Schwalbe and Shifty
showard
A few weeks ago Jagur started a thread about a new Kenda 29er tire. I
remarked that I was looking to replace my IRC Notos tire and might be
interested in the Kenda. Joe Marshall (Dumb Blonde) stated that I
REALLY wanted a Schwalbe 28 x 2.35 "Big Apple" for my 29er. He was
right, but where to buy one? Rod Wylie (teachndad) located the North
American Schwalbe distributor in Canada and their web site. Sure enough
it's available for purchase on-line for $34.40 (+$3.75 shipping). A few
days later a Schwalbe Big Apple arrived.
Naturally, I immediately set out to put the Big Apple on my 29er.
Surprise! The Big Apple is too much tire for my frame! The
over-the-tire clearance is about minus 1/8". My 29er has a home made
frame that I know doesn't have much clearance but it's been fine with
the IRC tire.
Fortunately, for some reason someone sent me an old beater 29er in the
mail that happened to arrived the same day as the Big Apple. This 29er
is an old, decrepit, completely hammered blue thing that's not worth
much. I has a large, ridiculous looking hub. I've been using it to
block the wheels on my truck since the parking brake quit working. My
plan has been to recycle the aluminum parts, or just throw it all in the
dumpster, but an idea struck - maybe the Big Apple will fit on this dog
of a unicycle.
I removed the tire from the old blue 29er (couldn't find my tire levers
so I used a claw hammer and my wife's pinking shears) and discovered how
easy it is to tear a hole in the side wall of a Velociraptor tire. No
matter - it's worthless anyway. The Big Apple fit nicely on the bent
and wobbly 700c rim after I did a little truing with Vice Grips and a
rock. It DOES fit in the devastated blue frame with a little clearance
over the tire.
There are pictures here:
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/bigapple
By now I hope you realize I'm talking about Harper's Blue Shift! I did
actually put the Schwalbe tire on Blue Shift this evening (the tires
came off and went on without tools) and took it for a nice long ride. I
hesitate to make any kind of a judgment after only one ride but my first
impression of the Big Apple is positive. Looks good, nice and plush,
easy rolling, easy to control and quiet … very quiet. I won't be able
to keep Blue Shift forever so I guess I'll have to start working on a
new 29er frame for the Big Apple.
Here are a couple quotes from the Schwalbe catalog to think about:
"A study conducted by Cologne Sports University showed that a full
suspension bicycle is 33% more comfortable to ride than a conventional
bicycle. With Big Apple fitted to a conventional bicycle, the spine
suffered around 25% less jarring when compared to a standard 700x35C 4
bar (55psi) tyre."
"Using the same air pressure, wide tires roll approximately 10 watts
lower. With a comfortable air pressure of 2 bar (27psi) Big Apple has
approximately the same rolling friction as a standard tire at 4 bar
(55psi)."
Low pressure wide tires roll with less friction than high pressure
skinny tires? I guess I need someone to explain that one to me.
As for my experiences so far with Blue Shift - I've laughed ... I've
cried. I changed from 29" to 43" mode several times this evening
depending upon where I was riding. What a great thing - 43" mode for
the flat paved bits, 29" mode for the gravel and dirt and steep climbs,
back to 43" for more pavement, 29" mode for the sand and gravel along
side the bison pen. One of my normal uni routes takes me along the
fence line of a zoo. Today the half dozen bison were right next to the
fence … about ten feet away as I rode by. A couple of them stopped
grazing and watched me intently. Guess they had never seen a unicycle
with a geared hub before.
Steve Howard
--
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Tom Holub
showard <showar...@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
)
)A few weeks ago Jagur started a thread about a new Kenda 29er tire. I
)remarked that I was looking to replace my IRC Notos tire and might be
)interested in the Kenda. Joe Marshall (Dumb Blonde) stated that I
)REALLY wanted a Schwalbe 28 x 2.35 "Big Apple" for my 29er. He was
)right, but where to buy one? Rod Wylie (teachndad) located the North
)American Schwalbe distributor in Canada and their web site. Sure enough
)it's available for purchase on-line for $34.40 (+$3.75 shipping). A few
)days later a Schwalbe Big Apple arrived.
)
)Naturally, I immediately set out to put the Big Apple on my 29er.
)Surprise! The Big Apple is too much tire for my frame! The
)over-the-tire clearance is about minus 1/8". My 29er has a home made
)frame that I know doesn't have much clearance but it's been fine with
)the IRC tire.
How does the cross-section compare to the NanoRaptor? I like the looks
of that tread pattern (or lack thereof), but if the Big Apple is any
taller than the NanoRaptor, there's no way it'll fit in my Pashley.
(I could handle a wider tire, just not a taller one).
