29r tire considerations

The moto raptor, in 26 size, is the absolute best mountain bike tire you
can buy, for an amazingly low price ($25, jensonusa.com). It is just
excellent in all conditions. I run 2.4 width on my mtb, and it is an
absolutely amazing tire. Just incredible. It climbs, corners, brakes,
rolls, over any surface, like magic. No pinch flats, just amazing
incredible traction everywhere. Rocks? Did I mention rocks? It rides
over rocks like no tomorrow, just amazing, grips like crazy glue.
Downhill? Yeah, it bombs downhill, I can't believe how fast I can go
with these tires.
But I don't think you'd want it on your unicycle. it's a bit meaty for
that. And heavier than say a Kenda Karma.
I'd recommend a tire with a smooth center rib, for easy rolling.

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Of those on your list, the Kenda Karma would be a good choice, I think.
I had those on my MTB a while back and they were a nice light tire.
Knobbys aren't very tall, so it would roll nice. It has a nice round
profile. And it doesn't weigh much. They didn't corner very well, and
bombing downhill wasn't very confidence inspiring, but that doesn't
matter on a uni. Motoraptors rule for mtb.

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Unless you've already gone down to 102mm cranks or whatever, you could
try just changing cranks and tyres on the 26". You might find that
makes enough difference to speed.

There's only about 10% difference in gearing between a 29" and a 26",
and way less tyre choice.

Joe

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The Kenda Klaw does behave badly on tarmac.

Cathy

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I use the WTB exiwolf tire, it's a 29x2.3" with tread similar to the
nanoraptor. I havent done alot of off road or even road (I rode around
the city on it, but havn't since I got my coker) but I really liked it
because it gave a little more tire volume, and didn't really have knobs
per se so it was quite smooth on pavement

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I may be completely off beam here but I seem to remeber, just about the
time I joined this forum, rumours of some testing of different off road
29er tyres. Did I just dream it, has it come to any conclusions?

Cathy

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I have a 29 that I ride pretty much only on pavement and dirt/gravel
paths. I've had very brief rides on other people's Big Apples, and have
had one MotoRaptor and several NanoRaptors on my own uni.

The Big Apple seems like a really nice road tire, probably less
suitable for muddy trails. I've been wanting one for a while now, but
none of the local shops ever had any, and I wanted a closer look at one
before buying. Now there's a shop here that has some, but I can't
afford to buy anything that I don't need at the moment, so I'll be
waiting a bit longer.

The Moto was a bit more knobby than I liked for the riding that I do. I
think its tread wore down a bit faster than the Nano's, but it's
probably not intended for a lot of pavement riding. I don't like riding
on knobbies that have worn down just in the center; that's just me
though.

The Nano works pretty well for me. I originally chose it as a fallback
while waiting to find a Big Apple, but I ended up liking it well enough
anyway. It has enough grip but still rolls reasonably smoothly, and
lasts a while. For me it's a good all-around tire. I've had, I think,
two with the steel bead and one with a Kevlar bead. The Kevlar one came
folded-up in a box; it might be a bit lighter than the steel bead but
that's not something that I would notice. I did have one that had some
kind of separation or something that caused it to deform in one spot,
but the tire was worn out enough to be replaced by then anyway. I can't
remember whether it was the Kevlar or one of the steel beaded ones.

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cathwood said:

I may be completely off beam here but I seem to remeber, just about the
time I joined this forum, rumours of some testing of different off road
29er tyres. Did I just dream it, has it come to any conclusions?

If my memory serves me right, that is (I shouldn't say 'was', right?)
a project pulled together by U-Turn. Was it called 29'er tyre study?
Anyway, it seems to run rather slow, in part due to the logistics of
shipping stuff around, and many testers having to find the time to
test all the tyres under a varied set of conditions (with the tyre
swapping and all that). AFAIK, no conclusions have been published yet.

theanswerisnt42 said:

I use the WTB exiwolf tire, it's a 29x2.3" with tread similar to the
nanoraptor.... was quite smooth on pavement

Looks like quite a severe tread I'm surprised it is OK on pavement.

joemarshall said:

Unless you've already gone down to 102mm cranks or whatever, you could
try just changing cranks and tyres on the 26". You might find that
makes enough difference to speed.
Joe

Cranks - I'll try 125s and see how I get on, but I like the control of
my 150s. I noticed a lot of difference going from 24" to 26" that I
reckon if go to 29" with 150s and lighter tire I get speed and
manoevrability. But if going to 125s gives another 10% speed then
great. I might just build a speed machine.

Tires/tyres - I have a Big Apple on my bike I could try but it squirms
around at low pressure and it is so noticable on the bike that I reckon
it could be a problem on the uni unless pumped hard. Also when the
hardpack turns to softpack after rain I could be skating all over the
place. But I'll never know 'till I try. Currently I have a Holy Roller
on the uni which is an excellent hybrid tyre so I don't think that is
slowing me down at all.

