Last week I bought this T-Bar for the Nimbus 29", which I use most. It rubs a bit against my legs, but nevertheless it is great to now be able to ride with a TBar.
Today I ordered my 8th uni. A Nimbus 32" with KH Freeride saddle and KH Muni T-Bar. Now that I’m buying a new uni, I might as well make it all perfect:
Mainly I wanna try a 32" because mounting the 36" still is a nightmare for me and true enough I haven’t practiced as much as I could have. The 32" will hopefully be more like the 29" and be a little faster. I hope it won’t be as much a flop as the Geared Schlumpf I bought a few months ago. Still haven’t been able to ride in high gear. Wasted a lot of money on it, though I ain’t gonna sell it
Maybe this shouldn’t have been a new thread, but just an addition to the “Today I brag thread…”
So to make it a little bit more thread-worthy, what are your experiences with a 32"?
The Qu-ax handle is good, but it does rub your legs a little bit. (I have one.) Not so much that it interferes, but it would be nice if they modified the “T” connection so it was narrower, or lengthened the mounting stem so it clears your legs.
Nice 29’r! I’ll bet it’s nice to ride!
I find the 32" easier to mount than a 36". Not sure how much faster it may be than a 29r, I’ve never ridden one. But I’m a pretty slow rider in general. Overall, I really like the 32". I can ride it in crowds (or pretty much anywhere) with confidence. And it does distances well (I do 20 mile rides fairly often, sometimes longer).
Riding a Schlumpf takes a LOT of practice (for some people, like me for instance). My personal opinion is that I will probably have to ride about a thousand miles in high gear before I’m “used to it.” I’m no where near there yet, a few hundred at most. It’s still hard. But props for not giving up, stick with it and eventually it will get easier. How long are the cranks you’re using on the Schlumpf? Longer makes it easier. I have multi-position on mine, and 150mm is the “easiest” setting. 130mm is better for regular 1:1 riding, but it’s harder to ride in high gear. So I leave it at 150 most of the time. (You may want to swap out the Schlumpf hub from the 36 into the 32 or 29. It will probably be easier.)
Of course you will. The N+1 formula is separate from that. You’ll be happy with those as well
The 32" should be both of those things, but I don’t own one I think Lance will agree on that though. Mounting a 36" is a bigger thing, not just because it’s a bigger wheel, but also because it’s a heavier wheel. But it’s worth learning. Just stick with it and you will get it. Practice doing it while going slow, which will enhance your sensitivity to getting it accurate.
Like Lance said, just gotta stick with it. Or build it into a smaller wheel, which will help, in proportion to how much smaller the wheel is. But they ride “funny”, and the only way to get used to it is to put in the time. I’ve ridden mine thousands of miles but am still learning. Unicycles are supposed to be hard, and I enjoy the challenge.
I’ve probably got less than 200 on mine, which might explain why I still find it hard!
Without any experience of a Schlumpf in a 36, I’d expect it to be a lot harder to learn than on a smaller wheel - mine is a 29 which seems OK and I wouldn’t want a bigger wheel to have to accelerate to stay in balance (though I do wonder whether the actual balance envelope on a 36 is bigger as everything is a bit slower, so not such a big difference once you can ride one).
Same here. Mine is in a 24" and I find it very hard and unforgiving to ride. I’m getting better at it, but confortable is not the word yet. Undreamer here is pretty good at it, but he probably put in close to 1000 miles.
The good thing that it triggered though, is that riding my 36 has never felt easier!
I must have rode between 550 and 650 km on my g26+ indeed, so i’m not even close to the 1000 “miles” but it’s still a bunch of 20 to 30 km rides and I can say that it’s definitely worths it!
These days I feel the envy of having a geared hub on a bigger wheel, unfortunately a geared hub is rare and very expensive, even a second hand one, so if I go for bigger guni I will have to take it from my g26+ which is an arrow in the heart.
So I am now thinking about a g29+ or a g36 (and if kh was making a g32 frame it would enter in the equation as well) so if I do that my g26+ will return to the state
of pure ungeared muni machine (still with rim brakes but without handlebars this time: simpler and lighter)
Or… just keep on enjoying this very versatile machine few more hundreds of km…
Anyway, whatever the decision I take I’m glad to have started practicing guni with a not too big wheel, and since I also rode the pierrox’s g24 I would recommand you to mount your schlumpf hub on a 24" instead of your g29 and ride it hundreds and hundreds of miles until it becomes natural, then upgrading the wheel size if you feel the need.
It was hard at the begining, didn’t feel comfortable but with enough practice riding in high gear finished by being natural and when it happens you have two unis in one!
Forgot to add another thought… I find the 1.5:1 ratio a little bit on the high side, the gap between the two gears is pretty big, which makes it complicated with crank length. In my case for instance, I have 137mm on the 24". In no gear, that makes a good muni, but then in high gear, I wouldn’t it that off-road. In town in high gear, it’s interesting, but when I switch to low gear, I feel like I’m not moving anymore (I looooooove 125mm cranks on an urban 24").
So in my ideal world, the Schlumpf would only do about 30% jump, or it could be ordered with the choice. And of course it would be cheaper, but that’s beyond ideal world, that’s dream land… Actually, dreamland would be cheaper, lighter and with 3 speeds!
Pierrox : soon you will find that a little bit more than x1.54 would be great
When I am on a long and empty bike paths or a very long road on my g26+ I often regret that there is not a 3rd speed with a higher ratio.
What you can do to get used to this big jump is trying to shift up and down at each single occasion, and also doing the up shift not to soon, I mean you have to pedal fast enough so that you never struggle with the high gear at low speed, cause the “1.54 is too much” feeling is real at low speed but disapears when you reach a certain cadence.
Uhm my Schlumpf is in a 29". The 36" is just as is. I believe the best way to learn was to ride off in 1:1 gear and while riding change to high gear. It already takes a lot of focus to have my heel hit the crank at the right moment, so I tried mounting in high gear. When the free mounting felt really weird, I thought to try it by staying upright against the wall, but then I roll too quickly, so either I should allow myself some UPDs while riding and shifting to high gear or I should get used to the behaviour when free-mounting in high gear. The uni is also heavier than a normal one, so I quickly burn through my energy while trying to mount.
In my initial post I rode that the touring bar only slightly runs against my legs. Well today I rode 12km while my brother in law jogged beside me. When I came home my shorts and muni were sticking with blood and the was a red rub-mark on my right leg that still hurts like hell. Even thought it is great to feel something other than the saddle handle with my hands, it is too wide close to the saddle. So either I can buy some real tight cycle pants or I have to take it off again.
