Ok, as promised, pics of my recently upgraded Coker
frame info?
What’s so diet about it?
And what does the rim say?
The lightweight hub, cranks, pedals
And the control panel
that brake setup looks really light as well!
haha…the “control panel”
What kind of saddle is that?
Yip it sure is. I saved over 1kg from my previous set-up, which was not exactly heavy. The wheel says J’ville Cycles (my sponsors Johnsonville Cycles), and Stans No-tubes (because it’s tubeless). The brake is a ultralight magura airbrake- weighs next to nothing. Or at least it will do when I trim off those brake mounts.
I just had a quick spin on my new upgraded Coker- man…talk about fast! I didn’t exactly have a heavy Coker before, but now it’s ultralight and ultraresponsive.
It still rides like a Coker, but you can flick it around on turns and accelerate away like a race b*ke in the big ring. It’s just an unbelievable feeling!
Basically, I upgraded my frame (saved ~250g), cranks (~200g), pedals (~300g), Seat (~100g), Handle (~400g).
I don’t have accurate enough scales to give a good measure of the whole unicycle- but on my bathroom scales it weighs just over 6kg.
My new Diet Coker setup:
Coker Tyre, Stans Tubeless conversion
Airfoil rim
Tommy Miller SS spokes
Standard UDC hub
Schlumpf alloy 114mm cranks (~300g vs the 500g 110mm Bicycle Euros I had previously)
Wellgo MG-1 Magnesium pedals (370g vs 680g for my trusty sealed Snafus)
Schlumpf 1st Generation reject frame (850g vs 1100g for my old Std Coker frame)
Miyata carbon seat, dual density foam (I haven’t weighed this, but it’s at least 100g lighter than my KH Carbon seat with heavy foam that I used at Unicon).
Wallis Deathgrip Carbon handles (about 400g lighter than the GB4 handle+grips, but I still prefer the GB4. Will swap over for the purpose of this exercise).
All up, it’s a very significant weight saving- especially the rotating weight (1/2 a kg from the cranks and pedals alone). Add the fact that I was already running SS spokes and tubeless, and you are looking at 1kg less rotating mass to the equivalent Airfoil Coker with standard spokes and tube set-up. Add a bit more if you are using a wide hub, or even more if you are not running an airfoil rim.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that Cokers are too darn heavy…if you lighten it, you WILL notice a huge improvement. It still rides like a Coker (stable and predictable), but the handling is just so responsive. This thing rides like a feather. And the acceleration- really freakin fast. I can make unbelievably tight turns. I can’t wait to take this off-road.
Compared to a standard steel rim Coker, it’s like riding an 8kg roadbike vs a 12kg Mountainbike 
.
Ken
do you notice any disadvantages to it being so light?
edit: forgot to say ‘holy crap that’s light!!!’
Very sexy.
Very light.
Very expensive? (was it)*
Ed
Not yet- I’ve only taken it for a short ride. I guess we’ll see how well the pedals hold up (see the other thread on Wellgo pedals). They are actually grippier than my Snafus, which actually makes it harder to adjust your foot position at high revs.
I think this frame also flexes more than my old steel one. It doesn’t matter as my airbrake is capable of adjusting to the flex unlike many of those lousy hydraulic brakes that people have on their Cokers.
I like my GB4 handle (450g) for distance more than the Wallis Deathgrips (50g), but it would be ideal as a Coker MUni.
You really have to ride something like this to see what I mean. I took it off some jumps and up a few bumpy sections and it’s really responsive. It’s so easy to hop around things and do rolling hops over obstacles instead of plowing through everything like a regular Coker.
No not really…probably less so than a say a Hunter Coker would be.
The Deathgrip handle is quite expensive (can’t remember how much), and so is the Carbon seatbase. The frame was one of Florian Schlumpfs rejected ones so he donated it to me for this project 
. The tubeless conversion costs a bit (?about $100USD from memory), but then you can use the sealant and rim strip many times over. Pedals I got for $99NZD- less than what I paid for my old Snafus’. And the cranks are about 25CHF. The spokes were pricey- I think ?US$2 a spoke from memory- they were handmade by Tommy miller. But you can get cheaper and probably better Stainless Steel spokes from Unicycle.com now.
And the wheel
Woahh…
It sounds like it was worth it.
I hope you have much fun with this new creation.
Ed
What are you using for the dual density foam?
I’m still on a quest for a more comfortable Coker seat and am looking for new foam ideas.
that wheels outta dish
John,
I’m using some foam that Scott Wallis sent me. It was trimmed at the nose and tail in order to flatten the seat further.
Unijesse,
I don’t think it’s the wheel- I think the frame is slightly bent. Why do you think Florian rejected it? He sent two batches of frames back to Taiwan before giving up and making them himself. Anyway, it’s still lighter than my existing frame until I get a custom frame made up. And I got it for nothing.