At the mo the Nanoraptor is looking the best choice but I have found
another candidate, Bontrager Jones XR:
http://www.bontrager.com/Mountain/Wheelworks/Tires/5795.php

And a new site which has the best selection I've seen and more coming
all the time as more bikers adopt this format:
http://bike29.com/

Thanks for the informative replies.

Andy

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I had an IRC Notos 29" tyre which was okay on the road and okay off
road.

I used to use the big apple for a mix of towpath and big roads and it
was fine, but it isn't happy for more technical riding in winter. It
was okay riding singletrack in the summer though.

Joe

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I'm about 50/50 towpath and road, the towpath can get pretty grubby when
wet and the roads have some big cambers and steep hills and I hate
doing battle with the tyre and a hill at the same time, I want the tyre
to be on my side at least.

Hence my apparent obsession with well-performing road tires.

Andy

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BTW Joe, How are you geting on with your Schlumph. Did you get the 24"
or 28". Is the narrow rim OK.

That is my other option, stop arsing around and just spend some money
on a geared, I probably will in the end anyway.... then a load more
questions pop into my head....oh dear!

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andytait said:

BTW Joe, How are you geting on with your Schlumph. Did you get the 24"
or 28". Is the narrow rim OK.

That is my other option, stop arsing around and just spend some money
on a geared, I probably will in the end anyway.... then a load more
questions pop into my head....oh dear!

I've got the schlumpf. I've got a custom build, with the KH rim, I'd
not buy the stock schlumpf at all, as at least when I bought my
schlumpf, the stock one had a narrow rim, didn't come with a good
seatpost or seat etc. and seemed to have a pretty hefty mark-up on all
these parts, meaning that a custom one with decent parts didn't cost
much different.

To be honest though, other than the hub, which is lovely, the rest of
the Schlumpf is rubbish. I wouldn't buy a Schlumpf hub until a version
which doesn't require a Schlumpf frame comes out. The stock frame is
terrible and if/when something goes wrong it takes months for Schlumpf
to do anything to fix it. My frame broke after 4 hours, after which I
said I was going to return it if it had to have the Schlumpf frame,
because it just isn't safe to ride, waited a month for mr Schlumpf to
reply to unicycle.com, at which point he said he'd make up some other
frame for it, three months later, ie. four months after the frame
broke, he comes back with the choice of a frame that is too small to
fit the big apple tyre, or the same old frame with all the same
problems. He also said that the reason my frame broke was because of
not torqueing the 8 bolts you need to adjust to set the seat height(*)
exactly equally or something which is insane, a frame you can break by
not using a torque wrench to set your seat height. And break properly
too, in a way that leaves you walking home (not to mention not being
able to ride the Schlumpf for more than four months afterwards). I'm
just glad that my seatpost suddenly started twisting when I was riding
a mountain bike race rather than when I was on my commute riding in
traffic. I can honestly say I wish I hadn't bought a Schlumpf, and I
wouldn't recommend them at the moment.

Roger from unicycle.com has been great throughout all this and is
sorting me out with a custom frame that removes the schlumpf frame
problems, which we're currently in the process of sorting out some
teething problems with. However, I dunno if he's going to be selling
these. If it wasn't for the custom frame, I'd have returned the
Schlumpf for my money back by now, £1000 is a lot for an expensive
decoration in my front room.

For the sort of riding you're describing, you could just get a coker if
you want more speed. Cokers are fine for towpath riding.

Joe

* Yes you really do have to adjust 8 bolts to move the seat. I suspect
whoever designed the schlumpf frame doesn't ride unicycles very often.

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Klaas Bil said:

cathwood said:

I may be completely off beam here but I seem to remeber, just about

the

Quoted message said:

time I joined this forum, rumours of some testing of different off

road

Quoted message said:

29er tyres. Did I just dream it, has it come to any conclusions?

If my memory serves me right, that is (I shouldn't say 'was', right?)
a project pulled together by U-Turn. Was it called 29'er tyre study?
Anyway, it seems to run rather slow, in part due to the logistics of
shipping stuff around, and many testers having to find the time to
test all the tyres under a varied set of conditions (with the tyre
swapping and all that). AFAIK, no conclusions have been published yet.

Yes, that's true, Klaas. I'll have some up sometime soon, though, as
soon as the current set of crises passes.

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andytait said:

I'm about 50/50 towpath and road, the towpath can get pretty grubby when
wet and the roads have some big cambers and steep hills and I hate
doing battle with the tyre and a hill at the same time, I want the tyre
to be on my side at least.

I've got a Big Apple tyre on my 29er, and I love it. Ok, so almost all
the riding I do is on tarmac, but it's great for that. As long as
you're not going through thick mud, it's not -too- bad off road either.

