Hard day at work, sun shining outside, keen to get out and ride.
With plans to have a serious go at the “new territory” discovered yesterday, I take the KH 24, my most robust uni, and set off the super direct way, avoiding the temptations of the tussocky grass, the wet sandy beach, the gravelly track through the woods… and soon I’m a mile or so away from the car on hard baked mud single track. Then suddenly, “Kapow!” Or perhaps, “Kertwang!” Something beneath me pings and clatters, and suddenly I am up and running raw in raw seamed hot Lycra…
I turn and see a twig next to my uni - has that got caught in the spokes? Nope! The wheel has got caught in the spokes!
For half the circumference of the wheel, the edge of the rim (what would be the braking surface if I had a caliper brake) has simply parted company from the rest of the wheel. A sharp sliver of metal has unwound like a watch spring, and an ugly bloated hernia of inner tube is bulging sickly through the gap between tyre bead and rim.
So that’ll be a mile or so walking back to the car then, and don’t let anyone tell you that a KH24 is lightweight until they’ve carried one for a mile or so in the sun because the wheel won’t rotate.
Unicycles definitely get a lot more heavy and annoying when you can’t roll them along. On the day this was taken, the tire was so damaged it wouldn’t go back onto the rim, making the wheel virtually unrollable. I slung it over my shoulder. I dont know how far I ended up walking, but it was far (I’ve never been on that trail before or since; it’s not bike-legal).
On another occasion, my old Piece 'o Schwinn MUni hub broke. Because the old Schwinn bearings were indifferent about whether they gripped the axle tightly, my fork blade would just hang in the air and would not stay on the axle! I got a ride on the back of someone’s bike, but I still had to hold up the unicycle as it couldn’t be rolled on the ground…
What an odd type of breakdown you had, BTW. Defective rim?
I know what you felt then
I had the same problem, just contact the shop you bought it, they will give you a new one for free.
It’s a manufactory error.
I’d say that’s pretty defective. Of course, I’m no expert, but I’d say that a rim that self-destructs after a couple of hundred miles (if that) of moderate use is defective. I’ve ridden the Pashley, the Road Razor and even the Bacon Slicer along the path in question. the Bacon Slicer has a 700c rim with a 23 mm tyre to 130 psi. The KH24 has a 3" tyre to about 20 psi.
I have vaguely heard of other KH rims exploding. I had always assumed that was a problem for younger riders from the vertical impact school of unicycling. I didn’t realise it happened to 40-something horizontal plodders like me.
Do you remember the Derby Uni-hockey tournament last summer? I’m sure it was the one you was at, although maybe it was the year before. Anyway, the taller of the two Garys was having a new rim laced by Roger after the old one lost the entire sidewall. That was a KH20 iirc.
Bummer. That’s pretty standard for that batch of KH rims - Tue’s did the same in the middle of nowhere last year while we were route planning for the Dartmoor Muni Weekend. It’s a known problem and either Roger or KH will swap it for you.
Mine blew after only a few miles of use, when riding along a pavement. I had to carry it around london on my back all day. I stripped the wheel and sent roger the hub and spokes, he sent back a new built wheel very quickly.
