shorter cranks on 29er?

Wow. Nice job Cathy. I started w/ 125s on mine and didn't feel like I
had enough control so I switched to 150s. Still don't think I'm ready
to give up that level of control (What level of control? All too often,
when I pass someone on the sidewalk they look like :eek: ) and go back
to the 125s. I do remember that they felt very smooth, however.

--
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If you can ride on 125s, then you can ride on 110s. No doubt about it.

For freemounting, the seat will be 15 mm higher (negligible).

For general riding, you will have 12% less leverage - which will affect
acceleration and stopping distances. However, you will have about 12
percent more cruising speed on the flat.

So, cruising speed on the flat, maybe you gain a mile an hour or so.
Journey times may be about the same (depending on obstacles). Up hills
will be less difficult than you probably think, but down hills will
take a bit more nerve and control. Steering at low speed becomes more
precise, and the uni feels more of a thoroughbred.

If you try 110s and go back to 125s then you will notice the dancefloor
effect, and your riding will be 10 times more confident than before.

A cheap pair of 110s (for square tapers) is a good investment. If you
are at the Dartmoor MUni weekend, I can lend you a pair. I have loads
of 'em.

--
Mikefule

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underdog said:

Wow. Nice job Cathy. I started w/ 125s on mine and didn't feel like I
had enough control so I switched to 150s. Still don't think I'm ready
to give up that level of control (What level of control? All too often,
when I pass someone on the sidewalk they look like :eek: ) and go back
to the 125s. I do remember that they felt very smooth, however.

Well, that's why I want to talk about it rather than do it.

I think part of my personaility is to enjoy making things difficult for
myself. Whenever I even start to feel comfortable, I like to
destabilise myself.

Actually I had 150s on my 29er to begin with but my legs are way too
short for 150 cranks on any unicycle. I have very short legs, so maybe
that has something to do with it.

Cathy

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Mikefule said:

If you try 110s and go back to 125s then you will notice the dancefloor
effect, and your riding will be 10 times more confident than before.

A cheap pair of 110s (for square tapers) is a good investment. If you
are at the Dartmoor MUni weekend, I can lend you a pair. I have loads
of 'em.

Unfortunately I wont be there (this year). Will have used up the
month's 'uni time away from home' at the BUC. 🙄

Maybe I'll buy a cheap pair from Roger. Seems like it's time for me to
invest in one of those crank remover thingies as well then, instead of
visiting the LBS.

Cathy

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cathwood said:

Actually I had 150s on my 29er to begin with but my legs are way too
short for 150 cranks on any unicycle. I have very short legs, so maybe
that has something to do with it.

Cathy

it definitely does. Different crank lengths are better for different
people. The shorter your legs, the less annoying it will be to pedal in
small circles, and vice versa. Throw in a bit of personal preference
and you've got a crank length!

I've always had 125s on the 29'ers I've ridden, and I'm going to have
them installed on my coker. They're a nice balance of leverage and
speed IMHO, and they seem to really work with my leg length. That
doesn't mean you shouldn't give em a try! whether or not they work for
you, you'll still be a bit better for it - I've found the more
configurations and different unicycles I've ridden, the easier all of
them get to be. Experimentation can't hurt (especially if you have
armor on)!!

--
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Hey Cath

I ride 90mm cranks on my coker, I think you can easily change to 110mm
on your 29er.. I bought a set of cranks myself (90, 102, 114 and 127)
and I can change 'em any time I want to, maybe that's an idea for ya.
110 is worth a shot, if you don't like it you can always change back.
My next choice would be the 114/110's.

Toodles

Dustin

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I started with 102's but found them too squirly when slowing down and
hard to control down hill. Hill climbing wasn't as bad as I thought
though. (I didn't like 125's on the Coker either for the same
reasons).

I ordered 110's put on some 125's for a while, they felt huge after
102. I've had 110's on it ever since, very similar leverage as the
140's on my Coker.

Shorter cranks aren't for everone and I'm very impressed with anyone
who can control super short cranks on a 29er or Coker.

--
UniBrier

Steve

Hop Drop & Roll

“If something is to hard to do, then it's not worth doing. You just
stick that guitar in the closet next to your
shortwave radio, your karate outfit and your unicycle and we'll go
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dance floor effect¿

--
dan de man

Mikefule said:

If regularly pulling on a body part made it longer, most teenage boys
would trip over a lot more often.

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I come from a biking family... plenty of spare crank pullers down here!
^_^

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dan de man said:

dance floor effect¿

An expression I've used and explained before, although a long time ago.
In rock climbing, there is a phenomenon in which you find your way
onto the tiniest of narrow ledges. You try to climb higher and can't
make it, so you retreat back down to the tiny ledge. After you have
done this a few times, the familiar tiny ledge feels so big and wide
that it's like a dancefloor. That is: if you keep trying something
-very -difficult, then when you return to the merely difficult, it
appears easy.

