The new cranks in the previous picture looked cotterless to me, so maybe it’s really a new hub. The saddle also looked a bit different to other designs, but maybe that’s just an optical illusion.
Well, it just seemed to me that they were holding back and releasing the less interesting details first; a lot of people were waiting for them to announce a new rim too, but they’ve kept that under wraps for a while. I’ll not be surprised if they don’t announce a new tyre, but I’m still holding out hope that they’ll consider it.
Let’s hope you’re right - although the TA tyre is pretty good for road, and can be notched to make a decent xc tyre. A lighter weight tyre might be nice for road use, although I hardly unicycle on the road so it wouldn’t really affect me. The old octopus-tread Coker tyre probably made quite a good all-round tyre, but I’ve only ever ridden TAs.
As for the hub, I do remember seeing that crank picture and it did look like a square-taper fitting. So all the stuff I said about Coker/Qu-Ax collaboration seems to be completely wrong then :o
Might seem a bit perverse of me to say this now ;), but actually a collaboration would seem logical… Maybe the rim is the same as the Qu-Ax but they add the machined braking surface and Coker branding?
As for the hub, I guess perhaps as they’re creating a reasonably entry-level unicycle they wouldn’t want to move to ISIS anyhow (although if more folks standardised on ISIS, it would be kinda cool).
Finally, re the tyres, I had the impression Coker is into fairly low volume tyre manufacture even for their car business - they’re already a bit specialised. My fingers are tightly crossed, anyhow.
Larger wheels need more spokes for the same lateral stiffness. The weight of spokes is probably less than the material required to make the rim as stiff with less spokes. Also mass at the spokes has less inertia than mass on the rim (50g in the center of the spokes = 25g at the end of the spokes)
Even with the super wide hub I notice a fair amount of lateral flex in my airfoil. granted for road riding it is perfectly fine but I get a bit more flex than I would like when riding Muni.
Im sure that getting a 48spoke superwide hub made would not be a problem.
As for the tire, I would love to see the option of a knobbie becouse I have the recuring problem of the tire slipping or spinning out in mud (TA).
That’s probably the wheelbuild. The flex is hardly noticeable on my narrow hub steel rim with a decent build.
There is a hassle with 48 spokes which is that the existing coker specific hubs are in 36 spoke plus both geared hubs are in 36 spoke.
Coker spokes actually do weight a fair bit too, a 48 spoke coker probably has 1 kg of spokes compared to 750g or so on a typical one. (it’s some insane weight like that anyway).
I’m sure you must be talking about the 12G “standard” spokes here. I don’t have any spokes to weigh…but given the dimensions of a 14G SS spoke and its density, plus the weight of nipples, totals about 382g for a 36 spoke wheel by my calculations. For a 48 spoke, I get about 510g, which means about a 127g difference between 36 and 48.
UDC UK says the Airfoil weighs 1232g, while unisk8r claims they are in the 1300g range. This new Coker alu rim is 1170g, meaning a difference of only about 62g.
Overall then, lightening the rim and adding twelve spokes results in an increase in weight of about 60g.
Sounds like so far the best way to lighten the rim and still have 36 spoke holes is to drill your airfoil like unisk8r has. He’s gotten it down to almost 1000g, much lighter than Coker’s rim.
While the UDC web page for the Airfoil rim still says “2 lb. 12.2 oz.” (= 1254g), that was for the old anodized finish. With the X-type rims, the powdercoated finish over the anodizing adds quite a few grams.
As with any product, all we can do with the new Coker rim once it’s available is to actually weigh it.
If we’re lucky they’ll have 36 spoke rims available as aftermarket items. If not, well then we’ll just have to suffer through the transition of moving over to a 48 spoke standard for 36" wheels. That is going to be a painful change for some, especially those who have 36 spoke geared hubs. It also means KH would need to make two different geared hubs. One 36 spoke version for gearing up a muni wheel or 29er wheel and a 48 spoke version for gearing up a Coker wheel. That would be a mess.
Yuck - why are they going to 48 spokes? Once I got rid of the original Coker Rim and the original Coker spokes, the Coker frame and the hub from Coker, I had a perfectly great 36" cycle with only 36 spokes. I can do reasonable sized drops, ride fast, blast over rocks with no problem. In fact, between our 3 wheels built like this, we have unicycled WAY over 10000 miles. Guess how many times I’ve trued any of those 3 wheels? ZERO - Never. No broken spokes. No adjustments at all.
Looks to me like they have missed the boat here. The one thing I don’t want on my cycle is extra weight.
I can’t believe they are going to make something that heavy even heavier. You don’t need extra spokes just to run narrow hubs. I’ve ridden an 36" airfoil with standard UDC hub thousands of Km’s on and off-road with no problems. Super strong, super fast, and no way am I downgrading to a heavier wheel/wider hubs.
Having a lighter (so also possibly weaker) rim supported by more spokes may work out fractionally heavier, but the extra weight is spread over the whole wheel rather than being concentrated in the rim. It might actually feel more responsive because the weight is on average moved closer to the hub. And anyway, who can honestly say they can notice 60g in a wheel that weighs 3kg or more?
I think the lack of choice of hub/rim combinations will be more of a pain than the weight difference - although I thought the UDC hubs were made in 48 hole versions anyway for freestyle wheels.
You’d be surprised. If that 60g is at the outer section, represented by such things as changing to a 60g lighter tube, you can indeed feel it.
Our 36" wheel technology is woefully behind the times. Seems we had a pretty good discussion thread earlier this year with one of the Coker reps, prior to them finalizing the new design. Many good ideas were suggested, but 48 spokes was certainly not one of them.
The thing that gets me is that they are making something that really isn’t that marketable at the moment. Everyone is using 36 hole rims and hubs right now. So why would you go and make 48 hole rims when the market and the advantages are dubious at best.
If it was a 36 hole it is already proven that it would be very strong and has upgrade ability, because there are more hubs made for it. Also a crapload of people already have and love 36 hole rims and hubs, so why annoy people by making a 48 hole rim when you can make a 36 hole and make way more money because you will be selling them instantly.
Hopefully the Coker ppl will read these posts and see the errors of their ways! Then it’ll only be another year or two 'till we’ll see a 36 spoke version!
