I’m signed up for a cross race this Sunday and it’s supposed to be 40 degrees and raining. I would like to use my KH29.
Am I going to ruin it?
What precautions should I take, and what would I need to do to it after the race?
The race is only 2 miles, BTW.
Thanks,
Steveyo
It’ll be fine. If you want to get meticulous about it, you could repack your pedal bearings and clean and dry your sealed wheel bearings afterwards, but it’s probably overkill.
After really filthy rides I just hose my muni down thoroughly and leave it in the sun, rotating the wheel occasionally to let it dry evenly… Even that i overkill. All you should do is look out for corrosiona nd if it gets salt or salt water on it, hose it down with fresh water to get the salt from causing corrosion.
After one especially bad ride, the bearings on my muni’s axle were literally packed full with mud and sand. i still don’t know how it got there. I removed the seals and pulled out all the junk, then I thoroughly hosed them down and let them dry in the sun. Then I replaced the seals. I should’ve greased them, but I didn’t. They were already shot, so i didn’t really care. Bearings are the most susceptible part of your muni to corrosion damage, but they’re still rather irrelevant. We put very few forces on the things at very low speeds, so even a basic friction bearing would be overkill.
By the time you have disassembled your muni down to the bearings and repacked them, you have wasted more time than the things are worth. Buy a new set if they get too loose for you.
Prevention is the best solution to wear: Anti-seize the splines, grease pedal threads, grease your bearings, both in the pedal and on the axle, and keep stuff from getting loose, and you should be fine. Unicycles are simple machines and require relatively little upkeep.
Pretty much everything Bevin said is spot on. Prevention is key. Anywhere metal threads to metal should be lubricated to protect the metal. Your uni should be fine though, since the only thing on it that is steel is the spokes and bolts.
Afterwords, spray it down with clean water, so that the crap in rain water and in mud etc doesn’t cause any problems, then let it dry somewhere. The faster it dries the better, but you shouldn’t have any problems.
Simple - ride a bike in similar conditions first. Then when you’ve spent hours cleaning, re-adjusting and re-greasing everything on the bike you will really appreciate your uni. I think the only cleaning I do to the muni is mainly to take away the nagging sensation that there must be somthing I have to do to it.
There are only 4 bearings on a muni. Those on the hub generally have decent shields to keep the grease in and mud out, and those on the pedals are generally quite well protected. If your muni is properly put together to start with there should be nothing that needs doing.
John
Best maintenance is no maintenance. If you start fiddling with the bearings or hosing it down or whatever, you’re likely to mess stuff up. As long as you keep riding it regularly, the mud will remove itself pretty soon.
If your bearings go scritchy and don’t go unscritchy after a few rides, you might want to do something to them, but usually it’s not worth the effort.
I reckon people who recommend lots of maintenance just like fettling, I don’t think it reduces the (tiny) number of times that your uni goes wrong.
Joe
don’t use one of these
put some if this
in one these
add a dash of
and clean with a brush similar to this one
hope this helps
If I remember correctly washing up liquid contains salt, so I wouldn’t use much of that.
My muni cleaning generally involves bouncing it up and down a few times after a ride, and if I’m feeling really enthusiastic I’ll attack the tyre with a stiff brush to try to keep the mud out of the garage or car. That’s about it.
Phil
Thanks all - I may blow off the race because if I wanted to compete in 40 degrees and rain, I’d still be playing ultimate. If I do it, it sounds like a gentle cleaning and dry next to the radiator will work.
I’m only just starting to appreciate how sweet this KH29 machine is, and I don’t want to foul it up.
–
steveyo
My 29er has been in an English canal near Manchester.
If a unicycle can survive that, it can survive anything.
Phil
You should totally do it. Mud and rain is what muni is about. It’s not like you’ll get cold riding a 29er flat out.
Joe
Hey Steveyo, How’d your KH29 clean up? Like new I hope, that is a nice machine.
Me, As soon as I got home, I hosed it down, wiped it off, and hung it up in the basement to dry. Tonight I went out and found the wheel no longer turns freely. One of the bearings feels like I’m winding a watch.
Must be why I lost the race so badly 
Worth it.