Did unicycle.com put my hub on backwards?

No, the hub has right handed (clockwise to tighten) threads on both
sides. It is only necessary to have left and right handed threads on
the pedal/crankarm interface due to the fact that the pedal rotates at
the end of the crankarm. Most likely, the retaining bolts at the ends
of the hub were not properly torqued at assembly. Contact UDC and let
them know about the problem in case the crankarm taper has become
damaged

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Krashin'Kenny

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A hub cannot be put on backwards UNLESS it already has the cranks
attached to it. The cranks AND pedals should somewhere be marked "L"
and "R" for left and right respectively. These are the directional
components, not the hub. Check those first.

--
harper

-Greg Harper

B L U E S H I F T

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Quoted message said:

<> Unicycle For the Chafing <><

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It's not new enough that I would have messed up that part. It would
have destroyed itself long ago. L and R match...because I can read.
Let me rephrase:

Did unicycle.com put everything onto the hub backwards?

I guess it makes more sense to say "are all these many things backwards
compared to this one thing" instead of "is this one thing relatively
backwards"?

--
Joseppi
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I'll venture a couple thoughts on this, although better advice may
follow.

To your first question, yes it is definitely possible that unicycle.com
assembled something incorrectly. It has been known to happen.

That said, if they indeed got it backwards, I think you would have seen
a different problem, i.e. your pedals, rather than the crank coming
loose.

Did the cranks come with an L or R on them, either etched into the
metal or via a white sticker? My son's Nimbus had them identified that
way by UDC. I believe both of the nuts that hold your cranks on will
tighten clockwise. Righty tighty, lefty loosie. I may be wrong, but I
think it is only the pedals that have a different orientation depending
on the side of the unicycle they belong on.

Do you have a torque wrench? That would be the best place to start,
ensuring you have the crank nut tightened to the proper tightness (I
use 40).

There have been threads in the past with specific instructions for
mounting the crank arms properly, including making sure you grease up
both the square axle bolt and the inside of the hole in the crank the
bolt goes into. I think unless you mount it properly using a torque
wrench, it will be difficult to isolate the problem. There may be a
fit problem or an issue with the metal being compromised, but that will
be difficult to determine if you don't mount the crank to the proper
torque. I have never had a crank come loose when mounting it to 40
(foot pounds?), even after 1,000 plus miles.

I'll see if I can find those mounting instructions and post a link.

--
tomblackwood

Tailgate at your own risk...
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Joseppi said:

It's not new enough that I would have messed up that part. L and R
match...because I can read. Let me rephrase:

Did unicycle.com put everything onto the hub backwards?

I guess it makes more sense to say "are all these many things backwards
compared to this one thing" instead of "is this one thing relatively
backwards"?

No, a hub can't be backwards.

--
Borgschulze

http://borgschulze.deviantart.com/
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A loose crank with a square taper hub is a common problem. It's
something that you have to learn to watch for so you can catch the
problem before it damages the hub or the crank.

Unicycles have more problems with cranks working loose that bicycles.
This is because unicycles put both forwards and backwards pressure on
the cranks regularly and cyclically. A crank tightening procedure that
works fine for bikes does not necessarily work well for unicycles.

Anyways, here's instructions on how to properly install square taper
cranks on a unicycle: 'Square Taper Crank Installation and Maintenance'
(http://tinyurl.com/blcbl). That procedure is the result of testing
and experience under unicycling conditions. It's reliable and proven.
It has worked for me reliably, except I go to 35 foot-pounds instead of
40 foot-pounds.

If you or your friends don't have the proper tools to do the work
yourself then take the unicycle to a bike shop and have them do it.
Print out those instructions and have them follow the procedure. They
won't quite understand why. Tell them that it's because unicycles are
unique and please humor you by following the procedure. After that the
crank should never come loose. If it does it is probably because the
crank tapers have been damaged or someone broke the Loctite bond by
tightening or loosening the crank bolt.

--
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Everyone, forgive my curt response earlier. My entire day has been sort
of sub-par. In my angry state, I missed a few things in earlier
comments. Anyhow, try not to hold it against me.

I wonder if it has something to do with the crank arm assembly itself.
This friend of mine has the same unicycle, but with 125 mm cranks
instead of 110 mm. Both of us have cotterless cranks, but for some
reason, it seems that they are assembled differently. I can't confirm
this because we don't have the right tools at the moment to remove his
cranks. But something we do know is that the cap that fits around the
bolt fits on his unicycle but does not fit on mine. Any ideas?

--
Joseppi
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Thanks john_childs, I'll look into that.

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Joseppi
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Joseppi said:

I wonder if it has something to do with the crank arm assembly itself.
This friend of mine has the same unicycle, but with 125 mm cranks
instead of 110 mm. Both of us have cotterless cranks, but for some
reason, it seems that they are assembled differently. I can't confirm
this because we don't have the right tools at the moment to remove his
cranks. But something we do know is that the cap that fits around the
bolt fits on his unicycle but does not fit on mine. Any ideas?

Dust caps on unicycle cranks can be a pain. Different brands and
models of cranks fit on the hub to different depths. Some cranks fit
so far on the hub that the crank bolt or crank nut sticks out and
interferes with the dust cap.

Plastic dust caps are also a pain. They don't hold very well and will
pop out. Plastic dust caps are also thicker around the edge so they
can have additional interference problems with the crank nut/bolt.

The best dust caps are the metal ones that actually thread in the
crank. Plastic ones don't hold. 'UDC has metal ones'
(http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=736) with full
threads. You can also find quality metal dust caps on eBay and at bike
shops that carry old parts (shops that carry used bike gear are a good
source).

