Another Guni or fixed question

[kahunacohen]

All good points. I like simplicity too, but the cost for me would be prohibitive.

[napalm]

G29 if you only ever think you will use the low gear on single trail and high gear on fire roads, G26 if you want to use your high gear on single track as well as on the fire roads. I came to UNICON XVI with only the one unicycle- a geared 26 with 137s, 2.4 tyre and a handlebar. With the one uni i competed in the 10km road race, Expert XC, expert DH and hill climb. I placed 3rd overall in the XC, 2nd overall in the Muni hill climb and 5th overall in the DH. This unicycle can do everything. If you go with the fixed 36- you will struggle with the MTB events (canopy height and single track issues). If you run long cranks to try to overcome these issues you will have a shit time on the easier fire trail. Spend the money, learn how to utilize a geared unicycle and watch all your other unicycles disappear down the trading post forum. We have a small crew in Oz that already hit up the mountain bike events- Jamey mossengren, Rob O'brien, Ashley Curtis and Myself. We are all running the G26 with 137s/ 2.4 ardent. We have done 50-110km races all over the place and couldn't think of a better, more fun unicycle to use for it.
Mark

[kahunacohen]

Would it be reasonable to commute say 7 miles on the road with that uni? Can you hit speeds of, say, a 36?

[MuniSano]

Originally Posted by kahunacohen

Would it be reasonable to commute say 7 miles on the road with that uni? Can you hit speeds of, say, a 36?

I can't speak for everyone but in my experience I can typically ride just as fast (or faster) on my KH24 GUni on the roads as I can with my ungeared 36er. Averaging 11-13 mph is fairly common. In addition, having the ability to downshift into 1:1 for steeper climbs, traffic intersections, etc... is very nice as is the ability to be able to easily mount in low gear then get up to speed and shift to high gear. A comparably setup 36er is much more difficult to mount and get up to speed (at least for me).

In the end it's all what you're used to; I've grown used to my GUni setup and would only change up to a KH26 simply because of the improved roll-over ability wider range of tire choices.

[Nurse Ben]

If you go with the fixed 36- you will struggle with the MTB events (canopy height and single track issues).

Not an issue, you are only a few inches higher, so it's not a significant problem. In terms of what can be ridden on a big wheel, I will direct you to your own experience learning to ride a geared unicycle; ie with practice you can learn to make it work. I ride a fixed 36er off road and I am far faster, smoother, and get less fatigued than I did on a geared 26er.

We have a small crew in Oz that already hit up the mountain bike events- Jamey mossengren, Rob O'brien, Ashley Curtis and Myself. We are all running the G26 with 137s/ 2.4 ardent.

Why don't you hook up with the OP and let him try one of yours?

What made me turn away from a 26guni was not the top end issues or the shifting, it was the drastic gear step and the slow speed/poor obstacle bridging of the 26" wheel.

I am a die hard 29er rider, I love the all around performance of that wheel size both in terms of speed and technical handling, so a 26er was like taking a step backwards.

If I could get a 29Guni with a 25% gear step, I'd snap one up in a second!

[uniShark]

I've had similar (but not exactly the same) experience as Ben.

I think if you really are set on riding with, and particularly racing with, MTB'ers, then a geared wheel is probably the only way to go. However, I'm happy with my decision to sell my G29/26 (29 was geared too high in high gear, 26 was geared too low in low gear), and I only ride with casual bike riders with my fixed 36. I note that my abilities have increased dramatically more in the last three weeks on my fixed 29 than they did all last summer riding the guni. If you go geared, expect a long learning curve. Also, unlike many others, I found the extra weight of the guni hub to be very noticeable. But I acknowledge that getting smooth shifts down is very satisfying. On the flip side, I love the height of the 36 - the higher the better!

[kahunacohen]

I spoke with "someone" at unicycle.com and they advised me against the geared hub. The person said that it was very expensive, and when it needs work it can take months to get it back.

But of course it all depends on your budget and needs I suppose. For now, I think I'm going to get a 29er. I am told that Nimbus is coming out with an aluminum 29" Oracle with handle bars and disc brakes for the same price as the KH29. They say they are introducing it in Nov, so I may wait until then.