-Tom
harper
showard wrote:
> *Today the half dozen bison were right next to the fence … about ten
> feet away as I rode by. A couple of them stopped grazing and watched
> me intently. Guess they had never seen a unicycle with a geared hub
> before.
>
So, the Idaho bison are no more clever than the Washington bison. I get
the same reaction here .... alot of staring but very little wandering
away from the herd to give it a go. A couple of the bison here tried
riding it but openly admitted that the geared hub was too much for them.
Not only could none of them freemount, only one of them was able to even
ride more than a few meters and that was in 29" mode. Moose and elk are
much more clever.
--
harper - Twice the man, half the bike
-Greg Harper
"Sorry... I can't save the world AND reply promptly to posts at the same
time." - Phil, on unitasking
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The Munieer
Steve,
OH GOD!!
That was a hilarious read! I was BUSTIN up. After a long day with the
kids by myself and filling out report cards for an hour and a half, it
was a welcome and FUNNY read.:D
--
The Munieer - All for One and One for All!
Rod Wylie
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andrew_carter
Any chance of that Blue Shift making it's way over here to Queensland,
Australia? I'm not the only person here. There's many others including
Wayne van Wijk (the president of the Australian Unicycling Society).
When's the hub going to be for sale? Or is it going to be at all? I'll
consider buying one...but I need to test it out first :).
You Americans are so lucky to have so many other unicyclists nearby.
Andrew
--
andrew_carter - My 24" beast is complete!
HTTP://WWW.UNICYCLIST.COM/GALLERY/ALBUN59
andrew...@unicyclist.com
andrew...@mail.com
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U-Turn
Excellent read, Steve!
I've heard about that rolling resistance thing too; will check it out.
But I think it has something to do with the deformation of the footprint
and how tire material enters and exits the footprint.
--
U-Turn - Vertically challenged
~~~~~~~x (ouch)
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jagur
U-Turn wrote:
> [BAny ideas about how that tire would fit in the Pashley and Sem XLW
> frames?[/B]
Pashley=no way
Sem XLW=pretty darn sure.
--
jagur - Random Unicyclist
-searching for the real one wheel deal,the one that wont but will...
all i ask is one rotation,on this vision of singular creation...-[image:
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albums/albup23/bluestripe.gif]
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harper
Steve-
Have you ridden this Big Apple tire on a crowned road yet? It would be
interesting to know if the ridge in the center of the Nanoraptor is
really what causes the sensitivity to that slope. Also, what is the
inflated diameter under no load? The Nanoraptor is really close to 29"
unloaded and it sounds like the Big Apple is even bigger.
andrew_carter wrote:
> Any chance of that Blue Shift making it's way over here to Queensland,
> Australia?
>
> When's the hub going to be for sale?
I'd like to go to Queensland, forget the unicycle. I've always wanted to
go to the Northeast coast there. Still working on the production hub.
Some progress, some setbacks.
--
harper - Twice the man, half the bike
-Greg Harper
"Sorry... I can't save the world AND reply promptly to posts at the same
time." - Phil, on unitasking
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showard
Yesterday I took it easy with Blue Shift and left it set in 29" mode for
my ride. I rode the same route I've ridden many times on my 29er with
the intent of seeing how the Big Apple compares to the IRC Notos that
I'm used to.
I found it somewhat difficult to ride a straight line with the Big
Apple. For instance, there's a 200 foot long straight curb I like to
ride on top of but I couldn't make it all the way this time ... just
couldn't stay on that 4" wide curb like I usually do. Idling is more
difficult as well since the tire wants to move sidways while idling.
The Big Apple is road crown sensitive. My Notos is too but pumping the
pressure up from 35psi to 50psi helped it alot. Yesterday I had 40psi
in the Big Apple which might be too low. I'll try 50psi and see how it
goes.
That was the negative stuff. The Big Apple is a blast on rough trails!
It really smooths out a trail and is alot more stable in loose gravel
.. and it's so smooth and quiet.
Tonight I put the Notos back on my 29er and measured 1/4" clearance
between the tire and crown. Then I put Harper's Nano Raptor on my 29er
and measured the clearance at a hair less than 1/4". There really isn't
any difference between the two. Recall that there's NO clearance
between the Big Apple and the crown on my 29er. To make matters worse,
the Big Apple has grown a little after a couple days of riding. Now
there's barely any daylight between the tire and crown on Blue Shift.
Good thing the Big Apple runs very true. All these tires are very easy
to change by hand without the need of tire levers. It only took about 5
minutes to swap then Notos and Nano Raptor on my Alex Adventurer rim.
I don't know what frames the Big Apple will or won't fit in. I looks
like it's at least 1/2" larger in diameter than a Nano Raptor so that
should help determine if it will work in a particular frame.
Steve Howard
--
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