First, my chain ring continues to come loose. Ample tightenings and loctite fail to resolve this issue. Do I take it in to someone and get it tig’ed to the hub or just continue to have to stop and tighten it.
Two, I just noticed today while trying to do the lazy, use the pedals to tighten the chain ring thing, that my frame has a bit of twist to it and I was wondering if maybe some bracing would be in order. I have started to work on things like one-foot idleing and one-foot pedaling and it is putting a fair amount of stress on the frame. It is an older tuning fork style frame, not the beefy Torker type, so I am wondering if there is something I can do, or do I just put up with it. Thanks fellow “G” riders.
Sorry everyone, I will try to post this on a forum board that deals wit all-around Unicycling. Clearly this forum was changed to STREET UNICYCLIST.COM without notification. A thread entitled Handy Rails about hand rail grinding has gotten 30+ replies and this one has gotten none. I think I should have entiltled this thread, Street Giraffe radical, extreme, crankflip, 8 set Questions and more would have responded.
Notice how you’re probably using the same amount force to loosen the pedals than tighten them. If you’re cranking down on the pedals as hard as you can, with your legs, to tighten the sprocket, it’s about the same amount of torque that will be applied as you practice stopping, idling, etc. This is an engineering failure in the design of your giraffe, basically caused by bike engineers designing unicycles. The early Schwinn giraffes had this problem, but then they went to a bolted-on sprocket on later models.
Welding it is your safest bet, but it will lock you into your current wheel build. Make sure your spokes and rim are sound, or fix them up before you make it impossible to rebuild the wheel. Also ask your welder to be aware of the nearby bearings, which can be fouled up if too much heat is applied to them.
…my frame has a bit of twist to it and I was wondering if maybe some bracing would be in order.
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Sounds like a relatively lightweight frame, probably intended for light use by kids (most inexpensive unicycles seem to be built for a world without adults). If you know the brand it might help, but it may be a generic. “Tuning fork” gives me a rough idea. The single posts above and below your bottom bracket are in the stress area. The most common place where giraffe frames typically break is at the joint on top of the bottom bracket (crank barrel). If you’re going to be doing welding, that’s the first place to focus on reinforcement. If you add gussets, I think the best pattern to do them in would be an X. That is, a 45 degree angle in relation to the axle. Forces are applied to the unicycle mostly when the pedals are around the horizontal position, which means they are at an angle to the front or rear of the frame, putting a diagonal stress on your frame.
Does that make sense?
Or ride it until it breaks, then fix it. Some stuff will do a lot of flexing for a while before it finally breaks down, so you may have some time left on that frame.