a bad day for unicycle maintenance!

[joemarshall]

Yesterday I managed to snap the seatpost on my muni (well it finally broke more like, been going for a bit) at the top, where the front two bolts attach to the seat.

So I got home after riding a fair bit without almost no weight on the seat and take the seat off and pop on my KH seat that's on my coker.

At this point I discover that my coker seatpost is slightly narrower than the miyata seatpost and won't clamp in properly into the muni.

Aha I think, I'll shim it some more with bit of a coke can outside the current shim (pashley -> miyata shim).

So I get the shim out and pop the extra coke can shim round it. I put it back in, with a bit poking out of the tube so I can get it out if I need to.

Then I try to put the coker seatpost in, but try as I might it won't go in. Okay, I'll take it out and try only shimming one side I think.

But trying to put the seatpost in has pushed the shim right into the tube.

Bugger. I decided to remove the wheel and poke the shim out from the other end using a long seatpost I had lying around. Cunning huh?

Several minutes later I've removed the (evil pashley) wheel and I poke the long seatpost in. Which promptly fits into the other end of the shim fine despite being nominally the same size and sticks firmly in. I manage to get that out by bashing it from the top with the coker seatpost, which will now fit in a little bit, but is still at a non adjustable tightness.

Genius part x, I decide to use my DM seatpost which fits into the pashley seat tube fine and bash it in from the bottom of the seatpost. But it doesn't take long to discover that this just sticks a little bit in and won't budge. Much bashing later I get it out.

Now after all this, I'm getting close to just chucking the frame, but then inspiration strikes and I go and get some fine sandpaper, wrap it round a screwdriver and sand the inside of the shim and suddenly the seatpost fits lovely like. Doh.

So that's 2 hours for a 5 minute maintenance task, and people wonder why I don't do much mending on my uni!

Next up when the parts arrive, the Joe Marshall pedal mending masterclass!

Joe

[yoopers]

After days like that, it's time to give up and go for ice cream.

[JJuggle]

Originally posted by yoopers
After days like that, it's time to give up and go for ice cream.

You meant, of course, to say, donuts.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

[yoopers]

Originally posted by JJuggle
You meant, of course, to say, donuts.

Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ

Of course. I misspoke. I'll try to be more careful in the future.

B

[Mikefule]

Your story made me laugh out loud with recognition. Anyone who ever had an old motorcycle could have told you, there are no 5 minute jobs. Your story had some of the elements of the famous 'bucket of bricks' sketch. Loved it.

[joemarshall]

There would have been a 5 minute job if I'd not thought that it could be a little bit easier to adjust seat height if I shimmed it. Having learnt the if it ain't very broke don't fix it lesson, I'm certainly not going to strip down my pedals when I get the spare bits I need for them!

Joe