I bought a Mongoose Squid Unicycle 20 in. I always hear a good deal about mongoose (pacific cycles) bikes and wanted a good brand name uni. Well I had it for about 2 - 3 weeks and I notice my pedals would spin without the wheel moving. I read on amazons comments section about it and someone else had the same problem. So I call mongoose and they sent me a new rim with new bearings. Well I put the new rim on and now after about another 2ish weeks and having the same problems. I was wondering if anybody else had the same problem and know how to fix it or if I’m just screwed?
People have had similar experiences (cranks turning while the wheel remains still) with cheap unicycles such as those found on ebay. I’d say it’s a manufacturing defect for sure. I think the only thing that worked was to have the hub welded to the axle.
I can’t remember the name of the company that sold the offending unicycle.
I’ve heard plenty of people say good things about Mongoose bikes, but having dealt with one of their skateboards when I was a kid, and seeing how cheap and goofy their unicycle looks, I think it’s fair to say that you should avoid Mongoose unless you’re looking in the bike arena. Sorry to say it, but you’re probably just going to have to buy a better quality unicycle. For decent, fairly-cheap beginner unicycles I would look into Sun, Torker, or Nimbus. This forum has a plethora of information on good-quality beginner unicycles if you want to go ahead and do some searches.
If you really want to swap out your hub you could do it, but the new hub will cost half of what the uni was new. You will need to measure a few things, and you may end up needing new spokes if the flanges are bigger or smaller than your original.
I wouldn’t put the effort into it, but if you really want to I would call unicycle.com, and get their advice. They may know what hub you need, or at least be able to walk you through measuring what you have.
The best fix would be to get your flanges welded to your hub. That way you don’t need to wonder if it’s going to happen again. The other solution would be to keep getting replacement wheels from pacific until you get one that doesn’t freewheel.
Well mongoose said they think its my crank assembly and I pray it’s not just my cranks because that will be a waste of another week. But if that isn’t the fix, do you have pics or know of a guide to weld the flanges to my hub?
Maybe if you could put up a picture of the suspect parts we could get a better idea of what’s wrong.
If it’s the crank arms you should be able to tighten the nut or bolt that holds them to the spindle. You will need a 14 or 15 mm socket, or an 8 mm hex wrench depending on what kind of nut/bolt you have.
Once the flats on the cranks become less than square they won’t fit correctly to the spindle, and will eventually come loose. The only way to fix loose cranks that have rounded flats is to replace them.
It is really hard to see what’s going on in the video, but if I’m seeing it right you are turning the right crank, and the left one is moving, but the wheel is stationary. The only way that could be happening is if the hub axle was not connected to the flanges that the spokes are attached to. If the axle was attached to the flanges it would turn the wheel when you turn the cranks.
sorry about the video, I used my cellphone and it was kinda hard to do everything at once. But yeah you saw it right, the crank will move while the wheel is stationary. I called mongoose and they said it was my crank was the problem and they said they were sending me the crank assembly. I didn’t think they meant the crank arms. I called them tonight to tell them that didn’t fix it and then I sent them the same video and they told me they would get back to me and never did. But I was wondering how would I fix the problem with the hub axles not connected to the flanges? I really appreciate you support on this.
Sound’s like you’ll need a new hub. To be honest another mongoose hub will probably break again, you’d be better off buying a Unicycle.com hub (cotterless or isis) with a pair of their cranks if you went ISIS (which I recommend).