These look very useful.
One for the shop.
One for the road?
Local cycle shops are all big on the Park brand of cycle tools. Are they really the best, or is there some sort of kickback, incentive for them over other brands? Is another brand better?
How good are the QU-AX tool kits I listed above? As good as the Park brand?
Park Tools have been fine for me.
In general, buying a big tool set is more for aspiring bike mechanics, and in that case you would want something a lot more complete than either of the items you linked to. The few individual tools suggested by people on this thread should be all you need for unicycles, and I would never take any tools with me on a road ride, but I never go more than 50km. If you plan on some sort of insane cross-country ride, you would obviously pack some tools in with your camping gear, but you would figure that out based on the journey in question and what you were riding, and even then, it wouldnât be much.
I bought a Park âHome Mechanicâ floor pump that was utter crap. Maybe the more expensive âProfessional Mechanicâ model is better but they donât get a do-over from me. Other things of theirs have been fine. (Also true of Harbor Freightâs captive-brand tools, I might add.)
I see this excellent video of the Great Unigeezer showing how to remove and replace bearings and more.
Can someone tell me what is the correct size of Pitman puller to use to do this?
Pitman puller is 1/3 the cost and available locally, and going by Unigeezerâs video, seems to work just as well. Now I think there is only one size of these things.
The crank threads are standard but the hub threads arenât; thatâs why you need an ISIS foot to the crank extractor for ISIS cranks. (No matter which manufacturer it is).
Pitman puller for removing bearings, not cranks?
Pitman arm puller should just work fine. Bearing is 42mm wide, which is just above 1.5" I guess. Crank diameter is what, 3/4"? That should give you an idea for the size of the puller. The smallest at an auto part place is probably the one.
I purchased a Pitman puller to use as a bearing puller as per UniGeezerâs video. The pitman puller will not fit. Inadequate clearance between the hub and bearing.
The qu ax multi tool looks good I donât know the cost or how big it is , I usually only carry a couple of Allen keys so far I havenât needed more than this.
I have been a bike mechanic for 35 years. In that time I have used a lot of tools from various companies, and for the most part Park tools have been substandard. Given a choice I prefer VAR, Eldi (Unior now), or Cyclus tools to Park. Unfortunately, being in the US makes european bike tools difficult to get.
Certain Park tools like bike repair stands are excellent. Park crank extractors are great. Other tools are made from metal that just wears out, or is brittle. I donât no how many broken Park pedal wrenches Iâve seen (at one shop I worked in we had 3 broken ones), but I know that Iâve never seen a broken Eldi pedal wrench.
For general purpose mechanics tools such as allen wrenches you are generally better off getting tools from the hardware store.
My shipment of cycle tools arrived.
Was hoping to do the final fixing on my KH trials uni, and then get back to more frequent practice sessions.
When I opened the package, what was supposed to be all new. Some were used, and one of them damaged and dirty. Very lame 
I contacted the vendor, and they said brand new stuff was on the way.
When I contacted them, they thought I was another customer who was also sent a used faulty item instead of the new part they ordered. That did not leave a very good impression, and makes me hesitant to order anything from them again.
I probably should not mention the name of the business at this point, will see how it goes with rectification of this.
Very dissapointing.
I am definitely not a natural, it took me longer to ride off a wall than every single person I have taught to ride. It still only took around 14 days before I could freemount and ride because I practised riding up and down a wall 25-40 mins a day every day 14 days.
One of the hardest things I learnt was the freemount, I watched soo many video tutorials to try and work out the secret that I wasnât getting that they all knew the answer to. In the end I took my unicycle to a wide open space where I had no wall to grab on and achieved it in about 15 minutes (I had previously practiced in a small space but couldnât get it). The secret that I was missing was that you need to do it repeatedly until your mind works out how to keep the balance and you are able to ride off.
You canât be âtaughtâ how to learn that, you said you have been trying to ride for months and cant get idle free mount or ride off the wall. I think if you focused more on riding every second day for 30 minutes you would find you could actually ride and idle and freemount in 2 weeks. Instead you are focusing on what is the ideal tyre pressure.
It is true that if two riders have identical skills then it is likely the rider with better tuned equipment will win. However someone who spends all their time riding and not TALKING about riding will be so far ahead of your skill even if you know â36PSI is better than 34 PSIâ. In this sport the best riders are those who have done huge amounts of hours on a range of setups, if you spend all your time talking about riding you donât actually improve despite that knowledge. Most elite riders spend all their time riding and as Finn said they work out their tyre pressure by feel.
Extremely skilled riders often have a sixth sense due to so many hours on their unicycle. The best street riders donât need to mark revâs for doing tricks at skateparks. They ride at the object, work out how many revs away they are and adjust as they go towards it with a half rev or angle their run at it. If they spent their time using chalk to mark where to start they wouldnât have that ability, they wouldnât have flow and they wouldnât look as good. Or if it rains and the chalk got washed away in a comp they could still compete without it. Yes it is less scientific, but there are also some benefits in a sport that is not always so clear cut.
Also mentioned by someone was that if you train with a range of different tyre pressures (and also wheel sizes, tyres, crank size etc) you become a better rider usually than someone who only ever uses one setup. You learn to adapt as necessary, in disciplines like muni that is HUGELY advantageous.
Also if there is ever a malfunction of equipment the riders can use someone elses unicycle and still win
- Chris Huriwai became street world champion in 2014 competing 2/3 of the competition on someone elses unicycle
- Pierre Sturney became european trials champion in 2017 riding two completely different unicycles and changing his tyre pressure throughout by feel to suit the obstacle
And then there is the problem of what is an ideal setup? Until we do scientific testing to compare energy efficiency and power output of crank lengths, seat heights, tyre pressures and wheel sizes, and the difference of these variables based on rider size and weight (which you will later claim is corrupt and part of the unicycle manufacturers of the worldâs attempt to make us ride specific products) you cannot know what is an ideal setup.