N00b tries to transition to the 29....hilarity ensues.

[uniShark]

Originally Posted by YooNeeNoob

Oh yeah....you uni people were sooooo right. After a weekend of effort, the 29er almost feels as good now as my old 24" pal. And again, as they have so many times before, things "just clicked." I wasn't trying to focus on any particular technique or procedure, I was just stubbornly trying to ride the thing and do all the turns and hills and stops and starts that made the 24 so much fun when...suddenly...I could!
I'm soooo glad I stuck with the bigger wheel, because this thing takes much bigger bites of road with every turn of the cranks. Gone is that feeling of desperate futility I used to experience on long stretches of road when it seemed that no matter how furiously I pumped the pedals, I was only inching toward my goal. The 29er feels much more like actual trasnportation. This is very cool.
Thanks again.

As Cartman has said: "Sweeeet."

[Nurse Ben]

I'm soooo glad I stuck with the bigger wheel, because this thing takes much bigger bites of road with every turn of the cranks. Gone is that feeling of desperate futility I used to experience on long stretches of road when it seemed that no matter how furiously I pumped the pedals, I was only inching toward my goal.

I see a 36er in someone's future

[uniShark]

Originally Posted by Nurse Ben

I see a 36er in someone's future

Yeah, me too, but I thought I'd give him at least a couple weeks on the 29er first.

[YooNeeNoob]

hahahahha...yeah, please let me have some 29er fun before i have to start crashing and falling off again...heh.
Hey UniShark: I was checking out random videos and came across your Hiawatha Trail excursion--VERY kewl! That thing looks exactly like the Iron Horse railroad grade from Snoqualmie Pass where they just had a similar ride. My nephew and I are planning to do that one next year when we have some skillz (we live in Seattle).
OK, it looks like maybe you have a KH 29 too. I'd like, if I may, to ask a question or two about it:
I absolutely HEART that uni, but I have a very minor nit to pick. Now that I can thrash around pretty good on the KH, I've noticed that something feels possibly a little loose somewhere, probably in the seat. As I ride, a faint clicking is either present in the seat or being transmitted up through the seat from somewhere below. I noticed that the "Ultra comfortable Fusion Freeride Saddle" is structurally more complex than the seat on my Nimbus II, and has way more bolts. I tried tightening the various bolts and this seemed to help alot. It's nothing that interferes with riding--more of a slightly disconcerting thing. Have you (or any other KH owners) noticed anything like this?
BTW: Even though my fancy new Schwalbe tire has arrived, as my 29er skillz increase, the Maxxis knobby is actually growing on me. The way this damn thing rolls over cracks, debris, gravel and other stuff is highly neato! I guess I'll llet the knobs wear a bit before swapping 'em for the Schwalbe. I lkinda like being the uni equivalent of a monster truck.

Thanks for any insights and observations you care to share...

[uniShark]

Originally Posted by YooNeeNoob

hahahahha...yeah, please let me have some 29er fun before i have to start crashing and falling off again...heh.
Hey UniShark: I was checking out random videos and came across your Hiawatha Trail excursion--VERY kewl! That thing looks exactly like the Iron Horse railroad grade from Snoqualmie Pass where they just had a similar ride. My nephew and I are planning to do that one next year when we have some skillz (we live in Seattle).
OK, it looks like maybe you have a KH 29 too. I'd like, if I may, to ask a question or two about it:
I absolutely HEART that uni, but I have a very minor nit to pick. Now that I can thrash around pretty good on the KH, I've noticed that something feels possibly a little loose somewhere, probably in the seat. As I ride, a faint clicking is either present in the seat or being transmitted up through the seat from somewhere below. I noticed that the "Ultra comfortable Fusion Freeride Saddle" is structurally more complex than the seat on my Nimbus II, and has way more bolts. I tried tightening the various bolts and this seemed to help alot. It's nothing that interferes with riding--more of a slightly disconcerting thing. Have you (or any other KH owners) noticed anything like this?
BTW: Even though my fancy new Schwalbe tire has arrived, as my 29er skillz increase, the Maxxis knobby is actually growing on me. The way this damn thing rolls over cracks, debris, gravel and other stuff is highly neato! I guess I'll llet the knobs wear a bit before swapping 'em for the Schwalbe. I lkinda like being the uni equivalent of a monster truck.

Thanks for any insights and observations you care to share...

Thanks re Hiawatha. I rode that again 3 times last year. Not technically challenging, but lots of fun.

Clicking on the KH unis has been discussed before, although probably not an easy search, and some issues were particular to certain batches. First things to check are tightness of everything. Particularly check the cranks, because they'll come loose as they break in. Is this a current model KH?

[jbtilley]

Originally Posted by YooNeeNoob

Have you (or any other KH owners) noticed anything like this?

One of the people that I ride with regularly has a KH29 that clicks excessively bad. Like constant clicking/pinging that can be heard at a distance. He's tightened everything and had the wheel built up a few times. The clicking is still there. I believe someone told him that the clicking was coming from the hub.

Mine similarly started clicking about 2 months ago. It's not quite as bad as my friend's uni, it usually only starts up when there's a lot of torque on the crank, like a serious climb, and while more faint it sounds exactly the same. Everything is tight. Maybe a batch got out with a bad part? And just like my friend's uni it is getting worse over time. In my case it's a KH bought in the spring of 2011. I figure I might as well ride it until a part breaks completely and then look into getting a replacement part or two.

In our case I'd have to guess that it is coming from the hub or the bearings.

