpost broke on my 24" learner a few months ago, and I haven’t gotten around to getting a new one (riding the 29 all the time), and the bearings are shot. I’ve also been wanting to play with a 24" Muni. So I took the frame off and figure I’m going to get good at riding one, then just get some longer cranks, better pedals, and a Duro, and take that puppy out for some ST. Can’t wait to try climbing on it…
Maybe, but you’ve had quite a few so it’s hard to say…
On a more serious note, I think it is an awesome skill to have and should really improve your Uni skills in the process. I do think it looks totally goofy to ride one because normally your arms are sticking out for balance which makes you look like you are a 4 year old pretending to be an airplane. However, if we cared about what we looked like to the general public, we wouldn’t be riding one wheel in the first place.
Thanks for that link, I sent Dida a PM about his UW. he’s running a Marathon which is 38c, so that is about the size I plan to run, but I’m looking at the Marathon ATB which is quite a bit burlier.
I saw that video and even considerd trying it, but all of my unis are either running a disc or the tire is too knobbie. I’m buying one, so that’s not really a problem, I will learn it one way or another
Funny, I was thinking about getting an ultimate wheel earlier! Nimbus has a 28" on the UDC US site. I’ll mull it over for a few days and decide from there.
Ever since I learned to unicycle, I always thought it would be cool to learn the UW.
Having ridden both the 24" and 28" the 24" is a little harder to learn, but it’s not a huge difference. In my opinion learning to ride an ultimate wheel on flat, paved ground is on the low end of the difficulty spectrum compared to a lot of unicycling skills.
Man, I must just be different, cause I’m having a heck of a time learning how to ride. Got 5 revs once, but usually struggle to get two… This is after 3 days practice…
Ben:
I agree, I would love to see how things go once you get going on it. I’m very interested in learning myself, but as I have just learned the unicycle this year, I think I’ll get a little better at that first!
Killian:
Unrelated question, but have you seen the turtle of enormous girth?
Different people pick up different things in different amounts of time. It sounds like you’re around my learning curve with the ultimate wheel and you’ll be fine if you keep at it. Are you squatting down almost like you are sitting on a seat and keeping your abs tight? When I learn something it’s more like weeks or months (or longer!).
I’ve tried squatting and I’ve tried standing. Seem to be split 50/50 success.
It’s just frustrating as I learned how to ride a uni in around 5-7 days…
@Ramackenzie: I’ve been waiting for someone to get that sig line! “See the turtle of enormous girth, on his back he holds the earth…”, “Beware the Crimson King”, “All things serve the beam”, etc. My absolute favorite series of books…
I ride on my UW a schwalbe marathon 28"x1,75". It’s ok for offroad. I’ve tried the Big apple 2,35" too, it works, but the rim is thin, so i don’t want a wider Tire than 2".
I’ve ride my UW on steeper trails than i can ride on my regular 24" Uni without brake.
Good luck to learn to ride UW.
I have a number of questions regarding this, hopefully someone can answer them for me.
First, by what factor is it more physically strenuous than unicycling? Im interested in getting one to increase my core strength (unicycling on paved ground doesn’t do much in that respect for me, as far as I can tell)
And is it a viable means of transportation over shorter distances, say 5-10 miles?
Nice to see a discussion on the topic as I just fetched my brand used Nimbus UW 28" from the post. I gave it a first try and I think it is much better than when I started unicycling.
There were a few tries that I could call rides already. And the longest one you can see (or hear) at the end of the short vid I prepared:
I must admit that I tried UWs twice before, but they were smaller and my record was 0 revs ;), so I’m happy about what I got today. We’ll see how the progress go. If I get good enough with this tyre I will try some other one for offroad as I have some 700c tyres. Maybe BA 2.0 will be nice?
Are there any techniques to decrease rubbing apart from clothing?
The Rim from the Nimbus 28" is very thin so it fits a roadbiketire. To ride a 2"+ wide tire feels like i loose a bit the precision while steering. Ok perhaps it took time to get a feeling for it.
A gripy Tire without studs is good for offroad but it’s bad if you just learn to ride.
I haven’t ride a 24" offroad yet. I think, it’s the same question like want i ride a 24" muni or a 29" muni.