An additional problem is that the style of dust caps we use on
unicycles are old obsolete technology for the bikes. Bikes have moved
on to integrated self-extracting crank bolts that have an integrated
dust cap. It is getting harder and harder to find quality metal dust
caps now. It's not a part that is really manufactured any more. So
most of what you find now is old stock that a bike shop still has on
hand. I don't know where UDC are getting their threaded metal dust
caps, but I suspect they're hunting around for old stock and buying it
up.

I had one set of cranks on a particular hub that made it very difficult
to get the dust cap to thread on. The crank nut/bolt stuck out so far
that I couldn't get the dust cap on. I ended up drilling out the dust
cap to make clearance so the dust cap would fit on.

The main purpose of the dust cap is to protect the threads inside the
crank. Those threads are used for the crank extractor. If those
threads get damaged or get a lot of dust and grit in them it becomes
impossible or difficult to get the crank extractor threaded on to pull
the crank off.

--
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john_childs (att) hotmail (dott) com
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Has anybody mentioned the fact that the frame might be on backwards?

--
forrestunifreak

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john_childs said:

It's reliable and proven. It has worked for me reliably, except I go to
*35 foot-pounds *instead of 40 foot-pounds.

JC, is that a revision to your procedure, or is that where you've
always been. I'm thinking I got the 40 from you, but perhaps I
mis-remembered. Is 40 too tight?

--
tomblackwood

Tailgate at your own risk...
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tomblackwood said:

JC, is that a revision to your procedure, or is that where you've always
been. I'm thinking I got the 40 from you, but perhaps I mis-remembered.
Is 40 too tight?

I was going to 40 foot-pounds based on the 'test by Brian MacKenzie'
(http://tinyurl.com/3eygf) where he tightened up a crank nut on a Suzue
hub and it failed at 85-90 foot-pounds. 40 foot-pounds became the
standard after that. But then I stripped the threads on my widened
Suzue hub even though I was using a torque wrench and going to 40
foot-pounds. But the threads were lubricated with Loctite and not dry
as they were in Brian's experiment. Since then I've toned it down to
35 foot-pounds considering that the threads are always lubricated with
Loctite. Torque on lubricated threads should be less than the max
torque with dry threads.

I haven't had any problems with loose cranks at 35 foot-pounds along
with Loctite. The cranks have stayed tight for me on my Coker and
freestyle unis with both steel and aluminum cranks.

Park Tool gives 'suggested torques'
(http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=88) for cranks on
bicycles. The suggested torque is different for different brands of
cranks and bottom bracket. The max torque is in the 30 to 40
foot-pounds range for bikes. So 35 foot-pounds would seem to be a safe
torque for unicycles.

--
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Did you check and re-tighten the crank bolts when you got the uni?

Having had some cranks come loose I always adjust my crank bolts when I
get a new uni.

The problem is that cranks are made to a standard and hubs are made to
a standard and they should fit together (like all ISIS cranks and hubs
should be compatible) however due to the number of different
manufacturers and the differing tolerances the interface between the
two might not be as good as it could be.

Riding as John Childs said puts a lot of force on the cranks and it is
quite possible that they will "settle" onto the hub and this will leave
the crank bolts loose.

Always check crank bolts after a couple of rides on a new uni as it can
save you some wrecked cranks/hubs.

Plumsie

--
plumsie
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john_childs said:

Dust caps on unicycle cranks can be a pain. Different brands and models
of cranks fit on the hub to different depths. Some cranks fit so far
on the hub that the crank bolt or crank nut sticks out and interferes
with the dust cap.

That's true with hubs that have the thread attached to the axle and
have a nut to hold the crank on, but with the (now more common) type
where the axle is hollow and the crank is held on with a bolt, if the
bolt head is poking out more than normal then the thread has bottomed
out and it'll never be tight (or of course somebody has put washers
between the bolt and the crank).

Rob

EDIT: I use John's suggested "40lbf torque and a dab of loctite on the
bolt" and I've never had a crank come loose on my square-tapered muni.
I'm not a big hopper or dropper, but it gets a lot of use on pretty
rocky terrain. Square-taper axles aren't as unreliable as some people
will have you believe - if it's coming loose (especially with road
riding) it's likely that either it wasn't fitted properly (or tight
enough) in the first place, or there's something wrong with the crank
or axle, or the bolt is too long and is bottoming out in the thread.

--
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'Dartmoor Muni Weekend'
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You do need to be careful with hubs. I find that when I go riding mine
are upside down half the time.

--
johnhimsworth

Never argue with an idiot; they drag you down to their level and then
beat you with experience.
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johnhimsworth said:

You do need to be careful with hubs. I find that when I go riding mine
are upside down half the time.

😄

--
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When you got the uni, did it have qu-ax cranks on it??

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my $.02

No, there is no way to put a hub on backwards.
Yes, it is possible that your cranks are on the wrong side of the hub.
Yes, it is possible that your frame is on backwards in relation to your
crank configuration.
No, UDC connot be blamed for loose square taper crank arms (when I rode
square tapers, I had one that would come loose almost every 15 minutes
worth of riding, no matter how torqued the nut was)
Yes, we should always check pre-assembled Uni's, or anything else for
that matter, before using it. (when Nike bought Bauer, there hockey
skate frequently were shipped with either two left or two right footed
blades on both skates in a pair)

--
Beener

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I'm thinking there may be something about the method these cranks
attach. I've seen his unicycle and the 6 other cycles we all have
(including my 36" nimbus DX with slightly longer cranks). His cranks
bolt on with a large hex key type bolt and a plastic tapered washer.
Not sure if that would cause any differences but its a pain nonetheless
:p. I suggested to him initially that the hub or frame assembly may be
backwards, but seeing as there's no backwards to a hub and the crank
arms are on the correct sides, it may have just come loose.

--
mouse
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