i just assembled my new united trials uni together today, and it looks great, but when i put the bearing caps on, i realized they don’t touch the bearing mounts on the frame. i tightened eerything and it seems to be fine and stable, but i want to check with an experienced rider before i break anything. :\
Well Hail Santa all i can say is if it aint broke dont fix it. and just before and after every ride for about two weeks check on everything to make sure nothings loose or wobbly.
There will be a gap between the “C” shaped bearing mount on the frame and the “C” shaped cap underneath. That’s the way they are designed to be.
The big thing to watch out for with the main cap bearing holders is getting them too tight. It is a common error to overtighten the bearing caps. When they are too tight the bearings will bind (not spin smoothly) and the wheel will not spin smoothly.
You want the bolts on the bearing caps to be snug, but not overly tight. If you have to make a fist and grunt to tighten the bolts then they are way too tight. Just use your fingers on the nut driver or wrench (aka spanner). Don’t use a fist. If you use a fist you’ll get the nuts too tight.
Hold the unicycle upside down and spin the wheel. It should spin smoothly. Watch the wheel as it slows down to a stop. It should come to a stop smoothly and gradually without any jerky movents. If you see some jerky movements or see it come to a stop and then snap back a little in the opposite direction the bearings are too tight. When spinning the wheel you should get several rotations of the wheel before it comes to a stop.
The bearing caps should not touch, unless they’re of a weird design… mine all have a gap of about half a centimetre or so.
It should be tight enough to hold it firmly, but don’t overdo it, or you’ll end up squeezing the bearings more than they should, increasing the stiffness in turning the wheel.
Wait until Monsieur Harper comes along, he’ll use capitals to emphasize this point. As we all know, if it’s in capitals it has to be true.
Phil
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by phil
[B]The bearing caps should not touch, unless they’re of a weird design…
I disagree… and like weird designs 
Cheers, Greg
26" muni w/ weird bearing caps
thanks guys, definitly glad to see there’s nothing abnormal about my uni.
i dont’ think the bearing caps are too tight either. 
wish me luck tomorrow. i’m going to fill up my tires and go for a spin around the block (and hopefully return in one piece) before my violin lesson.
PHIL IS A WIENERHEAD. It must be true.
When the uni is inverted, as John Childs suggests, start with the nuts on the bearing caps finger tight only (which is way too loose) and spin the wheel and observe its motion. Tighten both nuts evenly on one side of the frame until the wheel slows more quickly when you spin it. Then, back off the nuts on that side just enough to get the wheel to spin freely again. Repeat this for the other side. Doing one additional complete iteration won’t hurt anything with the advatage being that you will be starting with approximately the correct torque on each nut and you will know for sure that one side is not way too loose to begin with.
My turn to add a question to this thread. When I went to my LBS I saw they had a few Stealth Torkers. All of which had over tightened bearing holders. I told them that they were over tightened but apparently they didn’t do anything about it. Anyway, does they over tightening hurt the bearings at all? Would it be okay to buy the uni and just loosen the bearing holders? Thanks for your advice.
HARPER WILL ANSWER MY QUESTIONS <-- now it has to happen
Daniel
The bearings will b A-OK. There could possibly be damaged if it’s ridden a lot while the bearing caps are way too tight. But that uni is new so there won’t be any problem.
If a new bearing won’t spin smoothly it is most likely because the bearing was damaged while being pressed on the hub. I’ve goofed and damaged a bearing while pressing it on the hub. Nothing really to do at that point other than pull the bad bearing off and be more careful when pressing a new bearing on. This is why I always repeat the warning to only put pressure on the inner race of the bearing when pressing it on. Don’t put any pressure on the bearing seal.
Re: help! assembly question!
On Tue, 14 Jan 2003 01:33:43 -0600, harper
<harper.h8jlb@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote:
>phil wrote:
>> As we all know, if it’s in capitals it has to be true.
Harper is lying - Phil didn’t write that.
>PHIL IS A WIENERHEAD. It must be true.
Harper must be lying again.
Klaas Bil
Ride carefully; 25% of the people in the world are caused by accidents.