However, if it's been raining lots, and the towpath is going to be very
muddy, then is it a much longer distance to stick to the roads? When I
used to commute on my 20"er, and then my 26"er, I was on the road, the
path, the grass, through mud, off road, and anywhere to get the
shortest possible distance to work. My riding style is quite different
on the 29 though, and I tend to take a much more similar route to what
I would take in a car. Maybe that is because of the tyre, but I think
it's more likely that it doesn't seem to take longer just because I'm
on a bigger wheel.

STM

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The thing about the exiwolf is that the tread is not very high or nobby,
plus it has a pretty good center ridge, which makes it run smoother on
pavement. The other thing is that it has a very good caseing and
rubber, making it supple and reduce rolling resistance, at least as far
as I can tell, it doenst feel like most thick dh tires when it's run
low. I really like it, it conforms well and can be run at a lower
pressure without sacraficing lots of speed or performance, and it's
relativly light weight. I have the steel bead tire, but it comes in
Kevlar. though kevlar WTB 29" tires are a bit suspect, since some
problems occured with the nanoraptor and i dont want to risk it on the
exiwolf

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semach.the.monkey said:

I've got a Big Apple tyre on my 29er, and I love it. Ok, so almost all
the riding I do is on tarmac, but it's great for that. As long as
you're not going through thick mud, it's not -too- bad off road
either.
STM

I could always use a Big Apple for summer and get another tyre for
winter if I need it, I'll try one on my 26" first.

BTW Can someone help me by measuring the actual rim diameter and
outside dia of the 29r with a Big Apple - I am guessing it's actually
622mm rim + 120mm (2x60mm) tyre height.

I'm getting really confused - what does a 700c rim mean. Is it 700mm
diameter with or without a tire or does the "700c" refer to something
else. A Big Apple is quoted as fitting a "standard 28" rim actually
622mm" on Unicycle.uk.com, but 622 equates to 24.5". 700mm equates to
27.5" rim - eh?

If the total dia is 622mm (rim) + 120mm max (tyre height BA), I can
probably fit one in my existing frame (Nimbus II) which will actually
accomodate 740mm in total. If the rim is larger than 622 I need a new
frame.

Do they all - 700c - 28" - 29r - all refer to the same thing. I.E. will
a tyre quoted as 700c or 29" fit a rim I buy from UDC quoted as 29",
28", 622mm or some other arbitrary number.

Andy 😕

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andytait said:

I'm getting really confused - what does a 700c rim mean. Is it 700mm
diameter with or without a tire or does the "700c" refer to something
else. A Big Apple is quoted as fitting a "standard 28" rim actually
622mm" on Unicycle.uk.com, but 622 equates to 24.5". 700mm equates to
27.5" rim - eh?

700c is the name of the rim size. Tyres known as 28", 29" and road
700c tyres all fit the same rim. With a normal road tyre fitted (such
as a 700x32c) the outside diameter of the whole wheel including the
tyre is something like 28". With a fat tyre like a Big Apple, it is
more like 29". With a skinny racing tyre it's not much more than 27".
The difference is the tyre, not the rim.

Rob

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andytait said:

I could always use a Big Apple for summer and get another tyre for
winter if I need it, I'll try one on my 26" first.

BTW Can someone help me by measuring the actual rim diameter and
outside dia of the 29r with a Big Apple - I am guessing it's actually
622mm rim + 120mm (2x60mm) tyre height.

I'm getting really confused - what does a 700c rim mean. Is it 700mm
diameter with or without a tire or does the "700c" refer to something
else. A Big Apple is quoted as fitting a "standard 28" rim actually
622mm" on Unicycle.uk.com, but 622 equates to 24.5". 700mm equates to
27.5" rim - eh?

If the total dia is 622mm (rim) + 120mm max (tyre height BA), I can
probably fit one in my existing frame (Nimbus II) which will actually
accomodate 740mm in total. If the rim is larger than 622 I need a new
frame.

Do they all - 700c - 28" - 29r - all refer to the same thing. I.E. will
a tyre quoted as 700c or 29" fit a rim I buy from UDC quoted as 29",
28", 622mm or some other arbitrary number.

Andy 😕

There's one standard rim size for 28/29/700c, which is known as 700c,
and is 622mm wide at the bead of the tyre. The big apple will fit on
this.

There are some old rim sizes around, and a few shops will have tyres to
fit them, but almost all tyres out there now are for a 700c rim.

http://www.schwalbetires.com/tech_info/tire_dimensions has a list of
the official tyre dimensions.

Also, Harper measured his to be 29.3" which is about 744mm.

I've got a Nimbus II 29" frame with a big apple in, but there seem to
be various different versions, so best check with Roger at unicycle.com
about whether your particular frame would fit, he'll probably know.

Joe

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