It's not the size that counts? Or is it?

The big question... Can even I ride a unicycle?
A little backstory... I'm 25, weight 325lbs, and have been
cycling/mountain biking/touring for 13 years... I currently live
car-free, and cycle at least 50-100 miles per week. I have also been
riding motorcycles for nine years. I have great balance, and very
strong legs(go figure ).
I'm confident in my abilities, but I understand that there are certain
physics that are going to working against me here... What's the
heaviest you've seen uni?
I have a Torker DX 24" that will be delivered tomorrow! The
anticipation is killing me, but I'm worried still. I guess I just
couldn't resist that stereotypical image of a fat man on a Unicycle!
I'm thinking that a bear suit and a Uni is all I need for my next
Halloween costume...

I think I have realistic goals and expectations of what I can do. I
think the Uni I ordered is beefy enough to get me learnin'. If I find
that I'm wanting to raise the bar and do more agressive/off-road stuff,
I will spend the money to build something industructable... (the
Conundrum comes to mind).
What do you think, can it be done? Thanks for any input!
Ryan


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I think you'll do fine.

And that Uni should hold up pretty well, too.


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Joe "Hodgekins" wrote:
Oh... they don't kick bricks, do they?
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inthe10ring wrote:
The big question... Can even I ride a unicycle?
A little backstory... I'm 25, weight 325lbs, and have been
cycling/mountain biking/touring for 13 years... I currently live
car-free, and cycle at least 50-100 miles per week. I have also been
riding motorcycles for nine years. I have great balance, and very
strong legs(go figure ).
I'm confident in my abilities, but I understand that there are certain
physics that are going to working against me here... What's the
heaviest you've seen uni?
I have a Torker DX 24" that will be delivered tomorrow! The
anticipation is killing me, but I'm worried still. I guess I just
couldn't resist that stereotypical image of a fat man on a Unicycle!
I'm thinking that a bear suit and a Uni is all I need for my next
Halloween costume...

I think I have realistic goals and expectations of what I can do. I
think the Uni I ordered is beefy enough to get me learnin'. If I find
that I'm wanting to raise the bar and do more agressive/off-road stuff,
I will spend the money to build something industructable... (the
Conundrum comes to mind).
What do you think, can it be done? Thanks for any input!
Ryan


It sounds like you're on the right track. Good job for researching and
learning about unicycles instead of coming and saying "i wanna unicycle
which one should I get". The torker dx 24" is pretty beefy already but a
bit heavier than some other strong 24"s.
one thing i would say is,
don't think you're gonna learn really fast. some people learn in a
couple days, some it takes months. It just takes patience, commitment,
and a lot of falling.
So have fun, I'm sure you can master it!


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inthe10ring wrote:
The big question... Can even I ride a unicycle?
A little backstory... I'm 25, weight 325lbs, and have been
cycling/mountain biking/touring for 13 years... I currently live
car-free, and cycle at least 50-100 miles per week. I have also been
riding motorcycles for nine years. I have great balance, and very
strong legs(go figure ).
I'm confident in my abilities, but I understand that there are certain
physics that are going to working against me here... What's the
heaviest you've seen uni?
I have a Torker DX 24" that will be delivered tomorrow! The
anticipation is killing me, but I'm worried still. I guess I just
couldn't resist that stereotypical image of a fat man on a Unicycle!
I'm thinking that a bear suit and a Uni is all I need for my next
Halloween costume...

I think I have realistic goals and expectations of what I can do. I
think the Uni I ordered is beefy enough to get me learnin'. If I find
that I'm wanting to raise the bar and do more agressive/off-road stuff,
I will spend the money to build something industructable... (the
Conundrum comes to mind).
What do you think, can it be done? Thanks for any input!
Ryan



I was 265 lbs and only 5'8" when I started. And I started on a cheap
sun unicycle. Now I am 225 but still need to get down to 200 lbs. Now
I am riding a nimbus 36" and can ride 20 miles and increasing the
distance.

The answer is that yes you can ride a unicycle and specially the torker
which is a very strong uni.


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I bet the dx will be fine for learning. However, if you really get into
it, and want to do some hopping and dropping, I have an idea.

