24" Custom Frame - 1st Design

For those of you who don’t know, I’m gettign a 24" custom unicycle to use for a lot of muni and trials and some freestyle. I’ve ordered the profile hub and cranks and the rest should all be here in the next 2 weeks. Then, I’m going to send the parts away to a frame builder who’ll make a frame for me based on my designs and on the parts to fit. This is the first design. I’d really appreciate any suggestions you have about the design especially to do with the dimensions but general hints and suggestions would also be great.

Thanks a lot,
Andrew Carter

Errr if that’s inch dia. tube you’re using for the fork legs that’s going to be a WIDE frame.

otherwise it looks ok.

What material are you having it made from - steel? - what spec?

I was going to use 4130 chromoly steel ovalized tubing. I don’t really know what it is but it’s apparently the most appropriate for this and I’m basing the design on the new KH24 frame (also with 4130, etc.).

I was planning to make the legs 35mm x 20mm. Do you think this’ll be too wide?

Thanks for the comments.

Re: 24" Custom Frame - 1st Design

keep it simple"JoeRowing" <JoeRowing.dlacz@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote
in message news:JoeRowing.dlacz@timelimit.unicyclist.com
>
> Errr if that’s inch dia. tube you’re using for the fork legs that’s
> going to be a WIDE frame.
>
> otherwise it looks ok.
>
> What material are you having it made from - steel? - what spec?
>
>
> –
> JoeRowing - Mad Man Muni - Custom Uni Engineer
>
> Joe
>
> Please visit pedal.me.uk for all your custom uni needs
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> JoeRowing’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1544
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/21441
>

you might be happy if you used something a little thinner. otherwise it’l hityour legs a little.

Okay thanks, but how thin can I go before the frame starts to get too weak? I want to work my way up to about 6’ drops or so and although most of this force is on the wheel, surely the frame has to be strong too.

Thanks

Re: 24" Custom Frame - 1st Design

I just made a sweet railed seat bracket,makes a difference.
You’ll probably want one too .
“JoeRowing” <JoeRowing.dlacz@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:JoeRowing.dlacz@timelimit.unicyclist.com
>
> Errr if that’s inch dia. tube you’re using for the fork legs that’s
> going to be a WIDE frame.
>
> otherwise it looks ok.
>
> What material are you having it made from - steel? - what spec?
>
>
> –
> JoeRowing - Mad Man Muni - Custom Uni Engineer
>
> Joe
>
> Please visit pedal.me.uk for all your custom uni needs
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> JoeRowing’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1544
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/21441
>

The thing I’m having a lot of trouble with is the dimensions of the bearing holders. Can anyone please tell me some of the dimensions from their unicycles (pretty stong ones) or their designs? Also, what about the thickness of the hollow tubing. That’s prebably not the right words but I mean the width of each wall and not the overall width (although that’d also be helpful).

Thanks

mine has a wall thickness of 0.065", which is probably a litle heavier than you will want.

Re: 24" Custom Frame - 1st Design

On Mon, 4 Nov 2002 04:34:00 -0600, andrew_carter
<andrew_carter.dlalb@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

>I was planning to make the legs 35mm x 20mm. Do you think this’ll be
>too wide?

It should be OK. The legs of my Yuni frame are also oval, 29.5 x 21
mm.

Klaas Bil

I posted only a single copy of this message.

Re: 24" Custom Frame - 1st Design

We just bucked the fork legs off of a Norco and built a new crown ,simple,
fits a 3.0 tire
We also mounted a migura brake
and built a railed seat bracket out of a miyata seat post,too easy,works
great .

We made some kicker white lighten too.

Tim
“andrew_carter” <andrew_carter.dl9fn@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in
message news:andrew_carter.dl9fn@timelimit.unicyclist.com
>
> For those of you who don’t know, I’m gettign a 24" custom unicycle to
> use for a lot of muni and trials and some freestyle. I’ve ordered the
> profile hub and cranks and the rest should all be here in the next 2
> weeks. Then, I’m going to send the parts away to a frame builder who’ll
> make a frame for me based on my designs and on the parts to fit. This
> is the first design. I’d really appreciate any suggestions you have
> about the design especially to do with the dimensions but general hints
> and suggestions would also be great.
>
> Thanks a lot,
> Andrew Carter
>
>
> ±---------------------------------------------------------------+
> | Attachment filename: autocad design.jpg |
> |Download attachment: http://www.unicyclist.com/attachment/86700 |
> ±---------------------------------------------------------------+
>
> –
> andrew_carter - I’m getting a custom mountain uni!
>
> Thanks everyone for all the help and advice you’ve given me over the
> past few weeks. This is the custom unicycle I’ve decided on:
> - Profile hub and cranks, Alex DX-32 24" rim, Miyata saddle, Some good
> spokes and pedals, 24 x 3" tyre (probably Gazz), Custom-made frame
> painted a nice orange (like on the KH24) or green.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> andrew_carter’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1052
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/21441
>

Would something like 30mm x 12mm be too small for the frame legs? I agree that this design I’ve attached a diagram of would be pretty wide. Also, I juse realised that I’ve got to find out how wide the Profile hub is to try to work around that if I want my frame legs to be parallel. Can anyone help me out with measurements?