In your case... you can feel that something is loose? Try checking the bearing caps. Make sure they aren't loose (also make sure you don't get them on too tight, the wheel should still spin freely).

[uniShark]

Some of the KH hubs in the last couple years have had some play in the splines where the flanges connect to the shank. If it's a new uni and you rule out all other issues, I would recommend returning it for a new one, becasue it's not fixable and will always click. I think muniaddict had that issue about a year ago.

[uniShark]

Here's a post Terry made about similar hub issues.

[jbtilley]

The later portion of that post definitely applies in my case. So the solution seems to be "replace with a nimbus hub" when the clicking becomes too annoying to bear.

[onewheeldave]

Originally Posted by jbtilley

One of the people that I ride with regularly has a KH29 that clicks excessively bad. Like constant clicking/pinging that can be heard at a distance. He's tightened everything and had the wheel built up a few times. The clicking is still there. I believe someone told him that the clicking was coming from the hub.

Mine similarly started clicking about 2 months ago. It's not quite as bad as my friend's uni, it usually only starts up when there's a lot of torque on the crank, like a serious climb, and while more faint it sounds exactly the same. Everything is tight. Maybe a batch got out with a bad part? And just like my friend's uni it is getting worse over time. In my case it's a KH bought in the spring of 2011. I figure I might as well ride it until a part breaks completely and then look into getting a replacement part or two.

In our case I'd have to guess that it is coming from the hub or the bearings.

In your case... you can feel that something is loose? Try checking the bearing caps. Make sure they aren't loose (also make sure you don't get them on too tight, the wheel should still spin freely).

I found with my KH29, and later, my quaz 26, that there was an annoying clicking when descending or climbing steep hills, even after apparently tightening everything up.

Finally worked out it was the bearing holders- they seem to need tightening far more than I'd assumed: cos of the plastic stuff on the nuts, designed to stop them loosening, there's basically zero feedback when you're tightening them up, and in conjunction with the concern that over doing it could trash the bearings, I find that I generally obviously don't do them up enough.

It's a matter of riding with an allen key, and, if the click happens, keep tightening them up till it stops, rather then relying on my judgement.

[YooNeeNoob]

Wow. Thx for the info, guys. I had a sinking feeling it wasn't just me. Oh well. As I said, I like everything about this unicycle with the exception of this one minor issue. The prospect of watching it getting worse over time is a little scary. Maybe I'll fire off an email to the place in Portland where I got it and see what he thinks...

Thanx again.

[kahunacohen]

I have had similar clicking noises with my KH20 with Fusion seat. It appears to be the seat, and Josh at UDC told me that with a lot of use the seat internals can come loose. He told me to buy the KH seat reinforcement kit.

But I've noticed that when I tighten the bearing housings, the clicking seems to stop for a bit. So maybe it's just that.

[YooNeeNoob]

MYSTERY SOLVED!
===========

OK, during tonight's ride, I felt the creaking / clicking again--not as bad as it was before I tightened the seat, but definitely still there. Afterwards, I groped around looking for the source of the issue and was finally able to isolate it. Initially, I was confused because even though I could feel the click / creak while riding, no amount of post-ride tugging, pushing and pulling around the hub, pedals, cranks, or seat could reproduce it. Finally, I grabbed the nose and back of the seat and applied light but firm lateral pressure in both directions as if tightening and loosening the cap on a bottle. Bingo! There it was, loud and clear. The mysterious creak somehow results from the small amount of side-to-side pressure that must be exerted on the seat during riding, especially during cornering. I'm relieved to have finally found the source of the issue, particularly as it doesn't seem to be a real problem--more of a quirk or aspect of this saddle's character, I suppose. I'm curious as to whether or not others with the Freeride seat can reproduce the creak / click in this way....

Hey, thanks for listening, and sorry for the false alarm.

[onewheeldave]

Originally Posted by YooNeeNoob

MYSTERY SOLVED!
===========

OK, during tonight's ride, I felt the creaking / clicking again--not as bad as it was before I tightened the seat, but definitely still there. Afterwards, I groped around looking for the source of the issue and was finally able to isolate it. Initially, I was confused because even though I could feel the click / creak while riding, no amount of post-ride tugging, pushing and pulling around the hub, pedals, cranks, or seat could reproduce it. Finally, I grabbed the nose and back of the seat and applied light but firm lateral pressure in both directions as if tightening and loosening the cap on a bottle. Bingo! There it was, loud and clear. The mysterious creak somehow results from the small amount of side-to-side pressure that must be exerted on the seat during riding, especially during cornering. I'm relieved to have finally found the source of the issue, particularly as it doesn't seem to be a real problem--more of a quirk or aspect of this saddle's character, I suppose. I'm curious as to whether or not others with the Freeride seat can reproduce the creak / click in this way....

Hey, thanks for listening, and sorry for the false alarm.

Is the noise actually coming from the seat though. During the process of locating the sound on my uni (see above), I also came to the conclusion that it was the seat, because, with the wheel locked between my feet and twisting the saddle in my hands, the sound happened.

However, after stripping down the saddle, putting it all back together, and doing up all the bolts super-tight, the same thing happened.

It turned out that twisting the saddle just transfers the twist down to the bearing holders, which, in my case, where the real culprit.

Hopefully you're right, but, if after addressing the saddle, the sound remains, suspect the bearing holders.

[YooNeeNoob]

Originally Posted by onewheeldave

Hopefully you're right, but, if after addressing the saddle, the sound remains, suspect the bearing holders.

Cool..thx for the heads-up. I'll do a doublecheck tonight. --cheers.