I broke my T7

General
1

On the 5th of January I rode around Mt Taranaki, 150km in 9 hours 5 mins. Ben Sarten almost made it, making it just past Stratford (114km). I was pretty hard on my T7 handle then, resting my weight on it quite a lot to get out of the saddle.

I rode around the mountain again on the 26th in 8 hours 58 minutes, and about 80km into the ride I heard a bit of creaking coming from my handle. After riding 100km I noticed my drink bottle rubbing my legs a bit more and the handle drooping significantly. When I stopped riding I noticed the steel had snapped. I managed to finish the race but it ended up a bit bent out of shape as you can see in the photograph I have attached.

I thought I had ended my problems when I replaced my stupid bike seatpost with a Thomson one but I managed to find a new weak point on my unicycle. It feels a bit bare now with a standard seatpost and no cycle computer or drink bottle. Has anyone else broken one?

Broken T7 Handle.jpg
Broken T7 Handle.jpg800×600 371 KB

2

oooooh…

3

never would have guessed it would break there, amazing you could do that road riding

4

That’s a real bummer Rowan.

I’m not a big fan of saddle rails on unicycles. There is no need for rails- it adds so much weight, complexity, extra welds and weak spots. And makes large unicycles like Cokers very difficult to adjust in terms of seat-post height for shorter riders.

We don’t need forward and backwards adjustments, only angle adjustment. And even then, I almost always run my seat perfectly flat.

Hope you can get it fixed.

That’s a great time for Round the Mountain by the way.

Ken

5

Holey crap, that an unusual place to break

I’d expect the break to be along the rails but not there.

Hope you can get it fixed.

Had no problem with mine.

6

Interesting, mine broke in the same place.

While I miss the T7, I can do without it. I’m riding on a KH2005 stock seat now and it’s plenty comfy for anywhere up to 10k which is my daily commute. I think I’ll be getting another t7 though simply because I really like them…

7

Did you get that ‘no handlebars’ t-shirt made up just for this photo? :slight_smile:

STM

8

Actually it was pure coincidence that I was wearing it. Being a unicycle fanatic for 12 years, I have accumulated quite a few unicycling shirts, and that happened to be the one I was wearing while attaining photographic evidence of the breakage. I did notice the irony of the message “No gears, no brakes, no handlebars, no problems”, because it seems that with the handlebar comes the problems. Complicating the simplicity of the unicycle.

9

I broke one also in about the same place, on my first ride back from MUT. I’m glad it didn’t break any earlier!

10

Look at it this way: This break is a testament to a good welding job.

When done properly, the weld joint becomes stronger than the surrounding metal.

So, what’s bad about “extra welds”, then?

11

I don’t see it the same way you see it. It broke where it was weakened by the weld. So how does that make it a good weld again? Sure the weld stuck but the surrounding metal was not strong enough for the job given to it by the weld. I think there is potential for improvement and I think the T7 is still in the testing stages rather than the finished design. The fact it has broken several times in the same place for different people seems to indicate to me a big flaw.

12

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a ‘big flaw’ - more like a thing to fix in the next production run if there’s a way to. I put over 1000km on my handle (leaning, dropping, flexing it to fit the bugger into car trunks…) before it snapped. While I’m obviously bummed my sweet handle is broken, I think it did pretty well, and I’ll be picking up another one soon…

13

How often do you think metal should break? If my bike handlebars broke every 1000km, I’d be pissed off (not to mention seriously injured).

14

When I first read the title I thought you had broken your T7 vertebrae. :wink:

Looks like that area could be strengthened with a larger and thicker metal piece along with possibly a gusset. Hopefully the next production run will fix that. It wouldn’t be practical for most people to fix (add a gusset) on their own unless they can find a friend to do the welding or can do the welding themselves. Getting a commercial welder or machinist to do the work would be a little too expensive.

15

I’ve been able to sneak into a local welding shop near closing time and bribe a welder to run a quick bead for pocket change.

Of course, I prepped the metal before I showed up so all that had to be done was the welding.

You might try it! That fix shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes…

16

That’s what you want to do. Slip the guy 20 bucks and you’re good. We did that on the Norway tour in a tiny little town then Scot’s handle broke.

Good luck with it Rowan.

—Nathan

17

Thanks for the post! Mine’s been squeaking for a few months. I went out & checked it and found a crack starting. Time for reinforcement!

18

Mine just cracked on my way home today. I dismounted at a light and I heard a relatively loud crack/ping come from my unicycle. When I looked to figure out where the sound came from I noticed a crack that formed about two thirds of the way across the plate.

That crack was not there this morning.

I think I am going to get a gusset welded between the boom and the plate and send UDC an e-mail with some suggestions for how they could increase the strength of this part.

My handle had only 700km on it.

19

If you bring it by my house, i’ll fix it up for you.

I’ve gone through quite a few handle designs, but none have broken.

http://picasaweb.google.com/corbin.dunn/UnicyclesAndParts

corbin

20

The replacement T7 Handle I got has lasted a while since I’ve been trying to take it easy on it. The other day my drink bottle cage fell off with the screws and everything. I’ve heard of that happening to other people I just thought it was funny that it did it on my replacement one rather than the broken one. Easy to fix perhaps, but a nuisance. Water is so good!