less spokes for roadbikes?

its mostly about it being lighter..but comes at the price of less
durability.

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yeah, road bikes are sometimes built to the gram, and anything you can
take off and still have it ridable, will be removed. Not a great idea
on a unicycle :P

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flyer
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Road bikes are not only built to be as light as possible, they are built
to flow trough the air with the least possible amount of resistance..
Less spokes means less air resistance.. so does thinner tyres (20/23 mm
is the standard), so does aerodynamic seatposts.. The wheels doesn't
only have few spokes, often they even are flat, to cut trough the air
more effective..

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I <3 my unicycle!
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For most bicyclists, it's no more than fashion. However, spokes are
rotating weight, so they have a bigger effect on acceleration, braking
and (on the front wheel) turning than fixed items like the frame or
seat.

Spokes move faster through the air than the frame, handlebars etc, so
their aerodynamic drag is more significant, and if the number of spokes
can be reduced, or the spokes can be made slimmer, or more aerodynamic,
that's also good.

But, let's not miss the basic point: it's fashion, for 99.9999% of
people daft enough to pay the extra. You can save weight by eating
less, or not carrying a cable lock, or not having a full bottle of
water (1 litre = 1 kg). You can save drag by wearing tighter clothes,
or riding in a better posture.

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Mikefule

So, do you ride with a club?

No, but I carry a heavy spanner.
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Mikefule said:

Spokes move faster through the air than the frame, handlebars etc, so
their aerodynamic drag is more significant

Twice faster to be exact

Quoted message said:

You can save weight by eating less, or not carrying a cable lock, or
not having a full bottle of water (1 litre = 1 kg). You can save drag
by wearing tighter clothes, or riding in a better posture.

Here is the point, i do agree

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manu2015
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manu2015 said:

Twice faster to be exact

At what point on the spoke? Each point along the length of the spoke
has a different speed when the bike is moving. Only the ends of the
spokes at the top of the wheel are moving not quite twice as fast as
the bike. To be exact. 🙂

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fcwegnm0b

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Unless you use Shimano 545- very few spokes, very unaerodynamic and very
heavy. Other than than I love my bike:
http://www.adventureunicyclist.com/my_unicycles.htm
Scroll down 3/4 of the way down the page

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o-kO
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'Laos Unicycle Tour' (http://www.laosunitour.org)
'New Zealand Unicycle Federation' (http://www.unicycle.org.nz)
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jagur said:

its mostly about it being lighter..but comes at the price of less
durability.

I know what you are saying jagur, but a couple of years ago I bought
the budget Bontrager road wheels that are spoked 20 front / 24 rear.

I am more than a a tad overweight but in all my years of riding, I've
never had a more solid set of wheels - they've not needed truing since
I've bought them.

I think that improvements in design through computer simulation and
materials science, coupled with advanced CNC machining, produce wheels
and other components in styles and configurations that were undreamt of
a few years ago.

I am not saying that style and fashion are not factors, but the bike
market is huge and this allows for big R&D budgets to make the "dream"
components for the consumer.

This kind of technology will eventually filter down to the unicycle
market (just look at the CF saddle base and CF frames), but ultimately
these innovations are driven by demand from a consumer base that can
sustain the development costs.

Oh yes - I must not forget the other key factor which is the extremely
cheap labour market in the far-East. Without that factor your budget
uni would probably cost in the region of several hundred quid! Where
will we be when those countries start getting richer and demanding
higher salaries?

Enough of my ranting.

In summary, a properly built set of 20/24 spoked wheels are perfectly
adequate for road use, even by fatties like me!

Hooked

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totally_hooked

Unicycling is better than Prozac 🙂
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But on the equipment/fashion/function point, Aspenmike, who posts in
this forum, achieves rides on a 36 spoke single speed direct-drive
fixed wheel unicycle that most people would find difficult on the
lightest best quality multi-speed bicycle.

I ride in Sherwood forest regularly, and see people (usually men) on 21
(or more?) speed bicycles with front and rear suspension and disc
brakes. They typically stand on the pedals, pedal for 3.5 revolutions
in top gear then coast for a bit. Equally typically, they are followed
by a wife or girlfriend on a basic heavy 12 speed "mountain bike
lookie-likie", painted pink (the bike, not the wife) and with a big
heavy child seat with a big heavy child in it.

Purchasing decisions clearly made on the basis of fashion and status.

In the wacky world of motorcycling, it is possible to buy self-adhesive
sheets of carbon fibre to make your bike look lighter (whilst making it
very slightly heavier).

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So, do you ride with a club?

No, but I carry a heavy spanner.
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Quoted message said:

no more than 20 spokes on each wheel. Does this just make the bike
lighter? Easier to go over bumps

I had a road bike once so thought I'd try to make it lighter by cutting
out all the spokes...

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Iwantaunicycle
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Iwantaunicycle said:

I had a road bike once so thought I'd try to make it lighter by cutting
out all the spokes...

When I was a nipper (about 15 actually), my cycling buddies told me
that a "top" local rider drilled holes in his spokes to cut down
weight😄

I believed them:eek:

This was however at the time that roadies were fanatical about reducing
the weight of their machines, including drilled seatposts, derailleur
cages and even jockey wheels!

Come to think about it, its 20 years on and it suddenly seems that MTBs
are attracting the drill-out merchants......

Hmmm, I wonder how light I can make my muni with judicious use of a
machine shop.........

--
totally_hooked

Unicycling is better than Prozac 🙂
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