h3y all,
i’ve decided it’s time for a coker. i’ve either worked enough or sold enough stuff to buy one finally. i’m now impatiently awaitin’ pay day.
any advice on pedals?? i was thinkin’ about gettin’ the atom labs ballistics ‘cause they’re fricken bulletproof glass, but decided that although i liked the gawdy factor, it didn’t outweigh the practicality factor enough.
my other thought was to get the atom lab aircorps, they look slick an’ i like pedals that have pins that back out. the big question, are these overkill?? i’ve never ridden a coker so don’t know what to expect. i figure if the aircorps don’t work out, i can throw them on me muni.
any thoughts??
thanks,
doc
Don’t spend any money yet, the plastic pedals that come with the coker are not all that bad, save your pennies here, but do spend the extra small fortune on the upgrade to a better rim and airseat if you are sure you will be riding a lot of distance on it. carjug
upgrade, schmupgrade.
KH36 frame. Airfoil wheel. Magura HS33 brakes, yellow if i can get them. i just wish the KH36 came in the obnoxious orange the cheaper trials uni comes in. i LOVE that colour. this is me 30th b-day present to meself. it may be overkill, but what they hey, i am worth it. if only to meself…
airseat over KH/velo? i’ve read through the archives an’ figure’d i’d give the velo a shot. i’ve already got an airseat for me muni to compare to.
thanks for the advice though…
doc
I have these yellow pedals from unicycle.com on my Coker. They are sticky enough for road riding and, if you like yellow, these are your babies.
my favourite colour would be orange, followed by yellow. although i love the colour on those pedals, i’ve used that body style an’ didn’t much like it. not wide enough. i’ve been usin’ the odyssey pro guys an’ i prefer them to that body style. although, other than body style, they rather looked like they were produced by the same company.
i figure since i am willin’ to spend too much on this anyway, i’m willin’ to go the extra mile for decent pedals. i am tryin’ to build the uber-uni an’ not have to upgrade later. actually, i wanted to build the ultra-uber-uni, but ed mossiman at cg told me a ti-springer coker wouldn’t work. woulda looked cool, though…
thanks,
doc
Re: coker pedals…
In article <harper.loh8b@timelimit.unicyclist.com>,
harper <harper.loh8b@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
)
)I have ‘these yellow pedals’
)(http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=218) from unicycle.com
)on my Coker. They are sticky enough for road riding and, if you like
)yellow, these are your babies.
One negative; the dust cap, being on the end, gets mangled due to repeated
pedal impacts and becomes hard to remove. But they work fine.
-Tom
I have aircorps on my coker. They’re great, especially for riding off road which you have to do on a coker or else it’s being wasted!
Advantages are
a) big pedal platform - really good for getting lots of power and for turning hard.
b) big pins - good for not slipping off in rain + help turning hard
c) strong - I’ve had cheaper metal pedals on and messed them up so they went wobbly just by dropping the coker hard offroad. I killed the plastic pedals too.
Disadvantages
a) expensive
b) if you run the coker into something so it stops you stay on the pedals and go down hard.
I’d go for the velo seat simply because you really don’t want a seat flat 50 miles away from home. Mine has one now, although I quite like the viscount too on a coker, once you’re used to it it’s pretty good as it doesn’t rub your legs at all.
Joe
Wide hub wide hub…
I have the Azonic A-Frames on mine. Nice and wide, great grip, an excellent platform for foot support.
You do want grippy pedals for the Coker. Grippy pedals make it much easier to do an aggressive turn on the Coker. You can actually put some twisting force on the pedals to get the thing to turn. When I switched from the plastic pedals to a grippy metal pedal my turning instantly improved.
I’m using Sun Ringle Zuzu pedals on my Coker. They work well, but the platform could be a little bigger.
I’m probably going to use Wellgo B27 or B37 pedals on my next Coker. But I might get crazy and put Atomlab Aircorps on it.
I give two thumbs up for the Aircorps. Best muni pedal I’ve used. Strong, grippy, big platform, offset parallelogram design so it flips itself rightside up when you step on it. They’re about $100 but still the best pedal. I have a review of the Aircorps in the review forum.
<http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21477>
Beyonbikes.com also has them on sale now for $84.99.
