ok so me and my friend recently got into this whole "trials" uni-ing and muni-ing.
i don't have much of a bike background but he used to be a pro BMX/flatland rider. he had sponsers anywhere from profile to torker in his past. so here is where we are so confused.
The frame of a unicycle, its basically a fork on a bike. Most uni frames are aluminum or stainless steel. a few very high end unis have a chromoly-steel frame. Now in the bike industry the cheapest frames are made from the chromoly-steel and then the more expensive a bike the more exotic the material the frame is made out of. Why are the KH unis using a aluminum frame, from my friends past experiences this is a very very bad idea. Aluminum tends to crack and break what makes these KH unis so great?
With that said now let me move onto the hub and cranks. These are basically the heart of a uni. from what it seems the frames material doesn't exactly matter cause most of the forces fall on the wheel, cranks, and hub. So basically you get a profile hub and profile cranks and you are set for life.
i don't know, i know that we will each probably be buying a kH 20 trials by the end of the month but for what it is it just seems rediculously expensive, it doesn't have a life time warrenty on the cranks or hub and that seems to be the most important part of the unicycle. Why not just spend 100 bucks more and get the Yuni with profile hub and cranks.
Maybe we are missing somthing here and he could probably explain this alot better than me. But please just clue me in on what make a unicycle a good unicycle. I'll be paying unicycle.com a visit on friday sense i live in georgia and its time i upgrade from my Nimbus X that i got just to toy with. we are torn between the Qu-ax, KH, and Onza.
thanks guys.
John
ps. this is a real addicting sport, we have both come to the realization we will be buying a 24 for the summer to do some Muni-ing. i think we are addicted.
gerblefranklin wrote: > Aluminum does tend to crack and break, assuming it is of inferior design> and construction. It can be debated, the quality of the KH frame> construction, being as it's from Taiwan. However, there haven't been> any failures of KH frames reported yet, so chances are they're fine.> The design is excellent, no worries there.
I have had a (small) problem with the frames but the paint on mine did not ionise properly (what roger from UDC said) And there was an unusual clicking sound, He fixed it.
To my knowledge, no one's come forward yet about any of the alum. KH frames cracking. You rarely hear about frames in general cracking.
Kris Holm is man who's been a founding father of mountain and trials unicycling. He's a rider who designs and rides his own stuff. Over the years he's been one of the best, most out-going, and friendly representatives of the unicycling community. So, he's very dedicated to what he does. He mass-produces exceptional quality products. You can now get one hell of a stock unicycle, because of him. The only thing that you may end up upgrading is to a carbon fiber seat base, and a thompson seat post.
I wouldn't say that you are set for life if you purchase a profile hub and crank set. You can still bend, break, or just generally wear a set of cranks down (more than likely it depends on what you do, and how good your technique is). They are by no means "God." I've been riding my set of 145mm's for going on two years. They have minimal wear, mostly from scraping ledges on hops, or pedal grabs that I missed, or didn't land right. You still have to regularly maintenance them. They can develop creaks when riding, from the splines. Even then, the splines are bound to wear down, eventually. You can develop slop from the connection of the hub keyway, and the spindle/axle key. Some people have complained that it's not too clear whether profile will cover this under the warranty. Besides, word on the street is that KH/Onza's are very very nearly as strong as the profiles...and they way less...and the hub connects to the axle/spindle via splines, like with the cranks--instead of a keyway.
Why can unicycling be expensive? Well, for one thing there's a small market...in case you didn't notice. Unicycling is very challenging in the initial stages. It takes a lot of practice and dedication to get the basic riding skills down. Even then, if you've also noticed, there are very few people in the forefront of the sport, pushing the boundaries. It's hard! In this fast paced day and age, it's involves a lot more time and dedication, not to mention patience than staring at the tv while drinking pop lounged on the sofa. But, once the bug bites, and you are able to break and creat new challenges for yourself, then it can become really addicting. Oh, did I add that the general body of people I bump into on a campus of about 27,000 is that people think that riding a uncycle is impossible. There's still a lot of the clown stigma attatched, too. I just had a guy say, "Wow...I didn't know I'd be seeing some circus stuff today," while I pulled a flatground 360 in full trials gear. My response was, "No. None of that. Circuses suck!" It just so happens that I take this sport very seriously. I'm not just a joke, or some petty amusement.
But, anyway. If you're going to pay for top-end equipment, what do you expect?! It's going to cost some dollars. I have a few custom parts on my unicycle, that were hand-made by fellow riders. That's their time and energy that I'm paying for...not to mention that the material was carbon fiber
yea listen to gerblefranklin. The kh hubs are pretty much just as strong, but dont have the lifetime warrenty and are even a bit lighter! On a unicycle lightness is good, the lighter the better.
I really dont know why uni's are so expensive. Look at it this way, in the bike world a top quality bike is what $6,000 on up? In teh uni world a top uni that is stock is like $500-$700.
Back to the hubs, they are made stronger that profile hubs and have a tapered end to eliminate creaking. They are also made out of a stronger
lighter aluminum than the profile hubs.
So what makes a uni a good uni say for Muni or trials is.....
1. being strong (strong rim, hub, and cranks(must have splines on hub))
2. being light (so aluiminum is the best because uni frames dont take to much stress like bikes do)
3. having a wide tire like a 2.5 or 3.0 (these tires are standard for muni & trials)
4. Also make sure to have a good quality uni, some unis have crappy parts that break easily or are defective. Thats why a Kris Holm unicycle is probably one of the best uni's to buy.
I guess that is the basics
I can say i have had my KH muni for awhile and i use it for everything so if you just want one uni for every job then get a 24" preferably a KH.
Heres a little run down on tire sizes
36" for road use only, this is a joke for any other type of riding
29" good for long distance road or XC trail riding
26" good for longer XC on rouph trails or Muni
24" most common wheel size, used as a standard for Muni or rouph XC, a 24" is also used for trials riding. You can do the same trials on a 24" as a 20" but its just harder.
hmm.... i saw that strongest coker one before, but the muni vid dont work. I looked it up myself though and found some mild muni on cokers, but i still say its not very practicle (sp?) to muni with a 36".
musketman wrote: > 20"ers for XC is also crazy talk, you can ask any serious XC rider if> they do there long distance rides on there 20", and id bet they will> say are you nutz!
No I like doing long distance rides on a 29" or Coker. Anytning smaller would be nutz.
Unless you want to qualify that. If your original statements were in reference to *high-end* or *hardcore* Trials and MUni only, you would need to say so to keep from being hit back by the folks on this newsgroup (always correcting us).
Cokers are great on trails. Just depends on the Trails. Kris Holm has one too.
"Idiot America—where fact is merely that which enough people believe, and truth is measured only by how fervently they believe it." -- Charles Pierce, in Esquire Magazine ------------------------------------------------------------------------ johnfoss's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/832 View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/46897
musketman wrote: > just for kicks i want to see that coker Muniing, is there anyplace i can> go to see pics?
"Training Wheel Not Required" is the Brian MacKenzie DVD that shows lots of extreme Cokering. Coker MUni, Coker ultimate wheel, Coker off-road ultimate wheel, Coker ultimate wheel trials, lots of things you didn't think Cokers were "supposed" to do. Buy it (preferably to support Brian and the unicycling community) or borrow it.
Edit: There is an OUTSTANDING Easter egg in that DVD.
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