I know this has been discussed in previous threads but I seem to be unable to find them. So feel free to answer with links to other topics.
My new M4O uni always pulls right, I’m unable to ride it upright unless the road is slightly tilted to the left. I know it’s not me because I ride the same routes on both my 27.5’’ and my 36’’ and I know pretty well where the road is tilted such that they pull right or left and it’s the same places with the two but not with the new M4O.
I checked whether the saddle is straight and I checked whether the wheel is centred (I didn’t measure it, though - it just looked centred). What else is there to check?
Are the cranks, tire pressure or anything else different from your other unicycles? What I have discovered is that my right side is my strong side and if I’m fatigued or if my tire is underinflated then it will feel like my unicycle always wants to pull right. It’ll feel like my back is crooked and I have to twist to the left a bit in the seat to ride straight. Holding on to the seat or handlebar helps somewhat.
The cranks are a little bit shorter but apart from that nothing’s to different. The tire is very similar to the one on the 36’'. The effect is to strong and there is to much of a difference that it could be only due to what my strong side is.
I’ll definitely will check the tyre. I don’t have a spare 29er lying around but I’ll try to mount it the wrong way round and see whether this inverses the effect.
I had a hard time finding just the right tire for my 29er road uni and tried several with severe camber issues. I settled on a schwablee marathon, solved my problems.
It’s amazing how radiculously complicated these one one wheeled machines are to dial in. Once you think you’ve got it nailed, the damn thing throws you a curve ball.
I took my G26 out yesterday, after not riding it for a year. During my first lap around the neighborhood, I was veering to the left. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing mechanically wrong with my G26. I think the unfamiliarity of it exposed my dominant/weak side issues, causing the drift to the left.
@r4nd1nt Maybe you have adapted to camber on your other wheel sizes and it will take time to adapt on your new wheel?
In another thread about road camber, someone pointed out that the best technique to deal with camber was to make the unicycle perpendicular to the road. I practiced this technique recently in a neighborhood with sloping gutters (rather than curbs). I had to stick my hip far out to one side and lean my upper body to the other. For anyone having camber related issues, try practicing on short segments with extreme camber.
This is something that I think most unicyclists experience at some point and it’s not always that easy to pin down the cause.
To start with some tyres are just worse on camber than others. I’ve never had one actually be moulded wrong such that spinning it around would make a difference, but the roundness and stiffness of the sidewalls can make quite a difference on almost imperceptibly cambered roads.
Then foot placement side to side as well as rotation on the pedals, a seat that’s not straight, bars that aren’t straight, or unintentionally riding more to one side than the other (something as simple as a backpack not being straight or having a large water bottle in one side can do this to me sometimes).
I’d firstly try adding pressure to the tyre to see if the issue goes away, and if you can, try riding some sections in the reverse direction (the identical line, not just the same road) to see if the issue is the same.
Also, make sure that everything is straight and true on your 36er. You might have just adjusted to that being off, and now the perfectly set up 27.5 feels wrong because of it.
I’ve measured everything on the uni and couldn’t find any unstraightness.
I know about road camber and that some tyres are better dealing with it. What confuses me is that only camber in one direction is a problem. In the other direction this uni is even more comfortable to ride because that’s the only time I can sit in it straight. I even have to lean right on a perfectly flat road.
I have done this and it’s definitely easier in one direction. At this point I try to find lines that are tilted to the left to be able to ride upright.
It’s my new 29er I have troubles with. It’s highly unlikely that my 24’‘, my 27.5’’ and my 36’’ all have the same problems and that the new 29er is the only one without the others un-trueness.
Then I wonder how long this is going to take. I’ve ridden it for 50 kilometers and it’s still the same. I’m starting to give up on this uni because every other uni I have is more comfortable to ride. After putting some distance on this one one leg and one side of my butt is starting to hurt from leaning to the right.
I like riding at least 10-20km in one go. We don’t have any roads where you can ride this distance perpendicular to the road.
Ahh, I gotcha. I misread the above as if it was the new 27.5 and the old 36er.
Is your seat/handle setup different on this unicycle? Presuming you’re holding on with one hand, what happens if you stop holding on/use the other hand?
I think we can close this thread. I flipped the tyre and even on a very short ride it became obvious right away that in now pulls left and I have to lean to the right to ride straight
Interestingly I couldn’t find an arrow pointing in the direction of the rotation. Bit I guess I have to replace that tyre anyway.
EDIT: For reference: It’s a Vee Speeeldster 2.3. But maybe it was just bad luck and QC failed on my tyre.
Sorry for the confusion. I don’t mean perpendicular to the direction of the road…rather I mean the upright angle of the unicycle is perpendicular to the surface of the road.
Does it look symmetrical to the eye when installed?
Regarding arrows, if it’s a symmetrical tread design (like the Speedster) then there often isn’t an arrow as it doesn’t (shouldn’t) matter which way you install it.
Generally you want your tyre to grip more under braking, so even without an arrow if you imagine the tyre sliding across the ground you can work out which way it would want to be to grab the ground better on non-symmetrical tread patterns.
If you were designing a unicycle specifically for off-road hill climbing then you’d likely run the tyre the opposite way around.
I had a feeling that when you turned that tire around, you were going to say that. Seems like something is off with that particular tire, but the Vee Speedster is the most camber sensitive tire that I have ever ridden! It makes riding my 29er no fun. I put it on the front on my mountain bike and it pulls the steering noticeably on that as well! My speedster was the 2.8 inch wide size.
I have tried quite a few tyres for road riding and have also come across a couple that were truly awful in this regard. On a bike they might be ok or barely noticeable but on a unicycle a tyre that pulls to one side can really suck all the fun out of riding. I think you are going to need to lose that tyre and mount something else.
you flipped the tire or just turned the seat around?
For me it was my Hatchet that pulled more to one side than the other, but that was because the seat wasn’t exactly in the middle.
I replaced my Vee Speedster with a WTB Slick in the 2.2 x 29 size. I was disappointed in loosing some width (and height) but that tire behaves really well on a unicycle. Very low camber sensitivity and low rolling/turning resistance. Joyful riding has returned.