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Cath: I am not a good rider (I learn slowly) so here is my story with
29" and cranks.
I bought a 29er with 125 cranks and just could not manage the thing so
I started using 150 cranks. Feeling more confident I switched back to
125 and quickly went to 110.
Now this is my prefered size!
except over very technical terrain (I love trails in the woods) I just
prefer 110 even for climbing! As I've said in another post it gives me
the feeling to have a shorter "dead spot" -some answered it is an
illusion ... so may be they are right-
When my toes will have finished healing I even consider to switch to
125 on my Coker (which I still do not master 😠 !) -but may be this
is too early but looking for "dance floor effect"... time presses: I do
not want to be ridiculous on a 10km race held in late July 😄

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Mikefule (on the 'Dancefloor Effect') said:

if you keep trying something -very -difficult, then when you return to
the merely difficult, it appears easy.

I thought you meant that once you'd been up on the dancefloor and made
a complete idiot of yourself then what used to seem stupid now feels
normal. :o

Rob

--
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'Dartmoor Muni Weekend'
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rob.northcott said:

I thought you meant that once you'd been up on the dancefloor and made a
complete idiot of yourself then what used to seem stupid now feels
normal. :o

An equally good explanation. Why, do you know anyone that's happened
to?

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Mikefule said:

An equally good explanation. Why, do you know anyone that's happened
to?

Err... nope... honest guv I were never there.

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I planned to run 110s to start on my 700cc wheel (debating width and
type of tire) but I have 140s to get used to it if I need to.

--
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TheObieOne3226 said:

I planned to run 110s to start on my 700cc wheel (debating width and
type of tire) but I have 140s to get used to it if I need to.

I am not particularly good technical rider (about level 1.3) but I
bought my 700c with 110s, mounted it first time and could idle it
straight away. Somehow, there seems to be an effect that larger wheels
can tolerate shorter cranks. 102s on the 20 inch felt silly; on the
28, they felt fast but controllable. I think it's partly the style of
riding that larger wheels invite, and partly that things happen more
slowly, even though you're moving faster.

Don't be afraid of fairly short cranks on big wheels. A change from
say 150 - 140 is only a tiny percentage - fine tuning for preference.
A change to 110s (or similar) makes the uni totally different, but not
necessarily harder to ride.

On my 700c, I've used 110s, 125s, 102s and 89s. Of those 4 sizes, 125s
were the least satisfactory - they just made it feel like a
particularly ungainly 24. 89s were a bit limiting in the cross
country stakes; 102s suited me for long fast rides on the flat. 110s
are a good general purpose size.

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cathwood said:

I'd like some opinons on the advantages and disadvantages of shorter
cranks on the 29er (I'm riding with 125mm cranks at the moment).
Thanks.

My 29er came with 125s on it, which was great... for a couple of weeks.
I started to feel that my legs were moving a lot for a little result.
When I swapped to 110s, it was instantly noticably faster. The other
noticable thing was a bit less controll, and a much longer stopping
distance.

Almost all of my journey (East London in to the center) is pretty flat,
so hills aren't an issue, although the couple of times I've been
elsewhere, it is more tricky on the decent.

The control side of things doesn't take long to get a hold of, if you
are comfortable with 125s, so that really is only a short term problem.
The stopping distance still seems about the same, even after a few
hundred miles of riding, but I am getting much better at anticipating
things 😄

For the cost of a cheap pair of 110s (and, lets face it, on a 29er,
you're probably not going to appreciate an expencive pair that much
more), and 15 mins to swap them over, it's well worth it. After you've
done 50 miles or so, if you're not happy with them, or not confident,
then it's no bother to swap back... but I doubt you'll want to swap
back.

STM

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Thanks for all the input.

I'm off to order 110's and a crank removal thingy in the near future.

Cathy

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I got my 29" just one and a half week ago. I got it with 102er Cranks
and a Magura break. The plan was to go fast on the uni and to use to
uni to ride to work every morning. Therefore I need the break, because
in the city it's to hard to stop with such a cranksize.

Anyway I make a little test how fast I can get on the uni. So i'm
riding home from my grammy with my mom and dad (they both on a
bicycle). We decided to make more way and ride way through the field.
I'm going really fast on the uni, so my mom can't follow me on her bike
and she told me, she was driving really fast (so, i'd guess she was
driving ~25km/h maybe a bit more) and yeah this was a lot of fun at
all!

But what I was wondering was it felt like I have a geared uni. So,
there are more tempos you can easily drive with such a cranksize. The
point is to ride and the rotation of the uni is still "round". So,
there are different tempos where you can ride "round", that what it
makes you feel you have a geared uni. Pretty cool 🙂

Ride On
gossi

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