I’ve been out of unicycling for a while now but wanting to get back into it again. I’m wanting to make me a custom coaster uni. Before I get told to use the search button I know there have been plenty of threads about this subject, yes I have read them, and yes I am adding another one to the collection. I’d prefer to build up a Muni as I want to eventually be able to take it off road and down some single tracks. I’m not worried about the stopping using the cranks nor being able to pedal backwards(at the moment). So my question is what is the strongest coaster hub out on the market today? Crank arms around 150mm would be great but since I can‘t be choosy with this the crank size isn‘t really important.
Probably the hub from a Coker Wheelman. The only other coasting direct drive hubs I can think of are in children’s tricycles.
Yea I wasn’t thinking about a coker wheelman or anything like that. I was mainly only thinking about a tricycle. Thanks fo the idea
I have a Huffy Green Machine and it has a hub as you describe.
Though I have no reason to believe it is any stronger than a typical huffy hub.
From a standstill I can pedal hard enough to squeal the tire. hehe 
Does anyone know if either one of these would hold up to off road abuse? If not I may end up contacting the manufactuers to see what they say. I don’t know much about the coker wheelman(besides the fact my dad wants one) and I know if the “green Machine” hub is like the huffy bicycle hubs on the bikes that I don’t think it’ll hold up to much off road abuse.
My friend was supposed to give me his but his mom gave it without asking him:( I wanted the 89mm cranks and I wanted to built a super “Freako” uni with that hub.
Do you think with a strong coasting hub you could do more big tricks in a skatepark type setting?
Ramps? Quarter pipes? Half pipes? I think it would be really cool if you could do that. I would imagine you could build up a lot more momentum and keep it up, making things like that possible.
Anyone else have any thoughts?
Were you expecting to ride rough terrain with a coasting hub? That should be a relatively short experiment. You should be able to hop all right as long as you have brakes though. 
green machine talk!!
So the green machine has 89mm cranks? I was looking at a picture of it and it seems like it has cotter or cotterless cranks. That’s good since I’ll be able to get 150mm cranks but then it want hold up for what i’ll need.
As for the skatepark I think it would help out. I personally want the 24" so that I’ll be able to do some off road Muni stuff. I think it’d help especially for some north shore type stuff. I mean I’ve seen plenty of people ride skateparks(me included) and Kris Holm can rip it up on some north shore freeride stuff.
The thing I think it would help with in Muni is you’d be able to coast downhill, whenever you come up to drops, or whenever a log appears. Also in street you wouldn’t need to line up a gap first. You could just start whenever you wanted to, go at it, then whenever you got close enough to the object(lets say stair set) you can stop pedaling where you’ll have you’re pedals in a comfortable jumping positions. I just think it’d help the flow of things.
Can you coast really well?
I was planning on it. I didn’t know if it’d work out. I have read and seen that they do seem hard to ride. However I do plan on putting a brake on this
no not really. Like I said I haven’t rode in a long while. I was learning to wheel walk around the time I stopped riding. I had played around with coasting very litle on my grandma’s handicap ramp at her house but then I had rails to hold onto.
I reckon you’re being way too ambitious if you think you’ll be able to ride it like a bike. The only freewheeling unicycle I’ve seen “in the flesh” (built with a Wheelman hub) was pretty much impossible for anybody to ride - its owner was a really good rider and I saw him make it almost all the way across a smooth gym floor.
They’re a cool novelty, but ridiculously hard to ride - bit like one of those bikes with reversed steering.
Good luck to you though! (and wear lots of back padding…)
Rob
That’s one of the things I’ve thought about every since looking into it(been thinking about this for awhile). I’ve never seen one in person but from videos I’ve seen and reading about them they do seem hard to ride. I knew there’d be more to it then being able to use it like a bike or how I described(like riding along til you get to a hill and then just stop pedalling).
I probably wouldn’t have ever gotten around to making it since i was already doubting if it could be used practically. Now the thought of actually going through with it is probably less. Like mentioned it makes a cool novelty but not good for use.
Even though i’m even more likily to go through with it i still was curious does anyone happen to know why the coaster uni is so much harder over a normal uni to ride?
Because you balance a normal unicycle using pressure on the pedals, in both directions. If you’re falling backwards you slow down slightly (back-pressure on the pedals) to bring the wheel back under you. If the hub freewheels you can’t do that, and have to balance with your body a bit like riding a BC wheel. If you have a brake you can use that instead of the back pedal pressure, but it’s nothing like riding a normal unicycle. It’s not impossible but I’d be extremely impressed to see one ridden anywhere but smooth ground (and even that is really hard).
Coker Wheelman hubs are not easy to get hold of, and are pretty expensive. Those green machine things are supposed to be quite easy to make coaster unis from, and far cheaper. If you make one, that’s probably the way to go. If you get ridiculously good at it and reckon you can do all the things you were thinking about, then invest in a stronger hub (and show us the film!).
Rob
I had planned to put a brake on to compensate for not being able to back pedal. I wasn’t thinking about that being such a big problem at first. I wasn’t putting the brake on to balence at first. I was putting it on actually for being able to stop but now that you mentioned it that may end up working also.
If I get one and rode it I would definatly film it
You might want to think about approaching it more like a unibike project. There have been folks who’ve modified normal bikes to remove the front wheel, and basically rode them in wheelies off-road. A huge advantage of that approach is that you can have bike gearing. You could do it by modifying a bike, or by building a mini-giraffe.
FWIW, I’ve made several (two) uni’s out of bikes. When the cog slips (due to a bad weld), I instantly fall off.
It would be fairly easy for me to make a coasting uni out of a bike. Maybe I’ll try to toss one up one of these evenings.
I still need to post video/pics of my “recumbent” unicycle.
corbin
If you get a coaster uni made up out of a bike I wouldn’t mind seeing a video or pictures of it. Also while you’re at it posting a video of the recumbent uni would be pretty cool
Can you post a link to those videos? Sounds amazing.
Good luck with your project!