I wouldn’t want the Atomlab Ballistic pedals. They don’t have the offset parallelogram design so mounting the Coker would be more difficult if the pedals aren’t positioned correctly.
viscount?? you are mad indeed…
cool, makes me feel better ‘bout wantin’ to try the velo…
doc
i have wide feet, the bigger the platform, the better i’m thinkin’. i read your review o’ the aircorp’s the other day an’ was considerin’ them based on that. i also have a friend who recommended them.
i figured grippy was best when ridin’ here in the rain, {which scares me a little} but is bound to be an eventuality.
so, i think i have an answer.
thanks everyone!
doc
I’ve got aframes on my muni. They’re quite nice, but not as nice as the aircorps (not so big). Definately a good second choice if you’re wanting something slightly cheaper.
Joe
still on the subject of Cokers, does anyone else have a problem with the bearings slipping on the axle so the wheel is not in the centre of teh frame? Mine did it just a couple of weeks after I first got it. Any ideas on how to fix it??
Thanks 
Re: coker pedals…
foolish wrote:
> still on the subject of Cokers, does anyone else have a problem with the
> bearings slipping on the axle so the wheel is not in the centre of teh
> frame?
Just about everybody as far as I can tell. 
> Mine did it just a couple of weeks after I first got it. Any
> ideas on how to fix it??
The “technical” way seems to be to take the cranks off and put a spacer
on the axle between the bearing and the crank. A little piece of seat
post seems to work well. The less technical way is to take the frame off
and bend the forks in just a little bit. The even less technical way is
to kick it.
BTW, I replaced my Coker bearings last weekend. I was surprised to
discover that one of them was sealed and the other wasn’t. Hmm. I was
even more surprised by the effect of changing the bearings - all this
time I hadn’t realised my Coker had a brake…
> BBC Radio 4, I’m Charlotte Green. Is that the shipping forecast in your
> pocket or are you just pleased to see me?
You’re much too young to be listening to Radio 4.
Regards,
Mark.
–
Fujitsu Telecom Europe Ltd,| o
Solihull Parkway, | In the land of the pedestrian, /|
Birmingham Business Park, | the one-wheeled man is king. <<
Birmingham, ENGLAND. | O
That’s a common problem on Cokers and some other unicycles. It happened on my Coker. I had to shim up the bearing block with PowerBar wrappers so I could get home because the tire was rubbing the frame. Why do things like that happen at the point in the ride where you are farthest from the car?
The solution is to secure the bearings on the hub with Loctite sleeve retainer. The sleeve retainer is similar to the Loctite threadlocker but it’s designed to fill larger gaps and to secure press fit parts rather that threaded parts.
The bearing on a standard unicycle hub is just held in place by a press fit on the hub. Sometimes this press fit isn’t tight enough to keep the bearing from slipping on the hub.
I use Loctite high strength sleeve retainer (part number 640) just because it’s easy for me to get at my local auto parts store. There are other grades that are designed for different gaps and strengths. There are even grades designed specifically for bearing mounts.
After doing the Loctite fix my bearings on my Coker have not slipped.
Anyways, pull the loose bearings off the hub. Clean off any dirt and grease from the hub and the inner race of the bearing. Apply Loctite sleeve retainer to the hub and inner race. Press the bearing back on. Wait 12 to 24 hours for the Loctite to cure. Go ride.
When pressing the bearing back on use a short piece of pipe that fits just over the hub and presses on the inner race of the bearing. An old short piece of 22.2mm seatpost tube works well for this. You don’t want to apply any force to the bearing seal or to the outer bearing race. Pressing on the seal or outer race could damage the bearing.
Don’t worry about the Loctite claiming to be high strength. You’ll still be able to pull the bearing off using a regular bearing puller. The Loctite isn’t that strong.
I just noticed that one bearing on my freestyle unicycle has slipped a bit. Time for me to do the Loctite fix on that unicycle.
thanks for the help people
There are spacers on the other side of the bearings, do i need to remove these or leave them there? Wouldn’t the spacers between the crank and the bearing rub on the crank and wear the crank down?
Because of the bearings slipping, the spacers on one side are just wobbling loose on the axle, and make a really anoying jingling noise. Looking at the frame I think it just needs to be bent a bit, the problem is that doing that might weaken the frame, and seeing as it has bent by it’s own accord, wouldn’t it bend again but more?
would the spacer method work any better that the loctite idea?
Sorry about all the questions, but as my coker is fairly new and i spent ages saving up for it, I want to make sure it stays in good condition for as long as possible.
What exacatacalaly (spelling??) do you mean by that Mark?!?
