Next year I’m planning on Muniing some bike races next year. I run a 24" Muni with 170mm Kookas. I was wondering what kind of Muni people use for MTB races and any tips people may have.
I’ve been doing a lot of racing over the last year on my 26’ with 2.6’ Gazz and 170mm cranks. On most of the races I’m spinning an average of 12-14km/h. This is way too undergeared to be competitive in a flat race. Even though it is really hilly here it is still undergeared. The steeper and more technical (and hence slower) the course, the better I do relative to the mountainbikers. It seems that the terrain slows them more than do MUni’s, which go at a relatively steady pace. Also, in the wet and mud, the brakes and gears on a bike don’t work so well so relative to them you are going to do much better (if you like mud that is). I think to be competitive I’m going to get a 700C cyclocross type wheel with 140mm cranks. It will be hard to ride up many hills (they are very steep over here). However, running up them with a lightweight unicycle is almost as fast as trying to grind it out on a low geared unicycle, or granny ring on a bike.
Racing against mountainbikers is fun and a good way to improve your speed/technical skills. They are pretty supportive of us and I’ve been able to get half price entry for most races (half the wheels=half price)
Good luck!
Ken
I havent had experience with this, but maybe i can input. I would think that for an actual race, at least a 26 would be needed, and if the trails are not too rough, then maybe a 29.
My two cents
Scott
You’ll want much shorter cranks than 170mm for racing if you’re going to ride a 24" wheel.
Beware 29" wheels, some races still don’t let them in because they don’t want people on cyclocross bikes getting in the way on the technical bits, so if you’re going that way check with the organisers first.
Races I’ve done haven’t been incredibly technical, you could easily ride the terrain on a 29 with 125 cranks if you’ve been training on that. Unless it’s got some kind of limited entry, most races keep the terrain easy enough so that your average weekend biker can enter without training up and not kill themselves.
Joe
I’m planning to do some 3, 6, and maybe even 12 hour events (but probabl not) with another friend who rides a unicycle. We’re both getting custom made 24" unicycles with 3" wide tyres (hopefully) and 150m cranks. For those of you who don’t know, these events involve 1, 2, 4, or 6 people taking turns doing laps of a track for the set number of hours. The goal is to do as many laps as possible. A lot of these tracks are quite technical so I think this setup will work quite well.
Ken,
You said that the mountain bikers are pretty suportive of unicyclists. Are there any of them that get annnoyed because unicyclists go slower and might get in the way at times? I’d really love to do some racing but I don’t want to annoy people.
Thanks,
Andrew Carter
“You said that the mountain bikers are pretty suportive of unicyclists. Are there any of them that get annnoyed because unicyclists go slower and might get in the way at times?”
Don’t sweat it. The longer the race the more time everybody has to relax and have fun. I did a 24-hr relay last year and there was a team of unicyclists there - those guys got a lot of respect.
Any time there’s a mix of riders, young and old, slow and fast, you’re fine. The racers are passing everybody anyway, and you’re easier to pass, being slower (or maybe not 
), and anybody else will be thrilled to pass somebody!
Tim
Thanks, that’s good to hear. What I need now is a few more people to ride in the races with me. Some day I want to ride in the 24hr race. Have you got any photos of the 24hr that you did?
Andrew
I did it on my bike. I’m just getting into it on a pretty old uni - I’d probably take more than 24 hours to do a lap on a uni, assuming it didn’t break along the way. It’s (OK, I’m) fine on dirt roads, but that’s about it so far…
I usually race in Rec class and so I’m not really that slow compared with bikers. On a 29’er I might even be competitive in the sport class so I might have to build one.
We did the 12hr Day Night Thriller a couple of months ago but the single track was more like double track so we didn’t have any problems. MTBkers reported that we were difficult to pass on the uphills because we were flinging our arms back on forths on one side! Luckily we were going as fast as most riders on the uphills anyway and passed a lot of them. Racing is good fun. You get so many cheers that you feel like a bit dizzy afterwards.
If your keen to come over to NZ for a trip in Mar next year we are planning a unicycle and single speed assault on one of the grittiest gruntiest most epic mountainbike races over here- The 48km Karapoti Classic. More on that later- would be good if any Australian riders were to join us though.
Good luck!
Ken
Have you got any photos of the races? It sounds like heaps of fun. How much faster is a 26", 28" or bigger wheel than a 24"?
Andrew
It depends on the rider. The engine has more to do with speed than the equipment and wheel size.
If you can learn to maintain a high cadence on off-road trails you’ll be fast on the 24x3. The 3" tire makes it easier to just plow over or float over bumps.
My problem is that I find it difficult to ride at a high cadence on off-road trails. I have problems maintaining my balance going over bumps at a high cadence. For me a bigger wheel at a slower cadence works better. But if (when) I get better at maintaining a higher cadence off-road I’ll be faster. Right now I can’t maintain the cadence necessary to keep up with the fast riders. If I try to pedal faster I just end up falling off when I hit a bump.
If the trail is “fast and smooth” a 29er or Coker might be the optimal muni. The rougher, more hilly, and more technical the course is the more the advantage would go to the 24x3 or 26" muni.
With 150mm cranks on a 24x3 you could be quite fast. You might end up with quite a racing machine.
Thanks John, that’s really helpful.
Hey Andrew, are you gonna make it out for a 24hr race this summer? It looks like we may have the people for two teams.
Probably not enough MUni’rs for a London vs Toronto race, but definetly enough for 2 mixed teams. (however, time will tell…it looks like we have about 10 members interested, we’ll see tomorrow)
It was a blast last year, but as the only uni team in a bike race, other than the 20 out of 300 teams we beat, we weren’t competing against anyone (in a good natured way) so it missed out in that aspect.
that was for Drewnicycle, unless Andrew Carter wants to make the trip, of course
I’m hoping to do a 24 hr race or two in the upcoming year. I would also like to see if unicycle category cold be added to a local bikerace negating the need for all the covert ops to get into the race.
There are some races in London, Woodstock, St. Marys, Milton etc. that could be good.
I’d also like to get a Muni skills clinic going, maybe at Hilton Falls in Milton. Lots of ideas…
Two of us rode in a 5 mile Connecticut race a couple of weeks ago: http://www.muniac.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=000127
We got lots of good comments and our own category!