Greetings,
Once again I look to those with experience to guide me…
First, I would like to thank all of you who offered me advice regarding
my earlier post “Purchasing my first unicycle”. It has been extremely
helpful.
I have taken some time to digest your advice and I think I’m now in
purchase mode. I have found two stores locally that sell Uni’s. One
sells Torker for $130 +/- and the other sells Savage for $100 +/-.
My original plan was to purchase over the internet, but the freight to
Alaska is quite high, $37-$40 USD per Uni from unicycle.com. Ouch! So I
started looking locally. My concern is that Savage seems kind of cheap?
I haven’t had a chance to look at the Torker because the dealer is
currently out of stock, which also means I will be waiting a couple more
weeks to see one and quite frankly I’m starting to get anxious- not
unlike a small child.
I am also wondering if it will be easier for me to learn on a heavier
model (I weigh 160#)? My willy-nilly theory is that it’s easier to
balance a heavy metal rod on my finger than a pencil of the same
dimensions- if that makes ANY sense at all, please explain it to me???
So I am now considering whether or not to eat the freight charges from unicycle.com and buy the heavier intro model for 180.00+$40.00. It’s
generally heavier and has a wider wheel then the other models.
I am still thinking I will buy a 20" model for my 11 year old daughter.
I have a 20" Torker with a Viscount seat. I go on walks with my wife several times a week. It’s a 3 mile walk and on it I practice one-foot riding with either foot, curb hopping, wheel hopping, etc. I weigh 180# and hop up and down curbs 40 or 50 times during each walk. Oh, I also put $10 platform BMX pedals on it.
I have a 24" Zephyr which, to the best of my knowledge, is identical to a United. I have had it for 4 years and done pretty much the same to it as I have to the Torker except I do more distance riding on it so it has 500 miles or so on it. I have an unmodified Miyata saddle on it. It has lollipop bearings. I have had no trouble with it either.
I have experience with the United adult trainers, specifically the one rated at 180 lbs. That is still my main ride, even today. I love it. It is worth it. I upgraded my seat to a Miyata. I don’t think you’ll need the air conversion.
So that would be $179 for the 180-215 lb United adult trainer, and $30 more to upgrade from the default seat to the Miyata, and you’d be looking at $210 bucks for a great starting Unicycle. The kenda 2.125 tire is pretty cool for starting too.
Is it worth it to eat the $40 on shipping? I say yes, but then again, I love unicycling now. I think $250 is a worthy price.
For your daughter, you could get her that cute 20" jugglebug, or one of the other kid unicycles. Somebody else can advise you there. But you will probably be looking at $120 there, including shipping, at a guess. Maybe a wee bit off, but close.
So, you’d be looking at $370 or so for 2 unicycles, and the large United adult trainer is worth that alone, for me, considering all the time I have spent on it.
I don’t think you can go wrong.
ON THE OTHER HAND, if you could wait until the Torker is restocked, or find another shop with Torkers, there would be nothing wrong with that at all for a starter unicycle. I have no knowledge of the Savage, except that the Savage saddle is (apparently) universally hated.
Is that the “standard” Torker 20" that one often finds as the token unicycle in most bike shops?
I have been tempted to buy one, just for the experience of a comparison, for situations just like this. I’d like to be able to say how the ride on the Torker is. Plus then I’d have 5 friends. Unless you count my real human friends. Then I’d have more than 5.
Sofa wrote:
>
> my friend has a 24" torker. he’s 6 feet, 180 #.
>
> His experience has been good, except for the following (which may not
> conern you)
>
> -no braking surface on the rim
I am a relative newbie, so the regulars will shoot me down if … well they may regardless.
I think that different rims have different profiles or shapes, such that some are curved, some are flat, etc. This affects whether or not the surface is suitable for installing a braking mechanism onto the cycle. The brake would interact with the rim, but apparently the cycle in question does not have a rim surface suitable for good braking contact.
Being new into the world of unicycles, that probably won’t concern you for some time, if ever.
Yes. They are DIRT cheap. Buy one. Maybe you could bust it going off drops bigger than curbs but I don’t. You are 1.33 of me and I don’t think you could break it doing what I do.
The seat simply will not do for you or me. It’s too tiny. I do skills stuff so the Viscount works fine on it. I’m never in the saddle long.
I have a 20" BRIGHT BLUE Jugglebug that I play around on occassionally because it is SO cool looking. I wouldn’t hop a curb with it. Drummond told me it would fold under my weight but I bought it anyway. Just too pretty.
