I doubt that taking the cranks off is that much of a problem. Aluminum will certainly creep (stretch) a little, but that’s why ISIS is tapered. I’m sure it would take significantly more than two removals/installations to cause problems, though excessive crank swapping/rotation could eventually be an issue.
yup. my advise is to not rotate the cranks. 2 times, not what i meant despite that was what i said. sooner or later it will catch up to your uni. personally i have never had a problem with that. (i havent rotated my cranks) but i know people who have had problems after 1 or 2 rotations.
most rims (that the large majority of people ride or based on expierence at moab) are less than $50 (just checked)
very few people to my knowledge ride LM’s, with most people riding kh, alex, koxx and nimbus rims and what ever qu-ax runs.
geez la weez, people are we talking about rims spokes or hubs?
last i checked the thread was about rims…
so, if you take notice the drill holes in the kh rim almost make the second wall on the inside of the rim not a wall at all, the small bits of metal left behind quite frankly wont hold shit, not trying to say kriss has an inferiour product but i am just telling it like it is.
now kriss, yes or no, is the 06kh rim stronger than the 07?
also yes i do keep my spokes at good tension but i am not fanatical about checking them after every stair set, and i am not asking if spoke tension will make my wheel stronger, keep on topic…
sadly seeing i need a rim before the second of august i am going to have to order from either NZ or aus udc, that means i have a choice of either kh07 drilled from NZ, or oh yeehaa australia udc has zero trials rims… now that my friends is what lame is all about.
so looks like i am going to have to go for another pissy drilled kh and start being fanatical about my spoke tensions… better keep my key with me!! 
so hopefully this one lasts another 6 months or so
you should be able to take the cranks off and on hundreds of times, without problems, assuming you do it properly each time.
As far as rotating the cranks, it would reccomend against ever hopping on the rim joint. The rim joint won’t be a problem if your wheel is properly tensioned, however if it isn’t you can do some major damage, and split the rim if you hop on the joint. Anyways, just thought I’d mention it.
Yeah, a lot of people just randomly tighten their spokes so that they all feel kind of tight, you should really tension to tone, or use a spoke tensiometer. This removes any ambiguity of the tensioning process and will give a far stronger rim.
Having said all this, rims will still flatspot. I keep my rim in good tension, but i have a slight flatspot (about 1mm). Again, I do much bigger drops than 5-6 stairs, so you shouldn’t have any problem with the KH rim.
-Ryan
Isn’t a unicycle trials rim just the same as a bike trials rim, ie. you can buy one from a shop that sells bike trials stuff too?
Joe
good luck getting a bike trials shop in australia. its terrible. i had to get my rim from singapore.
For unicycle applications, the LM is used exclusively for Muni, (24-26") and I was like you and not among the “very few people” who ride the LM…until I tried John Long’s [vivalargo] Muni with the LM! My strong bet is (as is John Long’s) that if all muni-ers tried the LM, they’d be instantly sold, as I was. It’s simply like night & day compared to ANY other rim, drilled or otherwise. Much more stable and solid, (esp. for bigger drops) will roll over anything, zero tire fold, etc, etc.
I ride a lot on rocks and my rim often goes outta true. I´ve actually bent two LM rims. Anyhow, I usually wait till the rim is crooked as a wagon wheel and then let the guy at the LBS true it back up. Obviously this is a lazy and poor strategy, so my question is, what´s involved in learning to true a wheel out in the field. I hear Ryan talk about tensioners and so forth and I´m instantly freaking lost. I´m the worst kind of mechanic.
Thanks,
JL
The quick answer to your question is “give it a try yourself”. You may strip a nipple or throw your wheel out of true on your first attempts, but you gotta break a few eggs to make an omlette, no? All you’ll need to begin with is a proper spoke wrench and your hands. (By proper spoke wrench I mean one that fits your nipples well, preferably at all four corners. A cheap spoke wrench will round off those corners)
Your hand works as a “poor man’s tensiometer” quite well. I’m sure you’ve done this already, grabbed two parallel spokes and squeezed. Go around your wheel and do this and you may notice some spokes are easier to squeeze than others. Tightening the looser spokes and comparing this way will give you a ballpark approximation to a properly tensioned wheel, but it’s a good start.
