Yuni 29 inch touring cycle

General
1

I am eyeing up the Yuni 29’er on uni.com and considering it as a possible upgrade to the Sem XL 24 inch that I currently commute on. It takes me close to an hour at a comfortable pace to do the moderately hilly 12 km commute on my 24 inch right now.

What would be the pros and cons to doing this route on the 29’er?

Would it be a good idea to sell the Sem and upgrade to the 29 as my road uni? Would the 125 cranks be preferrable for speed to the 150’s - I am sort of thinking 125’s…

Would it be strong enough to hop curbs and do some ‘along the way’ drops and gaps? Would I even be wanting to this type of stuff with a 29’er? :thinking:

What can riding a 29 be compared to; is a 24 to 29 sort of like a 20 to a 24? :thinking:

Erin

2

speaking for the 29" I have, having a Rhynolite rim, it is plenty strong for curbs. but I do not like riding walls on it and would not do any drops bigger than 6" knowing how fast I break things… It would be significantly faster, but it wouldnt be so good for on the ride trials. I would stick to 125’s, unless you plan on using it offroad, then 150’s would be pretty good.

3

Sell the Sem? Why? Do you think you have enough unicycles yet?

Speedwise, riding a 29er is a big improvement over a 24". From the control standpoint, I find very little difference. The 29er’s I have ridden all have had such light wheels that they are easy to control. Some have had very short cranks and that makes things tougher. I have long legs and can soak up the extra length without pumping like crazy so I like longer cranks.

If the tires are the same width, the 29er will also be much more comfortable because it will roll over bumps and irregularities better. The wheel, however, will not be as strong. Curb hopping will be no problem but big drops can hurt a larger diameter, weaker wheel.

If you want to commute, have you considered a Coker? Cokers are incredible and they are cheap in stock form. The differences in speed and control of a Coker are HUGE compared to your 24" wheel. Cokers are like Cadillacs they ride so smoothly and they are fun to ride. If you are coming to Seattle soon for a juggling meet (I think you have done that before, haven’t you?) you can try out several Cokers here as well as some 29er’s and Blue Shift. We have so much stuff here for you to try you could never do it all in one day. A ride is worth a thousand pictures. And, you may use my torque wrench when you are here.

4

Thanks for your post Harper, and the invite to try some of your wheels, ah, and that torque wrench, definitely a magnet pulling me steadily towards Seattle. :smiley:

There a three reasons I am not considering a Coker:

  1. Not enough storage space in the studio where I live
  2. Not enough room in my tiny car to transport it anywhere near or far from home
  3. Too big to take on our local transit, won’t fit in or on our buses and can’t go on the Skytrain

I like to link up longer rides with transit so the third point is a particularly important one. I think that a 29’er would be the upper limit in terms of wheel size when it comes to storage and transport.

I am thinking that a 29’er with the Suzue hub should be strong and fast and smooth and maybe make my commutes even more fun than they are now. :slight_smile:

Erin

5

I find my 28" hard to idle. I still have trouble occasionally when mounting. I love it once I get moving, but mounting on an uphill is tough. It is much easier to ride on a 24".

6

The 29’er YUni from unicycle.com in my opinion has to be the best value race-ready unicycle you can get. And it’s not a bad commuter either. In fact I love it so much my brand new KH24 and all my other uni’s are gathering cobwebs in the shed.

The only thing I would change would be to replace the cheapo plastic pedals with something better. Otherwise it is a really light and fast unicycle. And more than capable of an off-rd excursion or two. The KH saddle (I’m starting to really like this now, despite my earlier reservations) works great, the Yuni frame looks cool, the Suzue hub is tried and tested, the BE cranks are OK so far, the WTB tyre hooks up really well off-road and is very fast on the road. Sure, you will not be able to do big drops on this thing but I’ve so far hammered my YUni through two MTB races and several hundred K’s off-road and it’s still in one piece.

29’ers rule!

Ken

7

The YUni 29’er in action (and why I love it so):

epsn0002.jpg

8

GizmoDuck, fantastic Photo.

