I know there are lots of topics about this, I already looked at them and I have a feeling they don’t quite fit, because I’m certain it’s not a production/design failure, but some damage I did.
Today I worked on riding down steps. By the time I reached total physical exhaustion, I managed to roll down 2*10 steps (i.e. 10 steps, platform, 10 steps). During the learning experience the uni has been under tremendous stress. I started with two steps, tried until I managed without holding onto the rail, went a single step up and started over until I reached the first platform. When I managed from the first platform I went up to the second platform and tried all the way down until I managed to do it.
I think I worked on this for about 2 hours. During my attempts (wearing lots and lots of armor) I had a number of spectacular falls ending with me holding onto the rail for dear life. The uni didn’t fair so well. Once it flew down 10 steps on it’s own (over the entire 10 steps). Several times my feet landed in the spokes.
Now the wheel is creaking. It’s fine if I put all my weight into the saddle, but as soon as I put some pressure on the cranks (more than necessary for smooth rolling) it starts creaking and it feels like something is loose. I tightened the pedal axis, the pedal to the crank and the crank to the hub.
I checked every spoke and retightened all those that make a dull sound when I twang them.
The wheel is almost true, I’ve got no idea what else to try. I have read the suggestion to disassemble the hub and put Loctite somewhere, but I don’t understand how that would help me.
Eric wrote something about flanges, what is a flange in a unicycle context?
It might be the pedals, if the uni was flying around. If you can, take a video showing the creaking. You could also switch out the pedals to see if thats the problem.
Really checked the pedals, there is just enough clearance for the pedals to turn freely. If the bearings are damaged, I cannot feel it, when turning the pedal with my hand.
Still, I will try to exchange the pedals once I get home.
It was the very last thing on my mind and the solution went completely against my expectations.
I tightened the bearing cups (what’s the correct technical term for the wheel bearing holder?) on until the space between the cap and the frame is only one fingernail space thick (it was about 1.5 mm before, now I’d say it’s less than 1mm). The wheel does still turn freely, but the creaking and shifting feeling has gone away.
All my other unis have several mm clearance there and I have bad experiences with tightening them too far (I broke a couple of screws, not well truning wheels, stuff like that).
The KHs seem to be a very tight fit. I have a suspicion that it would still be fine, if I closed the remaining gap completely.
Thanks for this piece of information. I pride myself on my versatile vocabulary (for a German), but technical terms are difficult. Especially, when the German terms don’t mean much to me as well.
I understood it like this, a flange is like a strap only instead of being welded on (or attached otherwise), it’s punched/cut out of the original part you want to attach something to.
Usually the flange is welded on, then holes are punched out for spokes. Sometimes, though, the whole hub can be machined from a single block of Aluminium. This obviously is a lot stronger.
It’s not the pedals
It’s not the bearings
It’s not the flange
It’s not the bearings holders
it’s not the spokes
Look, you have a new trials uni, it is made for what you have been doing, so for it to start “failing” in one month is just not logical.
What is logical is that you have a KH hub which is flawed, has been flawed from the git go to to a design problem, and it is a common problem. Do a search on creaking hubs and you’ll see what others have found.
Take/send the uni back, tell the dealer what has happened, tell them you do not want a new uni, you want the hub replaced with a Nimbus, Impact, QuAx, or K1 hub.
Don’t trust that the next KH will be “fixed”, I have replaced two and a friend has replaced three, so five failed hubs in the past year and that’s just two people.
I’ll be the first to claim the KH quality is not what it should be but in this instance the OP has fixed the problem as it was just loose bolts on the bearing clamps.