Sam, aged 15 and 5/6
Re: coker pedals…
foolish wrote:
> There are spacers on the other side of the bearings, do i need to remove
> these or leave them there?
Weird. I don’t think mine has any spacers…
> Wouldn’t the spacers between the crank and
> the bearing rub on the crank and wear the crank down?
The spacer rotates on the axle along with the crank and bearing, so no
rubbing.
> Because of the bearings slipping, the spacers on one side are just
> wobbling loose on the axle, and make a really anoying jingling noise.
> Looking at the frame I think it just needs to be bent a bit, the problem
> is that doing that might weaken the frame, and seeing as it has bent by
> it’s own accord, wouldn’t it bend again but more?
Go for it. Your dad’ll get you a new frame if you need one. Ahem.
> would the spacer method work any better that the loctite idea?
Dunno. I’ve never owned Loctite. I wonder if there’s a support group I
should join?
> Sorry about all the questions, but as my coker is fairly new and i spent
> ages saving up for it, I want to make sure it stays in good condition
> for as long as possible.
It makes a change for a teenager around here to be trying to prolong the
life of their unicycle. Go and jump a few steps on it. You know you want
to.
>>You’re much too young to be listening to Radio 4.
> What exacatacalaly (spelling??) do you mean by that Mark?!?
> Sam, aged 15 and 5/6
I’ll get you a pipe and slippers for your 16th.
Regards,
Mark.
–
Fujitsu Telecom Europe Ltd,| o
Solihull Parkway, | In the land of the pedestrian, /|
Birmingham Business Park, | the one-wheeled man is king. <<
Birmingham, ENGLAND. | O
There should be spacers between the bearing and the hub flange. Otherwise the bearing would be pressing right up against the hub flange and the spokes and that wouldn’t work very well. Keep the spacers that are between the bearing and the hub flange.
Don’t mess with trying to fit a spacer between the bearing and the crank. That would be very difficult to get sized right and most likely would just end up forcing the crank off the hub and you don’t want to do that.
Pull the loose bearings off and use the Loctite (or Permatex, there are several brands of the same stuff) to “glue” the bearing on the hub. Make sure the hub is clean and free of grease and dirt before applying the Loctite. You should be able to find Loctite at an auto parts store. I’m assuming that the auto parts stores in the UK carry the same types of things as the auto parts stores in the USA.
There should be no need to bend the frame. Once the bearings are back in the right places the frame will fit the wheel again.
Fixing the bearings isn’t difficult but it does require some specialized tools. You’ll need a bearing puller, the Loctite, and something to press the bearing back on with.
JOhn’s advice is sound. I followed it for mine and it works great.
Re: coker pedals…
john_childs wrote:
> There should be spacers between the bearing and the hub flange.
> Otherwise the bearing would be pressing right up against the hub flange
> and the spokes and that wouldn’t work very well. Keep the spacers that
> are between the bearing and the hub flange.
Interesting. When I changed my bearings at the weekend, the axle
appeared to be shaped to prevent the bearings heading towards the hub. I
guess they could’ve been spacers but they certainly weren’t rattling
around as described by Sam.
> Don’t mess with trying to fit a spacer between the bearing and the
> crank. That would be very difficult to get sized right and most likely
> would just end up forcing the crank off the hub and you don’t want to do
> that.
Who said anything about getting the size right?
The mod that has been done to several UK Cokers (excluding mine) is to
add a small offcut of seatpost to prevent the bearings slipping so far
that the crank rubs on the bearing holder. Nothing fancy - and certainly
nothing big enough to force the crank off.
Is it a bodge? Sure. Does it work? Yup. Is it ever going to need doing
again? Not a chance.
> Pull the loose bearings off and use the Loctite (or Permatex, there are
> several brands of the same stuff) to “glue” the bearing on the hub.
> Make sure the hub is clean and free of grease and dirt before applying
> the Loctite. You should be able to find Loctite at an auto parts store.
> I’m assuming that the auto parts stores in the UK carry the same types
> of things as the auto parts stores in the USA.
I’m sure this would work just as well.
> There should be no need to bend the frame. Once the bearings are back
> in the right places the frame will fit the wheel again.
Agreed.
> Fixing the bearings isn’t difficult but it does require some specialized
> tools. You’ll need a bearing puller, the Loctite, and something to
> press the bearing back on with.
My(1) method just needs a crank puller. 
Regards,
Mark.
(1) It’s hardly my method, I didn’t come up with the idea, I’ve never
done it - but I’ve seen it done and it works.