I notice two things:

  1. There are B*kers BEHIND you. You’re representin’, well done.

  2. Your number (689) is perfect for reading no matter if your head is higher than your feet, or vice versa. (Watch while I type it upside-down: 689)

Your karma that day must’ve been humming.

I’ve got an IRS check coming soon. (Oh no.)
:frowning:

9

I had a 28" Yuni frame and an extra Suzue hub sitting unused in the garage so with all the talk of 29er’s lately, I had a 29" wheel built up.
I used the Alex Adventurer rim and the WTB Nanoraptor tire. While I was waiting for the wheel I had a friend of mine powdercoat the frame black. What I built up is essentially the same uni as the one you (Erin) are considering.
I first set it up with a set of 140 cranks but I am partial to longer cranks and put on some BE 150’s.
A great deal of my riding is on a 26 X 3 Gazz (which is right about 28" in diameter) with Profile 175’s, so the 29" wasn’t too big of a jump but the lighter weight and shorter cranks made for an exciting change.
It is a fast ride and control was no problem at all. After a few minutes I was feeling right at home. Idling was a breeze and I also hit some of the tamer off-road stuff around the neighborhood and it felt great.
It is a very light unicycle so your carry-on concerns shouldn’t be an issue at all. If your tallest wheel to date is a 24", I think you’ll find a 29" to be very exciting.

(I’m still gonna get a Coker though) :smiley:

10

I have never ridden a 29er, but I own a 28" nimbus and a 26" with nimbus frame and halo contra rim. The 28" has a very narrow tire which makes it very lightweight, but no good for off road. It is a very good uni, but it has gone back into the depths of our garage (aka uni storage room) with the arrival of my coker (WOOHOO!!). The 26 has a 2.3 wide tyre which makes it about 27", for muni i use 170 cranks and for simple cross-country I use 125. These make it pretty good for canal towpaths etc. I would image a 29er to be inbetween the two, with a fairly big wheel and wide tyre. Seems good for cross country and muni and a sensible equvilent to the coker if storage is a problem. I say go for a 29er!

11

Erin,

Hows it going ?

Bought a Coker from Darren,should be hear on saturday,685.00 shipped with air saddle and medium quality pedals.

I’ve never seen one in my life , maybe some pictures of one or two.but from what I hear from the experts ,it’s a blast?
Might be good to get out and brave the highway ,its gonna be awhile before I see any trails for snow around here. Can only increase your skills level all around?ohhHH YAAA MMMOORREEE SSSSPEEEDDDD.

Tim

12

To compare the speeds of two wheel sizes at the same rpm:

Larger wheel diameter, divided by smaller wheel diameter
Multiply the result by 100.
Subtract 100
The result is the difference as a %

So 28/24 = 1.1666
x 100 = 117 (rounded)

  • 100 = 17

So the 28 is 17% faster than the 24
(1) At identical rpm
(2) Assuming the wheels are exactly 28 and 24 inches (this could vary with different tyres).

By the same process:
A 24 is 20% faster than a 20
A Coker is 28.5% faster than a 28
A 29 is only 3.5% faster than a 28

BUT over a journey, the larger wheel will tend to cruise nearer to its top speed, unless there are lots of obstacles and patches of rough ground. So all other things being equal, I’d expect journeys on a 28 to be about 20% faster than on a 24, OR a similar speed, but not as frantic and sweaty. The choice is yours.

Crank size? I find a 28 easy to ride on 110s. It’s even good for light MUni or cross country, and will go up quite steep tarmac hills. For better control, I’d say 125s. There is no need for 150s unless you live in a very hilly area. On the whole, big wheels roll more easily, and 28s are light, so there is no need to try to match the ‘gearing’ of your smaller uni.

