I need to consult the freewheeling hive mind. Braking is second nature and comfortable. Extended brake gliding on long descents are quite common. I can ride up inclines without using the brake with only a little extra concentration. That’s the good part. My struggle is most flats or descents and coasting without braking.
I can’t consistently figure out the pedal-pedal-coast transition without involuntarily leaning back. My chimp brain won’t fully disconnect. I have done the exercise of sitting in front of a wall and backpedaling. I do my best to lean forwards to be over the wheel. At a loss and somewhat frustrated when I try coastingto find myself leaning back and needing to brake or falling forward. I am riding as often as I can to get practice in. I do feel some progress but not like I want. Any good riders out there with suggestions for a schlub like me?
The Team Ursli members are getting real good in freewheeling and they become more and more. Now we have 5 riders who are on a real good level at muni freewheel riding: Urs, Lea, Manuel, Samuel and Elias. I hope we can make a video with all five of them soon. This video is from Elias (15 years) on his second ride on the freewheel: Elias freewheeling
It has been a while and I find that I can ride comfortably. Well enough that I can brake glide down steeper descents without the need to pedal. It is a really fun feeling going down without pedaling being fully in control. If I keep myself above the axle within what I’m guessing is 3-5° I can very lightly brake before falling too far back and keep going. A lot less back/forth pendulum brake-pedal oscillation.
I have a long ways to go yet. I still can’t coast at will. At times I do get a coast but only brief moments of 1-2 seconds. Methinks I need to dedicate time to practice on flat ground with no hands to develop the sensitivity needed to coast. One day hopefully soon.
This is a freewheeling hub. Or maybe it’s not? Or… Is it?
Oops, should have re-read the notice before jumping:
The hub is not suitable for jumps or drops.
Basically, I made a jump two days ago. 50 cm high, 50 cm sideways long. The hub made a loud noise and started completely freewheeling in both ways under load. But it also drives the wheel when unloaded
We’ll disassemble the wheel during the incoming week and hopefully repair it
Lock the brake and jump as you would on a regular uni
It’s much harder if you want to jump without the brake as you have to keep your balance only using your upper body… In such case, training is the only real method to get it.
They’re not lying. I burnt myself after a quick 5 minute ride a few years ago. I was still a beginner in freewheeling and used a lot more the brake than todays. I wanted to lock my uni and accidentally touched the rotor
Oof. I suspect the issue is that sprag clutches of that size are rather limited in their maximum load. In a bicycle hub the maximum force isn’t really all that high, but in a unicycle hub during a drop if your weight is onto the disk, the load could be absolutely huge. Something normal pawls can handle just fine, but I suspect your sprags slipped, and marred either the sprags and/or the surfaces they mate against.
I haven’t done so, but sent it back to @qu-ax and David replaced the faulty bearing. I’m not sure whether that’s an inner or outer bearing that broke, though. It seems to be less bad than expected, as that’s not the whole mechanism that broke.
So after not riding the freewheel for months (lots of fixed wheel DH muni and freestyle - I think one short ride in February), I finally did 2 rides today in Finale Liguria where there are steep roads and technical trails. First I rode up about 150m vertical and did a short trail and then practiced brake coasting on the road. The first descent wasn’t so great.
Then I did about a 2 hour XC ride. Wow, the freewheel is so strenuous!! I often need 2-3 tries to mount (either jump mount or brake-assist pedal in front). But had a few coasts on the trail, although the technical sections were way harder than on my fixed wheel. Both the line choice is more difficult while coasting, and I have way less control over ledges and rocks and such.
Question: When going down a technical section on the trail, say rocky downhill with ledges, can you stay sitting while you coast, or is it better to stand to have more absorption with the legs? I can brake coast sitting all right but then going over small drops or ledges while sitting seems hard to control smoothly (drops and ledges that are relatively easy for me with fixed-muni become challenging).
Then for the 200+ vertical meter technical DH, I switched back to fixed (Flick-Flock): and yes, I can ride way more technical stuff fixed. Although after riding freewheel, my fore/aft balance was a little messed up for a bit and I kept wanting to keep the pedals in one position. But worked out OK.
Then the trail let out on the road, and I had maybe 100m vertical runout on the road and switched back to freewheel - and then coasted pretty long and consistent (sitting).
About a year ago I had a few coasts standing but was only able to brake coast while sitting today.
Can we stay sitting while we coast? Sure. Is it easier than standing? Absolutely not
What I have learned in my last year of riding my freewheels is that it is usually much easier to coast while standing up on the pedals than sitting on the saddle. However, it can be a bit more tiring for the legs, so you should practice both.
I‘m wondering… is there a consensus whether riding a freewheel uni is easier with a light or a heavy tire?
My gut feeling is that a heavier tire makes the uni a bit less squirrelly, thus easier to ride. But life has taught me that I‘m not always right (but almost ).
