I have ridden a United trials cycle for almost three years now, and it is officially dead. I loved how light it was. I wish now for a square frame, and cranks that won’t die on me. I need splines. I need lightweight; no more than 13 lbs. I don’t particularly like the look of the KH, and I think I would be unsatisfied with it for some reason, but I don’t know because I’ve never ridden one. I’ve ridden a Torker DX, and that was too heavy. I need a thick wheel for gripping. I was going to wait for the 2006 KH to come out, but then Mr. Holm told me that he doesn’t exactly have yearly models as much as upgrades when he thinks of them, and I can think of some, but I can only buy what is being sold.
Thoughts on a unicycle for me?
I’ve been borrowing my friend’s torker (semi light one with a bike-like 20" tire, not sure of the model,) and it has been fun in holding me over, but he needed it back and I need a fix now.
You’re being way too picky. Either don’t whine about the looks of a unicycle, lose the weight requirement, pay gobs of cash, or become an excellent metalworker and make your own unicycle. I would reccomend you do the first two. Go to a muni weekend, you’ll se riders doing 30" hops on 17lb munis. You don’t hear them complaining about weight.
you just might be able to get another united like your old one… possibly.
but yeah… if not, i’d either piece together one of your own from parts, or lose one of those requirements… like gerbilfranken here says, you’re being way too picky for the current market. you’re either going to have to lose one of those requirements or make your own custom one…
Maybe you misunderstood me… Where do you think I was “whining about looks”? I want a square frame because it’s easier for me to stand on the frame that way.
I have seen riders jump high with heavy cycles, and I don’t feel like I am capable of the same stuff, so I’m looking for something light, so that I can have the most fun in my capacity. I don’t have extra money to throw around.
I feel like your reply was hurtful, and I don’t really appreciate the kind of attacking attitude that I got from it. I’m just trying to ask for help from other unicyclists, and I thought this would be a good place to get some friendly advice.
I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to hurt your feelings. I did misunderstand you, inferring that “the look of” was literal, not a reference to the impression it left you. In retrospect I was wrong.
Really, weight is irrelevent. It’s all mental. I thought the same things you did, until I started riding trials on my muni. The only thing I don’t like about trials on my muni is there’s the chance of breaking my brake during crashes. Other than that, the weight isn’t really noticable. Seriously, I’m ultra scrawny, and rather weak, yet I have no troubles doing decent sized hops on my 16-17lb muni.
As for the KH crown, it’s pretty nice for wheelwalking. I’m no good at standup ww, so I can’t say much about it, but from what I’ve seen it’s pretty nice. No trials uni is the perfect freestyle uni, but KH comes pretty close.
I still have a 4 year old united muni frame (hot pink), so I feel your pain. I have long since upgraded every part on the unicycle from cranks to hub, to seat posts and seat, basically the only part I have left from the united is the frame.
I hear your pain of the rounded crown it does suck for alot of things but at the same time it works just fine for alot of others. I have been meaning to get rid of my frame for some time now and if I would probably choose the KH 05 frame if I was getting one off the shelf. The frame while rounded does have a good place to put your foot, as well as for the price you can not beat the weight. Its freakin light.
As it stands now however I think I’m going to hold out and get a custom frame welded up by a friend it will probably weigh a ton more but it will be handmade and look all that much cooler than something that is one in 10,000.
Thanks for the apology. ALso, thanks for the perspective, I’ll definitely take it into consideration. I’m thinking what I’ll do is get the profile crank/hub set, put it in a monty rim, use the monty tire I have now, get cheap spokes, and figure out some frame, using my existing Kris Holm seat and maybe put more padding in it. That will cost the same as a KH would, and I’ll have a crank warranty. Plus, it’ll probably only weigh like 13 lbs.(looking at the unitedw/profile hub on unicycle.com,) plus however much heavier the frame is than the one I have now.
It sounds like to me from you other post that while the square taper cranks were falling off, you wernt bending and breaking them at any alarming rate. If you were dont listen to my following advice.
I have profile cranks and I’d have to say that for the price now I would invest in the newer KH/Onza hub and cranks or the Koxx. It used to be that your only option was a square taper or profiles but that is no longer the case. And unless you are REALLY hard on your equipment the profile warentee is not worth the price.
As far as fitting the kh bearings in a united frame I dont think you’d have any problems, if there is a small gap the tried and true soda can shim method will fix it right up.
If you are thinking the Profile cranks and hub is a lighter setup than others I’m fairly sure thats just wrong, profiles are chunky like half a kg per crank.
I was a tried and true monty rim fan for the longest time, but I did end up killing 2 of them, now I am on an alex rim from bedford and couldnt be happier. With heavy use the rim still looks like new, unlike my last monty. Your monty tire will still fit on the alex rim too.
If you are on a budget you can reuse your rim, tire, seat, and frame and get a splined crankset and spokes from bedford to build back into the old rim.
If you are not on that much of a budget I would give Darren a call and just get a 2005/6 KH20, keep your extra parts that you already have and use them as spares for when you need them, or sell off the parts that you dont need.
