It is funny you should bring this up, because I just had my own
experience with the Big Apple tire that appears in some ways to be
similar to yours.
I had a Bontranger 26inch on my 26er Yuni/nimbus and last week I had the
chance to obtain a Big Apple 26x2.35, actually from the same source as
yourself, that excellent wizard of unicycle mechanics, Mr. U-turn.
Happily, at the unicycle club meeting, I put the awsome tire on my uni,
and wow, what a great and different ride it was! That tire totally
rocks! I rode like an angel with nuclear wings--ok, not as good as that,
but I felt like my riding improved 10 fold with the BA.
Then....Unfortunetly, for the next three or four days, I had
unbelieveable problems with it. I had trouble freemounting (I have
always had trouble freemounting, but just prior to this, I seemed to
have put the freemounting demon in its place at last) and when I rode, I
was all over the place. A wobbeling catastrophe, I was.
I changed crank arms (I was on 5 inch cranks, I changed back to 6
inch)--no change. That tire, as excellent and as marvelous as it had
felt on its first day, was proving to be a tempermental piece of rubber
and kevlar.
It kept bringing me to the middle of the road--this is a drag for me
because I prefer to ride on the far right of the path so the faster
bikers can easily pass. I felt that I was expounding engery just
fighting with the unicycle to keep it where I wanted it.
I ended up putting the Bontranger back on. I rode 6 miles today, no
hassel. With 5 inch cranks. Freemounting was a breeze. No problems
there...
My conclusion? The BA is a superior tire, hands down. When it is on my
uni, I feel like I'm riding a thoroughbred horse, but one that needs a
more experienced jocky. Because I am far from being a good unicycli--uh,
in my case, I say unicycler because I'm not good enough to say
unicyclist just yet, there are some things I am not ready for--and I
think the BA is one of them. The Bontranger suits my needs for the
moment--that is, riding distances in a straight line. Still, I am
totally glad that I now have a Big Apple in my closet, and I hope to
continue getting better and better so I'll be good enough to use it in
the not too distant future.
I must also say that part of the problem could be DX32 rim, which
appears to be in need of truing--when I spin the wheel when the uni is
upsidedown, it appears to be warped. It is entierely possible that the
Big Apple is a far more intuitive tire, and it may be one that not only
amplifies the subtitles of your hip and foot movements, but a tire that
also reacts to any kind of warping in your rim. I'll know when I true my
wheel, and I slap the old BA back on.
But back to you, Steveyo (sorry, I went off on a tirade regarding my own
BA experience) it could be that the BA is a tire that needs a bit of
work--you are probebly a much better rider than I am, but this could be
one of those tempermental objects that one needs to get used to. I did
notice in my tire a tendency it had to drift in a direction I was not
happy about. Is it a part of the BA experience to tame that tire? I
blame it on my own inexperience as a rider, and I also blame it on the
rim. But maybe the BA is a sophisticated tire in the end that is worth
the efforts to tame it--certainly, I have heard a lot of great things
about it. I thought I was the only one to experience a drifting problem.
Are there others?
Still, I am not complaining. I cant help but remember how excellent the
BA felt when I first put it on. What happened? I don't really know.
Still, I'm looking forward to the day when I feel confident enough to
put it back on my unicycle...
--
dogbowl - Falling to Dark Side of theUnicycle
All I want out of life is to be able to ride the unicycle while smoking
a cigar at the same time. Is that too much to ask for?
www.dogbowl.com / www.eyeballplanet.com
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