Quoted message said:*John_childs,
wow, you posted a second response before I responded to your first.
You are right about the bearing slipping, and right about the
solution.
That is what I ended up having to do, unfortunately it took a very
long
time to get there. the guys over at unicycle.com must have had
something going on because it took forever to get help from them at
first, however once we where communicating they were very helpful and
I
have the feeling that the negative aspects of my experience with
them
where not the norm. I will definitely apply the loctite to the
hub/bearings on my new wheel, I learned that the hard way.
lebn schuyler *
I'm just passing along some knowledge I learned the hard way through
experience. I didn't know that bearing slipping was a problem on
unicycles until it happened to me midway into a 20+ mile ride on my old
stock Coker. Now I know. It's a lot more fun to fix problems like that
before they happen rather than after.
I've had the bearings slip on three unicycle (stock Coker, Pashley muni,
and DM freestyle). Unfortunately the bearings don't come from the
factory Loctited. It's something that you have to do yourself.
The wheel builds from Unicycle.com are a bit over priced. I don't know
why the custom built wheels are so expensive from them. When you add up
the cost of the parts and figure the cost of the wheel build in that
cost it gets to be an expensive wheel build.
I get my wheels built locally. I found a great local wheel builder who
builds the best wheels I've seen, other than the U-Turn built wheels.
My local wheel builds are about $30 for labor plus the cost of parts.
Works out to be much cheaper than the unicycle.com custom built wheels
and I get a better wheel.
The trick is finding a good local wheel builder. Not all bike shops are
good at building wheels. Ask a local bike club for recommendations.
Find out where the freeriders and tandem bike riders go for their wheel
builds. That's where you want to go. Don't just go to a random bike
shop. Let the wheel builder know that unicycle wheels get a lot of side
loads that bikes don't usually get. The spokes need to be tight and
properly stress relieved so the wheel can take those loads.
You should be able to find a local wheel builder who builds good wheels.
You'll need to bring in the Coker frame along with the wheel. The
wheel builder will need to use the frame as a wheel building jig. The
Coker wheel won't fit in the regular wheel building jig. You'll also
need to have the bearings on the hub so the hub will fit in the frame so
the wheel can be built.
The U-Turn wheel is going to be way out of your price range. His is the
price is no object, quality is everything, it must be perfect kind of
wheel build. You pay for that.
A little background on the Airfoil rim. Unicycle.com had the Airfoil
rim custom made and they paid for the custom work. They found a company
able to make the rim. It's an existing downhill rim extrusion turned in
to a 36" rim rather than a 24" or 26". Unicycle.com is the reason that
we have an upgraded Coker rim. Otherwise we'd still be stuck with the
stock rim. For that I'm very grateful.
(I had to mention that to balance out the comments about their
overpriced wheel builds <g>😉
Unicycle.com seems to be out of stock on the Airfoil rim and Coker
spokes. I don't know what's up with that. I hope they'll be getting
new stock soon. They're our only source of Airfoil rims. U-Turn
probably has some Airfoil rims in stock for his wheels, but other than
that we'll be in a bit of a dry period till Unicycle.com gets some new
stock.
Hopefully someone can chime in with the pros and cons of the Tom Miller
SS spokes vs. the stock Coker spokes. My gut feeling is that for your
needs the stock spokes will be fine. But that's just a gut feeling and
not based on experience.
--
john_childs - Guinness Mojo
john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
Gallery: '' (http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/john_childs)
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