I got a flat on my motorcycle this week. It has a 17 x 5 " knobby on
it. Because the size on motorcycles is the rim diameter, not the tires,
I noticed that the tire diameter of the dirt bike, and my 24 muni are
the same.

A 17 x 5 would be over kill, even for you. I mean this is a setup
designed to land 500 lbs off 20 ft drops going 50 MPH.

My point is that the rims, spokes and tires you need are already out
there. The tire on my trials uni says max load 325 lbs on the sidewall.
I don't think regular uni tires will hold up for you if you ride
aggressively.

I see the hard part (or at least the expensive part), would be the hub.
But if you could get a custom hub made that would allow you to lace up a
dirt bike rim with motorcycle spokes, the rest would be easy.

There are a few uni frame makers out there, and getting one to weld you
up anything you wanted, with thicker tubes, to take any motorcycle tire
width you wanted, would be easy, and not terribly $.

I suspect that because hubs are round, a custom one could be made on a
lath, you should not need expensive castings etc.

Perhaps for about 2,000 $, more or less, you could have muni that would
survive for years in a Samoan frat house.

I hope you really get into the sport and follow up on this.

We all want to see the giant guy with his 4.5 " muni tire setup !


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feel the light
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I'm somewhere in the 270-lb range. It doesn't seem to me like weight is
a factor, although my son found it easier than I did. I'm not sure if
that's because he's lighter or younger or just more naturally a
unicyclist.

I'm using a Torker LX, 20" size. They've held up okay for just general
riding around, although I did have some problems when I got the cranks
on the wrong side & unthreaded the pedals.

If you look at typical usage for a DX, it's intended for guys that
weigh 150 lbs to go jumping around on. So yeah, it'll hold you or me,
but I wouldn't go jumping off the roof with it, either.

Logically, you'd think that more weight and the same size seat would
cause more problems with seat discomfort, but I don't know if that's
actually the case or not.


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StephenH wrote:

If you look at typical usage for a DX, it's intended for guys that
weigh 150 lbs to go jumping around on. So yeah, it'll hold you or me,
but I wouldn't go jumping off the roof with it, either.




Yeah - at the speed a 150lb person hits the ground doing a 4 foot drop,
the force on the unicycle wheel is going to be way more than the force
from a big person sitting on it.

If you can ride normal bikes, something like a DX is built out of
pretty much the strongest downhill bike components, you should have no
problems with it.

If you go off road, you might have to be a bit careful, but to be
honest, that's quite a beefy unicycle, you might be surprised at how
well it lasts. There are more expensive unicycles, but they're mainly
spending that money on making things lighter rather than massively
stronger. Again though, the forces are so much bigger when more height
is involved, so as long as you limit yourself to 1 foot drops, you'll
still be less bad to it than a poorly landed 4 footer with a kid
riding.

Joe


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i weighed 236 when i started and like hector said i had a crappy sun uni
when i started and it worked fine your getting a DX so you should do
great.


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warlord14

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the DX is a gread unicycle... there is no problem with riding it on some
hardcore Muni, very few people have wrecked these unis, and if you do, i
would suggest going for a Koxx-one or Kris Holm unicycle, a motorcycle
rim and spokes would be retarded to put on a unicycle because it would
be so heavy you could not get it off the ground. that said, i have seen
and used unis with motorcycle tires, they are not bad.


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If you figure a 12 lb KH is plenty strong for a 150 lb rider to land a 4
ft jump, to have enough strength for a 325 lb rider to land the same
jump, it is not unreasonable to build a unicycle that weighed 25 lbs or
so. Twice as much metal will be needed, more or less.

How long do you think a 6 lb unicycle that was designed for a 75 lb
rider would last being ridden hard by a 150 lb trials rider ? It's the
same problem.

In any event, I just like custom stuff. Really, have fun, and I bet
the dx will hold up ok for 1 ft drops.

I just wanted to throw out the idea that you are not limited by your
size in any way. There is no reason a 300 lb + person can't be a top
grade trials rider. But you will need to build your own pallets, and
ultimately, a special uni, but it's not that hard to do that.


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