I was riding along a concrete ledge today (I won’t call it a skinny since it was like 30cm wide), and dropped off the edge about 1.5-2ft. After riding away, the unicycle felt a little… odd. After some closer examination, I found that my left pedal had twisted about 5-10 degrees forwards. Not good!
So now I ask you guys, since I really don’t know what to look for when I’m looking for a hub/cranks:
What am I looking for? I have a norco 20", and I’d like to not buy an entire new uni, so replacing just the hub with something stronger if it’s even possible is something preferable.
If I have to buy a wheelset I’m game for that too, being that I don’t know jack about lacing spokes.
I tend to do more freestyle than trials-type riding, but it’d be nice to be able to drop off a bench or a picnic table now and again (or perhaps a lot, because it’s fun :D) without worrying about bending anything. Am I looking at an expensive set of splines for this sort of thing, or will I be fine with a crmo udc hub? And should I just go for an entire wheelset or just a hub?
Any insight, or even links to previous threads on this, would be great!
If you go to splines, you’ll be riding a much wider pair of pedals with very limited choices on crank length. In other words, splined wheels generally aren’t as good for Freestyle, even with the shorter, 125mm cranks.
For your listed uses, I’d say get a strong square-taper axle, and learn to soften those landings. Obviously you landed really hard on your left pedal that time…
If I go with a strong cotterless (I assume this is another term for square-taper) axle, what sort of cranks am I looking for? And is the CrMo UDC hub what I’m looking at?
The UDC hub sounds good
I’d get a whole wheelset so you don’t have to build the wheel around a new hub
If you got a wheelset I think it would come with cranks, but if not a popular kind seems like bicycle euro. Another (cheap) kind is Torker, or United, or Nimbus X cranks.
These are all pretty good I think.
In case you don’t know, the splined hubs & cranks that John Foss
mentioned are much stronger than the standard square taper style you
just bent. Splined setups are also more expensive (US$125 for the
least expensive at unicycle.com). John know what he’s talking about,
so you’ll have to decide whether you want to sacrifice freestyle
performance for durability.
Anyway, in addition to your new hub I recommend replacing spokes for
strength. The old spokes have bent to the shape of your old hub.
Even a small change in the shape of the holes means the spokes will be
subject to a lot more stress and will be more prone to fail in the
long run. A set of 36 spokes costs about $15.
Unless you rebuilt the wheel yourself (or know someone who will do it
for free), Unicycle.com’s Nimbus II wheelset may be your best value.
It costs $41 and comes with a good hub and double-walled alloy rim.
Make sure there is a rim strip before installing your tire and tube.
And be sure to learn those cat-like landing reflexes!