A 28 is much safer and more practical than a Coker if you are mixing with traffic or pedestrians. Mounting is much easier. Idling is much easier. Spare tyres are readily available in a range of profiles. A 28 is more manoeuvreable than a Coker. In fact, of all my unis (20,24,26,28,Coker) the 28 is the only one I sometimes find a bit bland - and that’s probably because I tend to ride it on smooth stuff as it has a narrow tyre.

13

Here’s my take on it. 20 inch=baby steps; 24 inch=slow walking; 28 inch=power walking; coker=jogging. If the commuting terrain is challenging or car infested get the yuni, if the terrain is milder without the traffic I see the deluxe Coker in your future. carjug

14

My 24" goes as fast as most joggers at a normal riding speed.

Andrew

15

If you’ve got a 28" nimbus, you’ve got a 29er in all but tyre, although you can’t fit a super fat tyre in the nimbus frame, you can get one somewhat bigger than the one it comes with. Or you could fit a really fat tyre on the wheel and put it in the coker frame to have a play.

Joe

16

Re: Yuni 29 inch touring cycle

If the 29’er Yuni is what unicycle.UK.com sells as 28" Nimbus with
700c wheel (I think it is), then that is the uni that arrived at my
home last Thursday. I swapped the cranks for 150 mm to ease the
transition as I now mostly ride my MUni which is in fact almost 26"
and has 170 mm cranks.

I freemounted after just a few tries to get the right ‘feel’. The
wheel is very light so control was good right from the start. I idled
on my first try.

>Would it be a good idea to sell the Sem and upgrade to the 29 as my road
>uni?
No, unless you’re very short of cash, keep it. The 24" Sem is great
for all-round skills development, the 29’er is restricted in that
area. What you could do to increase the difference between your two
unicycles is to buy a 20" wheel for your Sem. But with the same frame
that is less than ideal because the high frame makes certain skills
(such as gliding) more difficult.

>Would the 125 cranks be preferrable for speed to the 150’s?
Absolutely. I just put 150’s on for the transition. Also I will be
experimenting with a wide range of crank lengths just for fun (and
statistics of course!). Other than that, my final crank length will be
125 or shorter, the Netherlands being as flat as they are. With 150’s,
the uni felt about as fast as the Sem 24" with 125 mm cranks, not
surprising since the gearing is almost identical.

>Would it be strong enough to hop curbs and do some ‘along the way’ drops
>and gaps?
Ahem.
It should be good to hop on and off curbs, otherwise it wouldn’t be
worthy the ‘commuter’ label. But… my soul still hurts at remembering
what happened on my first and only ride on the 29’er. I made a series
of about 20 hops of some 2" height. That set off my cranks by about 15
degrees! Closer inspection revealed that at least one of the tapers
got twisted. Not sure if the cranks are damaged in the process (they
were brand new).

No worry, Roger of unicycle.uk.com agreed that this wasn’t too severe
abuse, even though with a thin (35 mm) tyre and long cranks (and quite
possibly bad hopping technique) the stresses on the hub can be quite
large. They’ll replace the wheel but in the mean time I can’t ride it.
Bummer!

>Would I even be wanting to this type of stuff with a 29’er?
Curb hopping? I think yes.

>What can riding a 29 be compared to; is a 24 to 29 sort of like a 20 to
>a 24?
From my limited experience: yes.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict

I know what you are thinking and you should be ashamed of your self.

17

I know I’m gonna get laughed outta town riding this thing but I guess ,maybe its more about just joking around and having a goofy time ,if I want to go fast i’ll ride my Launch.

Tim

18

–Wow, your joggers down there must be out of shape! :@]} carjug

19

Years ago I went through a phase of going to the gym and using the running machine. One of my friends was a keen marathon/half marathon runner. He told me that the ‘threshold’ between running and jogging was something around 8 minute miles. (He was much better than that, but this was where he drew the distinction.)

8 minute miles = an average of 7.5 mph.

Most joggers shuffle around at rather less than that, although individual parts of their anatomy travel much faster if you take into account vertical and horizontal oscillations. ;0P

Most reasonable unicyclists could sustain 8 - 9 mph for a mile on a 24.