Getting commuter cranks double drilled?

people have certinaly drilled prowheel cranks for an extra pedal hole,
but I don't think it will be possible with the cranks you have
currently because of the large dish taken out of them. If you search
for previous threads on the subject you might find someone in Oz who
has the appropriate tools, unfortunately pedal thread taps are quite
expensive.

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kington99

Dave

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Well, I have double-drilled cranks (on a 26er, but I hope that doesn't
make much difference), and yes, it's a lot easier than using a crank
puller etc. Nonetheless, it still takes me long enough to change
lengths that I don't bother for hills, only for on-road vs off-road
sections - i.e. short for riding out to the trailhead, long for riding
around the trail, then short for coming back. If I have to change crank
length more times than that it starts to become annoying...

The other surprise is how much better I've got at riding off-road, and
doing tricks and idling etc., with the short cranks, since I started -
so I don't use the long crank length as much as I used to at all. That
may just mean I should shorten both - atm I've got 100/125 (on a 26),
so maybe it's time for 90/115 or something :-) - but you do tend to get
used to one length...

However if your main use is for commuting...I'd suggest you might be
just as well off with a single crank length somewhere in the middle,
say 130mm or so...???

HTH, Alan

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acl
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Maybe some of the other listmates can add their source, but Mark Stonich
of Bikesmith Designs in the States does this service. He can tell you
what cranks are drillable and what are not.
http://bikesmithdesign.com/

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unisk8r
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Have the area where you want to tap the new holes built up with weld.
Then drill and tap your new holes. This should be easy enough with
steel. I haven't experience with alum welding, but I think that should
be do able as well, and lighter . Steel might be a good choice if you
plan on moving the pedals a lot, the threads should last longer.

Plugging the unused hole will not add any strength, so don't bother
with that.

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feel the light
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feel the light said:

Have the area where you want to tap the new holes built up with weld.
Then drill and tap your new holes. This should be easy enough with
steel. I haven't experience with alum welding, but I think that should
be do able as well, and lighter . Steel might be a good choice if you
plan on moving the pedals a lot, the threads should last longer.

Plugging the unused hole will not add any strength, so don't bother
with that.

W/ welding aluminum you'd need the cranks to be heat treated
afterwards.

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time do it along the way.
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yunisyko said:

it's all about balls. i lose them often and then get em back.

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I don't think it's realistic to expect that you'll be moving your pedals
from one crank hole to the other multiple times every day on your
commute. Even leaving aside the factors of hassle and grease, pedal
threads are not really set up to take that kind of use; at some point
you'll cross-thread one and then you're hosed.

I think your best bet is to get 125mm cranks, or at least 140mm, and
just get used to climbing hills on them.

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tholub
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I went to an engineer that is a friend of my family today with my
unicycle to ask his opinion on getting my cranks drilled. After a bit
of a chat he was enthusiastic about giving it a go- we decided on
getting a small cylindrical insert- threading the inside of it to take
the pedal, then drill out a hole in the crank then weld it on both
sides of the crank to hold it in place. I'm going to take the cranks
there on monday (want to put in some km's this weekend) and will
hopefully have it done by Wednesday. I just need to make my mind up on
my second crank length. At the moment my mind is leaning at something
between 100- 110mm. I hear people get used to the shorter crank lengths
if you use them a lot so i'm thinking of going shorter rather than
longer and just using the 150's when i get to a [censored] of a hill. What
do you think?
mark

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napalm said:

At the moment my mind is leaning at something between 100- 110mm. I hear
people get used to the shorter crank lengths if you use them a lot so
i'm thinking of going shorter rather than longer and just using the
150's when i get to a [censored] of a hill. What do you think?
mark

I would stick with 110mm as a minimum. 110 is the shortest size that is
sensible for most riding (except in very hilly areas). I've never felt
safe in any kind of hill with shorter cranks. With 100 and 150, you'll
want to use 150 any time you went near the tinyest hill so it'd be
annoying.

You might even find 125 is more sensible.

This is probably obvious, but don't forget to make sure he knows that
the left crank has to have a left hand thread.

Joe

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125 is a nice go between crank size for any kind of riding. Most of the
riders on MUT ran 125mm cranks for the whole thing.

I'm really partial to 110s though, because they're fast AND you can
crank up some pretty stupidly steep hills on them once you're used to
it. I don't think I'd go for double drilled cranks on a pure road
unicycle, mostly because I know I'd never really need above 110s to
ride anything in my (fairly hilly) area.

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flyer
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