Last month I have bought new Onza Trials 2005 model, while at the same time my friend got new KH 24 freeride (both have KH-Onza Hub & crank set).
After about one week of riding (NOT hardcore riding at all - drops not exceeding 0,5meter with propper roll out) my friends KH started to make some creaky noises when he was hopping and dropping. Recently my onza started to make same creaky sounds as well. My friend is totaly despaired cos he has checked every bolt hundreds of times but everything is perfectly tight, but he gets those creaky sounds more and more often!
I think the problemis in hub/cranks (we are sure that it is NOT sound of loosen spokes). Did any of you had similar problem with Kh-Onza Hub&crankset? Or do you have any suggestions how this problem can be fixed?
Have you put grease or antiseize (copperslip) on the splines.
If you are running metal on metal, you will have creaking noises
Ive heard that many people have had creaking noises on splined cranks, until the lube the splines up and the noise is gone, this will also prevent wear.
I took delivery of my new KH/Onza trials before Christmas and had a squeak virtually out of the box. I managed to fix the problem by removing the wheel from the frame, stripping one side down at a time (i.e. undo all, remove all, check all is clean, rotate cranks one or two splines and re-fit all), then nipping both sides up evenly and finally tightening the crank bolt (HARD) on either side, in turn, to try and get an even squeeze. I then re-fitted the wheel to the frame.
I have had to re-tighten one side again once, but otherwise no problems.
I didn’t use anti-sieze when I re-fitted as I didn’t have any with me at the time, but I would have if I’d had it.
I had the same problem with my old style KH Muni when I got it about a year ago and applied a similar technique to that above, with similar success.
I was a little disappointed to have problems with these expensive machines so early on, but both were fixed pretty easily and have remained fixed (with the odd tighten up now and again), so I can’t really complain.
On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 03:43:57 -0600, “Unicyclotrone” wrote:
>Did any of you had similar problem with Kh-Onza
>Hub&crankset? Or do you have any suggestions how this problem can be
>fixed?
I had this problem with my KH24 2004. I thought everything was tight
and I was as puzzled as you are now. It turned out in the end that the
pinch bolts were tight but not tight enough. Here’s the procedure that
should fix it:
Loosen all four (2x2) bolts,
remove the cranks,
grease (or maybe better antiseize) the splines,
grease all four bolts,
slide the cranks back on,
tighten the pinchbolts much (*),
retighten the axle bolts.
(*) Roger of unicycle.uk.com gave advice during the process and said
that they use a 6" allen key and stand on it to get the pinch bolts
tight. However, Kris Holm was also involved at the time and commented
that that might be too much and break the bolts. But anyway, they
should be REAL tight.
Let us know if it works!
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
people who unicycle are shyly exhibitionistic - GILD
I have a set of long series allenkeys which I use for my axle and pinch bolts, it give you the extra torque to get it tight, but not enough to break it.
Don’t worry, I wouldn’t see creaking cranks as a serious problem, and I don’t think there is anything seriously wrong with your cranks. It tends to happen with all splined, especially new cranks.
I was just like you, when I first got my KH cranks they started creaking horribly and I was really worried that something was wrong, I wasted a lot of money for the bike shop to take a look, they just re-greased everything. That helped, but only for a short time, I was worried again, then I got smart and bought some special grease/lube stuff and did it myself. I just took everything off, cleaned it, greased it and put it on nice and tight. The first few times I did this the cranks would start creaking again after one ride, now, a few months later the cranks are more worn in and don’t make a sound.
Just regularly clean and grease everything, and eventually the sound will go away, it just takes good maintenance and time
When the tollerances are really tight (new uni), the creaking is pronounced till the splines wear a bit and can set. After some serious Muniing (stream crossings, et al), the problem is often rust. Every few months I strip everthing down, rinse it all in an acid-based rust buster, then coat everything in standard axel grease and reassemble, cranking all but the bearings super tight. Then it’s smooth riding – till it starts squaking again. I’ve got a Profile on my 20 and a KH hub on my 24 Muni and it’s the same case with both hubs.
