What 36" rim is best?

My LBS said they had lots of trouble with my 36 airfoil rim, difficulty keeping the tire set evenly on the rim, and that the spoke screw poke through too much, even with the rim strip.

Nimbus Stealth 36", 36 hole, 38mm wide, machined sidewalls for smoother braking doesn’t address the problems noted.

I just assume the KH 36 has by far the best rim, but it’s not made by KH, it’s Nimbus.

What is the best 36 rim?

Nimbus Stealth2 rim is the best!

Did you let your LBS put the rim strip on? These are thick rims, and a normal rim strip is probably not enough. I haven’t had to take my tire off myself, and haven’t seen the rim strip, but I imagine it’s more substantial than what the LBS uses, if not simply wider.

I’ve had that machined sidewall rim and have had no problems, but if you’re using a disc (or no brake at all like me) then you may as well get the one without the machined sidewall.

As far as tires go, It’s a big pain to get the 36er tires on and off from what I hear. Many people have resorted to using hefty metal tire levers, so I could see where a bike shop may not be used to having to work that hard to get a tire on.

The “best” rim would depend on what you want to do with it. Either way I’d get a nimbus rim, and I’d drill mine out if I had the money and/or wasn’t so lazy. Probably not the best idea to use a drilled rim for heavyset folks or offroading, but on road it would be great.

Airfoil is the strongest. Also if you compare strength - weight :slight_smile:
Airfoil 36" Rim 1200grams (catalog weight: 1232grams)
Nimbus Stealth Pro 36" Rim - 1125 gram (catalog weight: 1116 gram)
+75 gram and a deep profile rim = +1
:slight_smile:

Your airfoil rim might be a bit undersized (mine was, even though there was no “X” mark). That might cause the problems with getting your tire seated properly.

I am not sure what you mean by “the spoke screw poke through too much”, do you mean that the spokes go through the nipples so far that they hit the rimstrip? If that is the case is your wheel built 3X or 4X? The airfoil rim has a significantly smaller ERD than the other rims and can be built 4X with the same spokes that other rims would use for 3X lacing.

On a side note if you are going to drill a rim I would only do one surface. I drilled the outer wall on my coker rim with good results but when I rode 36" rims that were drilled all the way through they felt pretty flexy.

EDIT: if you are into road riding there might be a small batch of lighter and narrower 36" rim coming out, but then they might not work so well with magura brakes in existing frames.

I’ll look into this, now I can get started, thanks everyone!

The Nimbus Stealth 2 is wayyyy better than any other rim I’ve used.

“Nimbus Dominator2 Rim,”

Two votes for Nimbus Stealth 2 (without detailing why), though unijuul said Airfoil is the strongest.

On Uni.com website, all the 36 Nimbus including the $930.00 Nimbus 36" Impulse Disc Unicycle have what is called the
“Nimbus Dominator2 Rim,” 36"(black) 36H, 42mm wide, aluminum doublewall, reinforced eyelets, ERD - 767mm.

Is that what you call the Nimbus Stealth 2 rim?

I also noticed the $844.00 KH 36” Rim is just the Nimbus Dominator (black) 36H, 38mm wide, reinforced eyelets, machined sidewall, aluminum.

Is this an older model? It’s not as wide as the Nimbus Dominator2.

Saskatch, Thanks for the details!

Billy

In answer to your question, a free 36" rim.

That’s a good question. I don’t know how much trust can be placed in the pictures, but the rim picture for the Impulse Disk shows “Stealth 787x38” and the rim picture for the Nightrider Pro shows “Stealth2 787x42” Both of their descriptions say Dominator2.

Just to add to the confusion. :wink:

The Dominator2 and Stealth2 are the same rim, and are of 42mm width. The older rim is 38mm width.

?

i have a nimbus stealth one rim that was custom drilled by UDC. it that better than the stealth 2 rim or does the stealth 2 rim still prevail?

Thanks for clearing that up!

I just wonder why KH chose to use the OLD rim, even though the newer “2” rim was available when he came out with his latest Road 36".

Or why they are bothering to make and sell new rims which are not as strong as the old Airfoil?

KH and Nimbus 36" are using the same Stealth2 42mm rim, may be old stock or non update of data …

On KHU web site, it’s clear, 36" rim is 42mm : http://www.krisholm.com/khu/en/kh36

Interesting, because Uni.com lists it as 38 mm wide: http://www.unicycle.com/unicycles/commuter-touring/kris-holm-36-inch-road-unicycle.html/

Rim: Nimbus Dominator (black) 36H, 38mm wide, reinforced eyelets, machined sidewall, aluminum