I know that this stuff has been discussed before in another thread quite
a long time ago, but because the KH hubs are so new and widespread, and
because I'm not the crazy fast sort of rider who beats GUnis with a 1:1
36er (i.e. I'm slower and mortal!) like those in the last thread, I
think this is a different perspective so I made this its own thread. If
you guys want to hit me over the head me for it, please do so! (And I
won't do this again if so! )

That said... since my hub broke I've been doing a bit of riding around
on my ungeared 36 with 102 cranks (which are just shorter than the
"equivalently torqued" 165 cranks that map through the gearing to be
110ish). The mechanical advantages for each setup are very similar,
plus, because my hub broke after exclusively riding my distance in
geared mode, I've gone from being "used to the geared hub" to being
"used to the 102s again" in a very short time (about a week), and this
got me thinking...

I have to say that:
1. CLIMBING
Methinks that gunning uphill and maintaining speed without a bunch of
initial momentum is easier with 102s in 1:1 than it is with 165s geared
up, even though the 165s map down to 110s, longer than 102! The feeling
is so different that I'm actually considering bringing both unicycles
to RTL, the 102s (or 114s) for climbing! I don't know if that will
happen, but in a perfect world, I'm sure it would.

2. PERCEPTION OF AWESOMENESS!
After riding the geared hub, going back to 1:1 and trying to ride fast
sort of feels... primitive. Anything under 17mph feels silly, as in,
-why am I spinning so much for so little???- and anything over 17mph
feels good as in -yeah, look what I'm doing without a gear!-, but
frankly, it feels quite... disturbingly rabid. To say the least. (At
least it feels justifiable for the speed!!) When I go pretty fast on my
ungeared 102 coker, I'm proud of it, though. When I go pretty fast on
my geared KH, I never really felt like I accomplished anything. It was
more, "-whoa, I can't believe I just DID that!-"

3. RELATIVE AVERAGE SPEEDS........
I can hold up "nearly" as fast a short/medium-term pace on my 1:1 102s
than on my 3:2 165s. I spin like hell, and it hurts (I don't know how
the fast folks do it for so long!), and I get aches and pains
everywhere, but I was able to ride 6.3 miles mostly (about 70% of the
time) between 18 and 20mph today; stoplight accelerations and periodic
balance panic-fests made the stretch average to 17.3. On my geared hub
I'd gone on a some rides before it broke, one 20 miles and the other 30
miles. On the 20 mile ride, the first 10 I held 18-20 the first half,
and 17-19 the last half, and on the 30 mile ride I went out at 16-18
(nasty headwind) and came back mostly at 19-21 (super tailwind). I
think this shows that I'm able to sustain the geared averages for
longer than the ungeared averages (and geared was faster than my
fastest ungeared, [/i]slightly-), but I think that the ungeared
averages show that a better rider than me would more than likely be
able to ride in 1:1 and pass me on my GUni. ESPECIALLY in short bursts
such as those we'll be seeing in RTL. That is unless somehow I get
faster on my GUni, which I can see happening, but won't count on
until/unless it happens.

4. PERHAPS A REASON FOR THE INITIAL VIEW THAT GUNIS AREN'T FASTER...?
I think that a GUni is less of an advantage to those who know how to
spin insanely fast than it is to someone like me who can only do it for
minutes at a time and needs lower cadence. It kind of seems like an
equalizer. I can do the spin for a short time, so I know that it's
possible to "fast-cruise" for the long term as fast as my geared 36's
cruising speed. Right now, though, I just can't do it.

5. CONSEQUENCES OF ROAD JUNK
It seems like irregularities in the pavement hurt my speed more on the
geared uni than they do on the ungeared uni. Also, the act of spinning
the cranks slower than the wheel kind of "detaches" my legs from the
feeling of the ground connected directly to them, so I tend to pay less
attention "by default" and have to concentrate to pay attention to the
ground on a geared hub. It's an amazing feeling, but it makes the bumps
hurt my speed even more than they normally would.

6. RTL VIABILITY
I think that if there are any Superman-like riders at RTL on ungeared
unicycles, they'll give the geared-based folks a good run for their
money! Once I got my geared hub I was convinced that the geared hubs
would far-and-away dominate all ungeared competition, more or less
regardless of anything, but now I'm not so sure. I'm definitely
convinced that I personally will be faster on a geared unicycle over
the long term, but I'm not so sure I could outrun, say, Sam (redwelly
here) on his ungeared uni. (He rode 20mph for 4 miles on an UNgeared
36! Sorry Sam. I had to spout it again ). That'd be quite a race for
me.

ER... CONCLUSION?
I thought this would be a good comparison of my geared experiences and
ungeared experiences, but reading over it it seems like an ungeared
love-fest thread! I don't mean it to be that! Keep in mind that I
was stuck on 165 cranks on my geared hub, so the speed advantage of the
gears over the 1:1 may be greater (after already being significant, at
least as far as longevity is concerned.) I shall conclude by remarking
that, though the geared hub is just abso$#@!inglutely amazing and
awesome compared to going with the superwide, the speeds attainable on
it are much more volatile, and I think that the geared hub makes "going
fast" easier [i]enough- to the point where in the long run, the harder
hits taken from potholes, road camber, debris, and whatnot are more
than made up for, resulting in a pretty undeniable advantage for the
geared hub. Yeah, for me. That's my disclaimer... I'm only talking
about my experiences... that way nobody can say I'm wrong !


--
chuckaeronut

Uni to work, work to eat, eat to live, live to uni.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/69102


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