A few weeks ago I asked some questions about assembling a
29" unicycle for road use and recieved a lot of usefull
advice about components etc. (tinyurl.comywna3Open ↗)
During the thread a few people suggested that I should post
an update to let people know how I got on. Now its together
and I've had a a couple of rides on it and its still in one
piece so here we go with the review
- if anyone want to ask any questions about it then jsut
shout them out and I'll try and answer them all or if any
one has any thoughts on possible improvements let me know
those as well
The Machine Starting from the bottom: Unicycle.Com wide crom-
moly hub(36 hole). Stainless Steel double butted spokes. Sun
CR-18 700c rim. QU-AX 127mm cranks. VP (Shimano DX copy) BMX
pedals Schwalabe 2" Big Apple tyre Nimbus X 28" frame Kris
Holm saddle
The Thoughts: I started out on the project wanting to build
a wheel and combine it with something that I could get a
few miles in on the road at a sensible pace. I built the
wheel up with a standard 3 cross pattern - was quite a
straight forward pattern after I'd got the lacing pattern
sorted. Putting the rest of the machine together was
relatively simple with just a bit of seat post trimmming
required and everything was assemble with a good
application of copper slip
In Action: My first thoughts are that its so fast! compared
to my muni with its long cranks the short cranks and big
wheel /smooth tyre of the new uni are very fast - mounting
took a couple of attempts again, the whole feel was so
different but once used to that its a joy to ride - my two
outings so far have been 4 miles and 9 miles and have been
averaging about 8mph but thats with stops and a few UPDS
thrown in. Going down steep hills is quite a challenge but I
can seem to get it up some fairly sharp rises without any
real problems. The only area where its not been ideal ( and
this is more down to my lack of skills/ability than the
unicycle) is on a half mile stretch of farm track /
bridleway on the 9 mile ride - Once off road there was
almost no way my skill would let me ride it - on the uneven
flat I couldn't easily get it going and once I did then the
short cranks didn't really give me enough control to
negotiate the single track with any confidence. However, the
other benefit of the new uni is that its light so it was
simply a matter of chucking it over my shoulder and running
that bit till I got back to the road.
So in summary, its an absolute dream to ride and the
satisfaction of putting it together myself was well worth
the effort - Possibly in the future I may upgrade the frame
to a custom frame and was wondering about the possiblity of
using a frame that would take a 36" wheelset so I could
simply swap the wheels over depending on what I wanted to
ride - has anyone had any experience of this? So my plan now
is to get a load of miles in and see where that takes us -
Once again thanks for all of the advice that was offered
when I asked the original question
Cheers
Roland
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roland
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