How is a freewheel uni more squirrely than a non freewheel? Riding forwards while pedalling feels the same as a freestyle uni. The tires are more or less the same on mine
I guess it depends on what you’re looking for. If you want to coast for a long time, then it is probably easier with a heavier wheel. If you want to ride muni, then a lighter wheel will make the uni more nimble.
I compared light tires to heavy tires, not freewheel unis to traditional ones. My question was whether a lighter or a heavier wheel is easier to ride on a freewheel uni. I know that on traditional road unis I tend to prefer lighter tires, whereas I prefer the heavier Surly Nate to the lighter Kenda Juggernaut on my fatty. But that is probably more due to the tread pattern than the weight.
The way I see it the reduced inertia leads to the wheel reacting quicker to inputs by the rider, but also to it being more affected by uneven terrain. So more “squirrelly” than a heavier wheel. I can deal with that on a traditional uni. A freewheel might be easier to learn with a bit more weight to the wheel (no, I’m not gonna buy lead tape and such ).
In that case I think a heavier tire gives you more control, because it has a bit more friction. Then again if you cant control the handbrake, like me, you’d still just as easily land on ur bum. I like my latest 24” muni more than the 24” road uni.
I wish I had time to get into freewheeling. There are too many different things you can do with unicycles.
@Maxence answered the question, it depends on the use you want to make of your freewheel unicycle.
Personally, I’m only interested in coasting, in which case a heavier wheel provides inertia and it becomes easier to stay balanced without pedaling or braking. On the other hand, you should avoid having a wheel that is too heavy, which would make it impossible to use for pedaling uphill… Beyond weight, tire pressure also plays a role. On coasting, if your tire is large and underinflated, it will absorb the terrain better. But this will create more friction and you will go slower.
I think there is not much info about those hubs becouse there are only couple of them sold. There is a unoffical list of FF owners it stops at nr 35ish. I don’t know how many PPF was sold but from what i see it could be not that much. In general freewheeling is quite rare inside already unpopular sport. Another factor is that Phub and bicymple was default option for some time.
I was looking for bicymple hub but could’t find one i passed Phub since it works with square mounted cranks so I ended up with PPF hub. My expirience is really good. It’s quiet not too heavy. It’s advantage over ratchet hubs is PPF engage in every crank possition, while ratchets have to match certain possition. I’m not sure if it’s big of a difference. After a year or so wheel is still stiff, but i had to repleace screws holding disc mount since original ones got loose and required disc removal to be tighten (allan key collide with a disc). Another thing bothering me is now while i push the wheel over the ground cranks do spin with it so there is something witch make it not 100% free, thus this do not affect rideing.
In a mean time i’ve also bought a used FF hub for about half a price, and o boy i was shocked that i havent heard anyone complain about that.
Firstly possibility to switch beetween fixed and free wheel is a unique feature on the market and i can go for some compromise for that one.
It is advertised as two unis inside one, but it’s actually nither xd.
As a free wheel FF hub is quite decent, but as a fixed wheel it make you feel like the whole thing wiil fall apart any time.
FF hub problems i encountered:
in fixed mode cranks are not actually fixed to the hub, while holding a brake cranks will move up and down about 2cm, if you are pushing it feels fine but if you ride some more difficult terrain it is not even close to regular fixed hub.
wheel moves side to side inside a frame and it’s becouse “outer hub” is wobbling on “inner hub” so it persist after ISIS bearing repleaced. It makes not suitable for precise rideing in hard terrain. (or meybe it’s mine skill issue )
“inner hub” differs in diameter - left bearing coms off easly, right one need a special tool, or angle grinder XD
price
random cracking noises form inside (mostly after switching to fixed, but other user haven’t specified)
often switching to fixed while rideing dos not go full (it may be due to spirit cranks with some Qfactor, or skill issue, or becouse hub is not brand new) i tend to push the button couple time before i feel safe in fixed mode..
inner bearings (since i’ve repleaced them) looks not highest quality which was strange for a product priced ~1500 E, my FF hub is 3 years old and it was not ridden all the time (i’m not 100% sure) and one of inner bearing was already quite damaged.
springy ring holdin rachet teeth fails to squize them enouh to make all of them xtend and be ready to engage ( again not a brand new hub)
greas inside a ratchet was quite sticky, i’ve cleand it and used oil - not sure if this changes anything.
I haven’t ridden it since i got new bearings so i’m not sure if that helps with wheel stability. (i observed that it does not solve that proble for good)
i bought new fixed muni and i have PPF hub for freewheel fun, FF hub stays as a repleacment wheelset for freewheel uni if i decide i want to swich beetwheen fixed and free.
We started this topic on why there is not much info about all of this. There is a closed group on FB “flick-flock ridders”. Some users confirm simmilar issues, some not so i assume either some of FF owners are not very expirienced or FF hubs vary in precision. I was thinking mayby it’s only mine hub with some problems but it turns out FF hubs are far from perfect and i can’t say quality reflects it’s price.
PPF hub hold strong as really good freewheel hub. Friend of mine use a bicymple on crazy DH muni with now issue so i think it’s just a bit better in comparison.
