Freestyle Unicycle

[nikkifrog]

I was thinking...

Is it worth it to get a really nice Freestyle Unicycle? I mean, if I get good enough at freestyle that I'm wanting to do big drops and stuff then I'd probably want a trials. But I don't know. If I get the Yuni for Christmas I can't get anything else (muni stuff, etc.) I was thinking...how bad would a Torker with the upgrade to Primo tire be? Then I could get the Velo saddle, put it on my Muni, and put the Miyata saddle that's on my Muni on the Torker. But would that be really stupid? Are Torkers very breakable? Can they hold up to any drops at all?

Thanks!

Nikki

[Max_Dingemans]

dont expect freestyle unis to last for drops, unless you find some magical indestructable cranks.

[nikkifrog]

So should I just get the Torker and save $150? If I can't use it for rougher stuff anyway. Then I'll get a trials if I want to do a lot of hopping and dropping.

Nikki

[john_childs]

Originally posted by nikkifrog
I was thinking...

Is it worth it to get a really nice Freestyle Unicycle? I mean, if I get good enough at freestyle that I'm wanting to do big drops and stuff then I'd probably want a trials. But I don't know. If I get the Yuni for Christmas I can't get anything else (muni stuff, etc.) I was thinking...how bad would a Torker with the upgrade to Primo tire be? Then I could get the Velo saddle, put it on my Muni, and put the Miyata saddle that's on my Muni on the Torker. But would that be really stupid? Are Torkers very breakable? Can they hold up to any drops at all?

Thanks!

Nikki

These kind of choices depend on where you're going to ride and how you plan on riding. Good freestyle unicycles can take a fair amount of abuse. You can do things like hop up a flight of stairs, practice long jumps, hop off a bench, etc. Just don't start jumping off picnic tables and doing big drops.

I love my freestyle unicycle for working on skills. Most freestyle skills seem easier to learn and practice on a freestyle unicycle. Freestyle skills are more difficult to do on a Monty tire. The fat Monty makes it harder to turn, the longer cranks also make freestyle skills more difficult, and the soft Monty tire will wear very quickly doing freestyle skills on pavement (you'll end up spending a fortune on new Monty tires). What the trials uni is good for is hopping and jumping. If you're going for skills development I'd go for the freestyle uni.

I don't know if you've seen the videos that Jeff Lutkus posted on the web, but he did all of his jumping around and fancy riding on a freestyle uni. He's complained about bent cranks and bent pedals so he hasn't done it all without equipment damage.

Something you might want to consider is seeing if unicycle.com has a standard Miyata wheel laying around. A Miyata wheel would have a Suzue hub but wouldn't be built by Kovachi. That might lower the cost. Then take the standard wheel to a local bike shop and have them tighten up all of the spokes. The spoke touchup will probably be about $15, but check with your local bike shop to find out for sure (shop rates for wheel work vary). After adding in the $15 for the wheel work I don't know if it would actually end up being less expensive.

The Suzue hub is the best option for a standard hub if you are planning on being a little rough on the uni. It's the strongest of the standard hubs. Stronger than the Torker hub or the Semcycle XL hub. The hub is not a part that you want to break because it means that you have to get the wheel rebuilt and that gets spendy (usually about $30 labor, $25 for the hub, plus about $15 for spokes if you need new spokes, plus the cost of a rim if you need a new rim). If you're going to break a part, bend a crank because a crank is cheaper to replace. The weakness in the Torker unicycle is the hub that comes with it.

Do you have a muni with a 24x3 or 24x2.6 tire? If you do, you can use your muni for jumping and dropping and trials type stuff and use the Yuni freestyle uni for skills development.

[harper]

Originally posted by john_childs

Most freestyle skills seem easier to learn and practice on a freestyle unicycle. Freestyle skills are more difficult to do on a Monty tire. The fat Monty makes it harder to turn, the longer cranks also make freestyle skills more difficult, and the soft Monty tire will wear very quickly doing freestyle skills on pavement (you'll end up spending a fortune on new Monty tires).

I think the exception to this is wheel walking. Last weekend I was practicing wheel walking on everything I owned (yes, David Kaplan, I used stilts on the giraffe) and found that wheel walking the SH MUni (with the 3" Gazz tire) was the easiest. That big, fat tire is hard to miss with your feet. There was something about the visibility of the huge 6.75" Shimano cranks that made them easy to see coming around to make the transition back to the pedals, also.