[rawcyclist]

Thanks again for all the comments everyone. They have been very helpful indeed. I still feel like I don't know for sure what I want but I do have a 36er frame in the shed (thanks Dmacuni) that I have never built up as well as a bunch of parts so I may as well get that going and see how I like it. Part of me really does want to give guni a try (don't we all) but Ill take on board what most have said about the gearing on the 29er probably being a bit too steep for what I want to do anyway. Maybe there is a 26" guni in my future after all but I can't afford to build up a whole new geared uni right now so I might have to wait and see.

In the meantime Ill get as good as I can get on the 29er and maybe try a few of those enduro events anyway.

Thanks again everyone. Its great to be able to call on the collective wisdom of this group, particularly for those of us who don't have access to other uni's to try before we buy.

Cheers Tim

[Fatlazypig]

I have a G26 with 150 cranks
Which I use for pretty easy off road / xc, and cycle path rides

Really love this set up although I might consider 137 cranks

On my cycle path commute 26 inches in high is nice, but I wish it were a bigger wheel and I only use low gear to get started

But for off road it's perfect for me. Low gear for the climbs and technical bits and high gear for smooth flat trails

Quote
(29 was geared too high in high gear, 26 was geared too low in low gear)

Never tried a G29 myself, but can imagen how this is the
Case
Has anyone built a 650B guni???

[Nurse Ben]

Part of me really does want to give guni a try (don't we all)

Yes, which is why I tried a guni.

Seriously, before getting a geared uni, you really owe it to yourself to build up a 36er. Everyone should ride a 36er just to experience that big wheel ride

[MuniSano]

Originally Posted by Nurse Ben

Yes, which is why I tried a guni.

Seriously, before getting a geared uni, you really owe it to yourself to build up a 36er. Everyone should ride a 36er just to experience that big wheel ride

There is indeed nothing like a "the big wheel ride", I've had my 36er longer than I've had my Schlumpified (is that a word?) KH24 so have had hours and hours of experience riding it all over the place; roads, bike paths and XC single track and 4x4 roads. I even attempted riding it on some far more technical trails.

While it's great fun to bomb around on the big wheel it definitely had it's drawbacks. In order to really be effective on the trails I ride I had to use really long cranks. That was perfectly fine until I had to ride to and from these trails on easy roads and lighter XC; so slow and far too spiny for me. Also a good tire pressure for the trails wasn't so good on the roads. Overhead canopy height is also a real issue around here so being so much taller on the uni isn't so good. The weight of the unicycle is also too much, not very responsive and very sluggish; can't be very nimble. My style of riding involves trying to roll over everything but occasionally I'll use a hop or two to correct my balance to to get a squirt of momentum on a rough climb; things that are tough to do on the 36er offroad. So when I wanted to do just a long road ride I'd have to swap out the cranks and jack up the tire pressure. No big deal but something always had to be tweaked. Lastly there is the issue of ease of transportation. While for the most part it's just as easy to throw my 36er in my back seat as it is the 24er, I also like to fly with my unicycle and a 24er (or 26er) breaks down much easier for transport than a 36er. So while I'll always love bombing around on the Big Wheel every now and then, it's my Schlumpfified KH24 that gets the most use for so many reasons...

So for me, the "Schlumpfified" KH24 came far closer to hitting all the marks for how and where I ride. I go with 137mm cranks which makes me plenty fast enough on the XC and tougher trails I ride and I've learned to climb just as well with this crank length as the 150s I used to ride with. Like I've mentioned before I use the Maxxis Hookworm for ALL of my riding so it's no big deal to throw in pavement, gravel, easy XC and rough trail ALL in the same ride (that's my style of riding; true XC = ALL surface riding). Having the ability to have a fast gear for the road/easy terrain riding is awesome and so is being able to downshift to 1:1 for climbing the hills, slowing for a traffic light, spinning fast on rougher terrain. To me it's just about the perfect package though I admit a 26er would be a better fit and I'm looking to upgrade in the near future.

So there's another take from someone who's tried the Big Wheel everywhere approach as well...

[onebyone]

You are welcome tri try my 26KH Guni. Just afew hours North of Melbourne, prefeably after the ski season.
Cheers
Mal