Cut down cranks

Unicycles and Equipment
1

Hi unicyclists,

on 24 Jul 1995, Doug Borngasser Said:

> Does anyone know much about “cut down mountain bike cranks?” I’ve seen them
> mentioned in a few posts and was wondering what was involved.

  1. Find the cranks; this for me was reletively easy I hunted around the
    mountain bike shops in this area and found discarded ones with stripped
    pedal threads. I have one capagnolio and one shimarno - no it is not pritty
    like that. The main problem with them is the large offset on them - it would
    be better if you could find some with very little offset (your feat are just
    a little bit too wide for good riding).
  2. Decide how long you are having the cranks; the longer the better for
    leverage, but this gives more movment on your seat which makes it harder to
    ride. Mine are 150mm long on a 26" wheel, which seams to be about right. I
    was able to get up steeper hills offroad than a 20" with 135mm long cranks
    (but only just).
  3. Drill new pedal holes; Ahhhhhhhhhh, no it is not that bad. They must be
    parrollel to the hub. Pilot holes are a help. As for size, it depends on how
    you are doing it,
    a) tap holes for pedals - this requires 2 silly sized taps that will
    only be found at your local bike shop.
    b) helicoil the thread - this again is a silly size and guess what,
    will only be found at bike shops. the long and short of it is: find
    out what is available in your local bike shop and drill the holes to
    suit. My local shop only had helicoils, where as the one that Jez
    found only had taps.
  4. Tap the holes; I did it my self with the scrounged kit and it took me
    absolutely ages, so I would advise you to give them the hernia and get
    them to do it.
  5. Cut the extra bit off
  6. POWER FILE! - my favorate toy; tidy the ends up and polish

Fit to uni and you will then have light waight longer cranks! Have fun.

I am presently persusading a friend of mine to manufacture some carbon fibre
cranks 150 long with very little offset. I think a few more drinks and I will be
there. When that happens I will tell all, because they will be very, very light
and really sexy.

Rgr

Roger.Davies@octacon.co.uk Cleveland UK

2

Re: Cut down cranks

on 24 Jul 1995, Doug Borngasser Said:
> Does anyone know much about “cut down mountain bike cranks?” I’ve seen them
> mentioned in a few posts and was wondering what was involved.

In article <199507241549.QAA17887@goole.octacon.co.uk>, “Roger Davies”
<Roger.Davies@octacon.co.uk> replied:> (Long description of drilling, tapping
and grinding cranks deleted)

There is another possibility that only requires a hacksaw, file and maybe a
vice. Just keep the cranks the full 7" (175mm) long. Of course you will need a
26" wheel and reasonably long legs to go with the long cranks. I have 7" cranks
on my rough terrain uni (a slightly modified Miyata) and I like them a lot.

Here’s what you do: 1) Get some mountain bike cranks
2) Hack off the spider (those parts that hold all the gears). You may need the
vice to hold the crank but you can probably improvise.
3) File it down to look like the other crank as best you can.

Good Luck. Paul Bunson “I hate quotations”-R.W.Emerson