The next way to use your poor man’s tensiometer is to pluck each spoke as if it were a guitar string. Physics tells us that a tighter string will ring with a higher musical pitch. Aim to have all of your spokes ringing at approximately the same pitch. Of course, you may un-true your rim in the process, but the art here is finding a balance between true and tension.
Here is John Allen’s article on tensioning by ear, and here is Sheldon Brown’s article on wheelbuilding… excellent writeups suitable for both the beginner and the expert.
So in your experience in having “bent two LM rims”, would you say that they bend/get out of true more, less, or about the same as a standard KH rim, wither drilled or undrilled?
And when you bent those two LM rims, were the spokes most likely on the loose side? I keep hearing that only one or a very few loose spokes can result in a rim getting bent, especially after a rather large drop.
Knowing the note of your spokes is really useful. I know my muni is slightly over B above middle C, which means if I’m at home, I can check out the tension with the piano.
Joe
I guess it’s too bad then that I don’t know anything about music…
Haha that’s only accurate if your piano is at proper pitch! For example if your piano is 1/2 step flat, your B would actually be B flat (or A sharp same enharmonically). Pianos can easily drift from standard A-440 in either and up (sharp) or down (flat) direction, depending on the RH inside the piano. You best best would be to purchase a small electronic tuner that has audible notes in all or most octaves.
These are credit card sized and are 100% accurate and not subject to the effects of humidity fluctucations. Of course we’re not taling about tuning a piano, just getting the spoke tension close to a desired pitch. So unless your piano is off pitch, it should serve your purpose. I would venture to say that just because you may get all your spokes at the same pitch, that doesn’t necessarily mean your rim will be totally true. As in piano tuning, there are no absolutes and the art of Piano tuning is a series of compromises to make the piano sound relatively decent in any key.
Yes, Terry. Unless the rim is perfect to begin with, you can’t get a true wheel simply by applying even spoke tension. However, a wheel is always strongest if the spokes are as similar of tensions as possible.
Once the rim becomes less than perfect, the spokes have to adjusted to different tensions to correct imperfections in the wheel. Hence, the art of wheel truing.
i am wondering why i even bothered asking a question here…
i know a non drilled will be stronger but i asked if it was stronger enough to be worth the extra cash… nobody answered that, just said, oh yer it will be stronger, like fucken newsflash.
well lets hope i can make my new kh last for a while
Yeah, it drops about a quarter tone between tunings. I don’t think it makes a massive difference to my wheel though.
Joe
Take a chill pill my friend, deeeeeeep breaths man inhale, hold, exhale
No body can answer if it is worth it to you.
The actual tone of the spokes isn’t that important. i.e. If you know you MUni is a certain tone, its not critical that it always remains at the same tone. Whats more important is the uniformity of the spoke tension. The obviously you don’t want a super loose wheel, but it doesn’t make much difference if you have a “B” wheel, or an “A” wheel. As long as all the spokes are either “B” or “A”.
Although I can imagine it would be pretty fun to tune your wheel to a certain tone 
Anyways, Once all the spokes are at the same tone, then you true the wheel using small turns of the spoke key.
I think this thread turned out the be far more informative and useful than 99% of the threads in R.S.U. So, theres no reason to flip out just because someone didn’t give a concrete answer. I don’t know how much money you posses or how hard you work for it. Also, I don’t know the specifics of how much better the undrilled rim would be for you. Sorry.
-Ryan
I recently purchased 500 of each rim, and I’m hiring a team of people to run a series of scientific tests on them, then quantize each’s failure mode, and provide a complete cost analysis. I’ll have it to you by Thursday of next week.