If I buy a Qu-ax unicycle (or any other brand), then start replacing the parts (let’s say with KH and Nimbus), when does the unicycle cease to be the original brand?
Does the frame make the brand, or is it a combination of components? If you have a hybrid machine and an uninformed stranger (looking to buy his/her son a birthday present) asks what brand it is, would you say Qu-ax, KH, Nimbus et al. or break it down part by part?
(Yes, I just bought a Qu-ax. My plan is to replace all its parts and turn it into a KH.)
It’s all about the frame! My Torker DX 24" is my first uni to have no original parts left except the frame, but it’s still a Torker. Ditto for my Miyata fixed gear bike, and several other bikes I’ve had.
Not sure if that’s the case. You can change a picture frame but what’s inside the frame is what matters. So, in order, would go with the wheelset, then frame then everything else.
Motorcycles are much easier. People can change every single piece on a Harley Davidson and still say Harley’s are the best. So the name on the title or original purchase reciept must be what it is, reguardless of the parts.:D:D:D
It started as a stock kh 24 Muni, but almost like a caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly, it has morphed into something entirely different and unique, retaining only one original kh part; It’s my 24 ultra climber: Impact frame, Thomson seat post, Scott Wallis carbon fiber seat base and lift handle, kh saddle cover and t-handle, magura brake, hope quck release collar, alienation “deviant” rim, Intense micro knobby tire, Quax cranks, Wellgo MG-1 pedals! There’s really no way label it with a single brand name. It’s a total 31 flavors uni!
This is a new version of “my grandfather’s axe”. (My father changed the handle and I changed the head.)
One of my unis (a Pashley 26" Muni) is defined by the tyre: the Holy Roller. This is because I was finding the uni almosty unrideable until I found a perfect tyre for it: the Holy Roller 2.3" .
One of my unis is defined by the wheel: “The Bacon Slicer” because I had the skinny, deep-rimmed wheel custom made and then built a uni around it.
All of my others are simply defined by their original brand: either KH or Nimbus. In each case, I would say that the frame is the defining feature for branding. If a uni is too heavily modified, it might be called “A KH frame with a such and such wheel,” or whatever.
On the whole, I think riding them is better than defining them.
eBay sellers often identify used unicycles by whatever name they can find on them. So any unicycle with a Kris Holm seat tends to be called a Kris Holm. Old no-name unicycles with Messenger seats were labeled Messenger, though that was just the seat company and never made unicycles.
Jenack Circus Corp. used to (re)sell Panasonic unicycles. Panasonic never made a unicycle either. They made a sticker. Was it a Panasonic unicycle? I guess, since that’s what it was sold as. So what if I put a Kris Holm seat on the Panasonic? Strictly speaking, then it would be neither. To a collector, if there are ever more than five of us, you would want the cycle to be complete with its original parts.
I would agree with most that the frame is the core, but the more you change of the rest of it, the farther it gets from its original identity.