Thanks

I’ve done a little 3D model of this design and it looks like it’s turning out alright. Once again, I’m not sure how all this will fit with the other parts especially the hub and tyre. I’ve noticed that the bearing holders on the KH24 only have the smaller diameter bits to keep the bearings in place on the outside. Isn’t there a risk of the frame bending or stretching and the bearings not sitting in place properly? Also, why is the Miyata seat post 22.2mm diameter and the others are all so much bigger. Maybe I’ve got this all wrong, but I thought that a lot of other seat posts were about 29.4mm diameter or something like that.

Thanks,
Andrew

Re: 24" Custom Frame - 1st Design

On Wed, 6 Nov 2002 02:37:02 -0600, andrew_carter
<andrew_carter.doudb@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:

>Would something like 30mm x 12mm be too small for the frame legs? I
>agree that this design I’ve attached a diagram of would be pretty wide.
>Also, I juse realised that I’ve got to find out how wide the Profile hub
>is to try to work around that if I want my frame legs to be parallel.
>Can anyone help me out with measurements?

I posted the size of my oval Yuni (Nimbus II) fork tubing yesterday
(29.5 x 21 mm). I’m a layman for mechanical design but 12 mm sounds
like narrow to me. Even if you would use somewhat thicker “ovalness”
it need not increase your overall frame width: I think you can
decrease the side tyre clearance. On my Nimbus II with 24 x 3" tyre
the side clearance is only 3.5 mm (and is just about OK for MUni).

Klaas Bil

I posted only a single copy of this message.

Re: 24" Custom Frame - 1st Design

I just replaced my 22.5mm seat tube with a 27.2mm seat tube,I 'm gonna
try a rock shox seat post with a quick release,should be nice.

Tim
“andrew_carter” <andrew_carter.dlalb@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in
message news:andrew_carter.dlalb@timelimit.unicyclist.com
>
> I was going to use 4130 chromoly steel ovalized tubing. I don’t really
> know what it is but it’s apparently the most appropriate for this and
> I’m basing the design on the new KH24 frame (also with 4130, etc.).
>
> I was planning to make the legs 35mm x 20mm. Do you think this’ll be
> too wide?
>
> Thanks for the comments.
>
>
> –
> andrew_carter - I’m getting a custom mountain uni!
>
> Thanks everyone for all the help and advice you’ve given me over the
> past few weeks. This is the custom unicycle I’ve decided on:
> - Profile hub and cranks, Alex DX-32 24" rim, Miyata saddle, Some good
> spokes and pedals, 24 x 3" tyre (probably Gazz), Custom-made frame
> painted a nice orange (like on the KH24) or green.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> andrew_carter’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1052
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/21441
>

:sunglasses: make it black :sunglasses:

Andrew, the bearing holders on your frame look fine, except for one thing:
Make SURE they have retaining lips on each side. If you can’t get them on each side, then make the retaining lip on the outside. This is really important. I have ridden frames without these libs, and when powering up hill the frame will slide off the bearing.

The 10mm thick steel plate for the top of the crown is excessive. I would reccomend around 3-4mm. even better, try 2.5mm with a gusset that goes all the way under the crown (instead of triangles on the sides), like on the 2004 KH model.

As for the fork legs, just borrow a KH frame and take the specs off that.

Miyata seatposts suck. I’ve bent one, and that’s enough for me. Get a thomson and a rail adapter if you care about your unicycle. As for diameter, go with 27.2mm ideally. If not, 25.4 is a good size. Whatever you do, avoid 22.2mm. It’s a uselessly small size.

You define the thickness of the tube’s walls as “wall thickness”. Thus, internal diameter (ID) + 2(wall thickness) = outside diameter. This applies to ovalized tubing aswell.

I’ve been trying to use metric for your sake, but when it comes to wall thicknesses, i can’t do that. I don’t have a conception for a fraction of a millimeter, so you’ll want a calculator for this part. 1 inch = 25.399mm, but you can round to 25.4mm. So, anyways, i’d use a 0.065" wall thickness, although you could go with a bit less, maybe 0.055, but I wouldn’t go less. You don’t want too thin walls because the frame will be as easy to dent as a soda can,regardless of its strength.

If you go with a 27.2mm ID seattube, you could go with 0.050" wall thickness, at least. I wouldn’t go less, for the reasons highlited above.

Another reason to go with a lardger dia. seatpost/seattube is because it will mean a larger surface area to be welded to the crown, which will mean more stiffness, something to be concerned about in this crown design (because this crown has a very thin attachment plane for the seattube).

One last thing to note: You can do this with trig, or just play around with it. The flange for the top of the crown (that 10mm thick plate you called out) must be long enough (front-back) that when it is tilted forward at a 30* angle, the seattube will fit on the top of it, with some room to weld. if it’s too short, the seattube will run off the edge, and be ugly. The same goes for the plate and the forklegs. What I’m getting at is the specs of these parts are more interconnected than they seem.

wow, this is an OLD thread.

I love how stuff gets resurrected by accident sometimes.

Hahaha, yeah. Thanks for all the tips Bevan, but that frame design is very out-dated. I will keep them in mind though.

See my main custom frame thread for an update if you’re interested.

Andrew

Oops. Well played by me :roll_eyes: .