I bought a 20" towards the end of last Summer, learnt to unicycle, spent
a few months commuting on it. For a cheap boost in speed, putting on
shorter cranks can make a difference.
I bought a Nimbus 29er over Christmas. And I didn't really like it...
at first. It did go fast, but the inertia was huge and it was really
quite high up (I'm about 5' 9", and it always feels like a pretty big
jump in the air for me!). Freemounting seemed hard, because of the
extra height, the inertia of the big wheel, and the high gearing (127mm
cranks).
With practice over the last few months, I've really got to like my big
uni. I can't idle it yet; for trick stuff I prefer to use my 20" - at
least to start with. But I ride the 29er to work quite often, and did
10 miles in a bicycle timetrial recently. Actually, it was after that
long ride that I really started feeling fully comfortable on the 29er.
Crashes can be a bit interesting, I really do roll / bounce along the
road after a UPD sometimes. And the unicycle builds up a lot of
momentum so it sometimes flies a LONG way if I fall off without
catching it. Being generally careful to dismount around pedestrians,
keep aware of the other traffic, etc, I've found that this isn't much
of a problem now but does require concentration.
It's also a reasonably good offroad machine. Probably not for hills or
really muddy stuff. But certainly for lumpy tracks across fields, etc,
if I can manage to mount it on the lumpy ground it totally destroys my
friend's KH24XC for speed (hard work for my legs though!). I think
longer cranks and possibly a knobbly tyre would make it a fantastic
crosscountry muni machine.
--
mark williamson
Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat? And no
pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
mark williamson's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/11301
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/48817