When I was learning I did commute with my 20 for a while. It was a great workout and excellent practice but took me almost as long as walking and tired me out way more.
Now that I am a better rider I do find using a 20 faster and not much effort more than walking but the 26 is worlds better for getting around. Since you are talking more about transportation and getting around I would suggest starting off with a 24 or 26. After a while riding a 20 makes it feel like your feet are going in fast little circles but you are only going as fast as a jogger.
At 26" the efficiency reaches about that of jogging. At 20" I’d say efficiency is less than walking. On my 36" I’m going ~12mph at about the heart rate that would have me running half that speed!
Starting on a 20 is ideal. A 20 with a low seat is great to learn idling and backwards, cause if you fall it’s more fun to fall off a 20, plus easier to catch yourself. Any starting rider could make good use of that uni.
Riding 20’s is very tiring at first when one starts learning. I remember being all tired very quick 2 years ago, and would say riding a 20 for a few miles was much harder then walking.
Now I ride my 20 to a local park, play around there and ride back, maybe 5 miles, and the riding part is easy. Not very fast, but not tiring at all, even with the seat real low, so my legs are always really bent (hopping uni’s need a low seat).
I am sure what makes doing a mile on a 20 hard is all about muscle tension, because it is new. I have been lifting weights for many years, and I can lift no more now then before I started riding. Two years ago riding a 20 a mile was really hard. Now, it is easier then walking, and slightly faster.
If you want to start riding and finding uni’s is difficult where you live, I want you to know that the Qu ax is one of the better brands, and 200 $ is not so far off what the yanks are paying.
Feel the Light, do you mean to say that learning to unicycle on the 24" is much more difficult than doing so on the 20"?
Thanks for the sensible advice Unicorn. I was leaning towards your advice because you said a 24" is the best all-round unicyle. Then Feel the Light spoke convincingly about ease of learning with a 20" and now I am not so sure. The 20" surely is tempting because it is sitting right there at the shop while I have to wait 5-6 months for the 24" Cross and do not yet know how much more I will have to pay for it should I opt to buy it.
If you dont understand this, get on a 20" BMX and 24" BMX and you will notice one is very slow and doesnt go far, the other feels fast.
If you just want to cruise, get the 24". If you want to also learn how to spin it around, do tricks, hop, etc., start out with a 20" and get a larger uni later too. Unless you are close to 6’ tall, might be better go with the 24" anyways and get a smaller one later if you really want to focus on tricks. I have a small uni and its fun, but I am looking now for something just for cruising. It takes a lot of work to ride a small wheel with knobby tires on the street for any distance.
If you can bear to wait, I would go for the 24". learning may be a little more difficult due to the bigger wheel size, but not much. As you have pressure from around you not to get one at all, you should get the one you would prefer to have in the long term - they may be very unhappy that you’ve got two! Of course a spare unicycle would be useful to get others to learn
Thanks Joemarshall and hansc for suggesting about http://www.einradladen.net. I checked and found that they deliver to Lebanon and accept credit cards. I am thinking of buying the “24 Inch Unicycle Club UDC”. It seems to be quite affordable. Is it good? I intend to use it on the road (asphalt and rough).
I think it’s good that you go for the 24" wheel size. It takes a bit more time to learn on a 24" than on a 20" but what matters most is what you eventually want to do with the uni. Since you want to use the unicycle for getting around, 24" is a good wheel size for distances up to say 5 or 10 km.
I would advise to start the learning process with relatively long cranks, such as 140 or 150 mm. Once you can ride confidently, you could mount shorter cranks, in the 100 to 125 mm range. Cranks are not expensive, and short cranks are like a poor man’s gear: they make you go faster.
The Club Freestyle seems to be a good unicycle for the price. For learning and riding on asphalt there shouldn’t be any problems. How rough terrain to you plan to ride on?
Some things you might want to upgrade later on:
Seatpost clamp, to one that isn’t quick release.
A better saddle. I don’t know how comfortable the saddle on that unicycle is (hopefully someone else can tell you), but you’ll put most of your weight on the saddle when riding.
Maybe metal pedals.
I also advice you to start with longer cranks. When I changed from 150 mm to 125 mm I thought the difference was huge - it felt like a new unicycle. At that time I said to my friend, “I don’t need to go faster than this!”. Oh how wrong I was.
That Club or any uni w/ cotterless cranks (and especially learner unis) isn’t that strong and won’t put up drops or a lot of hopping, so only XC trails.
I’d get the 20" and some other crank sizes. That w/ 150 mm cranks will be among the easiest to learn the basics and later on, backwards and other tricks, also you could loan it out for friends to learn. The advantage over the 24" is it’s a little easier, but more importantly for me less scary (lower speed and to the ground = less nasty UPD’s, esp w/ 150’s).
When you’ve mastered the 20, get a bigger wheel. If you want to do some off road I’d get a Muni. A 24" will be better early on and really technical bits, and a 26" will be faster, roll over bumps better, and better for riding around town, but harder early on and in technical sections. Even more so w/ a 29".
I often do my 2.5 mi / 4 km commute on my 20". At first it took me an hour and now I can do it in 30 min. I actually like that it’s hard to roll over bumps. I can practice rolling bumpy stuff and skinnies on the street w/ less scary UPD’s and then when I get on my Muni I can do even bigger stuff than I could before.
I doubt I’d commute anything over 10 km. and if I did something close to that, I’d probably want to do it on a much bigger wheel, like a 29".
You should be able to learn easy on a 24 inch. I learned to barely ride on a 20 inch and when I bought my 24 inch after two weeks It was so much easier to ride on! I have friends that I have taught to ride who learned on my 24 inch. So it is no problem learning on a 24 inch and might even be easier.
Definetely go for the 24 incher. It is much more practicle.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I value everyone’s advice. I made my choice and ordered the 24" Unicycle Club UDC as well as a pair of longer (152mm) cranks. I only have to pay for them (via bank transfer) and wait for it to arrive. Hopefully I’ll be unicycling in a few weeks!
I wouldn’t say the 20" is absolutely useless to get around on. The reason I say this is that I have 89mm cranks on my 20" and I get around at a good rate. But most 20" have longer cranks, so they are less efficient for transportation.
Disclaimer: I have never ridden any uni larger than a 20".
