Hey everybody. I got a call while I was on RAGBRAI saying that my new muni was in! Needless to say I finished up the 500 miles and got home! So far it is exceedingly awesome and got here (Iowa) way faster than expected (from Germany). So far it is awesome. I am wondering how tight to tighten the bearing caps (not sure if that’s the official name for them…). Also, what do you guys inflate your Gazz’s to? and for what surface? I will post pictures of it tomarrow. One last thing, nuts for the bearing cap screws on top or bottom?
Thanks! Will report tomarrow (midnight is probably a little too late to ride).
if you live in iowa, why did you order a qu-ax? isnt the onza the same thing and availible in the usa? is there something about the qu-ax that i don’t know?
seriously though, enjoy your new MUni… you must be stoked.
the quax has different hub and cranks, and a different frame. on this side of the pond its a fair bit cheaper than the onza and shipping from municycle doesnt costmuch at all
What do you mean by bearing caps? To attach the wheel to the frame? Or the end bolts of the cranks? For the former, I just do it firmly. Don’t go nuts on these, you’ll know when to stop turning. Loctite is good too. The Qu-Ax frames I have come with the ny-lock nuts so it’s pretty easy to get em on right.
For the latter do the end bolts up TIGHT and then the pinch bolts TIGHT too!
As for the Gazz… play around with it loads. I found with the Duro only one pressure suited me but after upgrading to the Nokian I can change it around and still have a great ride. All depends what you want to do!
No problem- I live to give after all I grease my pedal spindles and do them tight. The grease lets you do em a little tighter a little easier. Some people say that they have stripped the cranks or something from doing them too tight, but I was reading the literature that came with my Onza bike and it said that it’s near impossible to do them too tight. I never had problems with tightening pedals up pretty hard. Infinately preferable to loose, as it’ll take your crank out with it!
Out of curiosity, which frame do you have? The Nimbus II style or the chunkier one? Either way we need action pics!
On Sun, 1 Aug 2004 00:00:12 -0500, “MuniTune” wrote:
>nuts for the bearing cap screws on top or bottom?
Most people have them at the bottom but I don’t know if that’s for a
good reason. I for one have got them at the top, seems less vulnerable
if you do crank grabs and miss it. Also (minor advantage), if a nut
would totally unscrew unnoticedly during a ride, you would probably
retain the bolt.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
I like the idea of not having to balance when out on a ride - joe
You are not likely to strip the threads by screwing the pedal on too tight. What’s more likely is the person cross threaded the pedal threads when installing the pedal.
You can strip the pedal threads in the crank if you cross thread the pedals as you install them. Cross threading is when you thread on the pedals such that the pedal threads and crank thread do not mesh up. It happens when the pedal gets threaded in at a slight angle.
Cross threading will destroy the crank threads stripping them out. You may be able to salvage the crank by getting a helicoil installed to replace the threads. But that may end up costing more than the crank is worth.
Be very very careful that you do not install the pedals cross threaded. Thread the pedals in by hand for several revolutions to get the threads started. Once the pedals have been threaded on a few revolutions by hand, then you can use a pedal wrench to finish the job.
Most cross threading happens when you use a wrench to start the threads. The wrench has so much leverage that you don’t notice that the threads are not meshing up and that you’re destroying more threads with every turn of the wrench.
And yes, you should grease the pedal threads before threading them into the crank.
Thanks for all the awesome info. everybody. I got some pics here. None of me out riding because I don’t have a photographer, and because I’m pretty tired because I just finished bicycling 500 miles across Iowa (along with 10,000 other people). I had to make the pictures pretty small so they would upload fast. Here goes…
All my unis have the bolt put through from the bottom, but at BMW Steve C came up with what sounded like a good reason to have them the other way round. Having the nut on the top makes them stick up more, so if you’re wearing trousers they might catch as you pedal.
I might investigate, I have a 29er wheel to reinstall tonight. I can’t see me doing too many pedal grabs on it…
I grease my pedal spindles and do them tight. The grease lets you do em a little tighter a little easier. Some people say that they have stripped the cranks or something from doing them too tight, but I was reading the literature that came with my Onza bike and it said that it’s near impossible to do them too tight. I never had problems with tightening pedals up pretty hard. Infinately preferable to loose, as it’ll take your crank out with it!
