Today when I’ve been riding my kh24, I’ve noticed this weird creaking noise that seems to be coming from the axle end of the cranks. I does this when I get on or pedal so its constantly creaking on one side then the other. Does anyone know whats causing this? It has me a little concerned
Are the cranks loose or something?
Also, how easily does this uni rust? I’ve gotten it wet a couple times lately, and it looks like it has some brown dust around the pedals and the hub. Is this rust, or just dust?
i have had the exact problem, first of all, tighten up the cranks, loose is what bends them, and go to ur bike shop and get the tire trued. they will know what it means, do not tru the wheel at home, it will cost roughly 15-20 in store. (canadian eh)
Ok, today I just finally got some anti-sieze greese so I took the cranks off my uni, and I found that the axle is really rusty!
I’ve only rinsed my uni off twice with a hose when it got really muddy, could this have caused all that rust? The rust wasn’t thick and it was only on the surface, but it covered all the splines and in the cracks between them
What should I do? Just scrape it off with steel wool or what?
Thanks for the help guys, sorry to resurect this thread
Use a wire brush or steel wool to remove the rust. A little WD-40 or light oil may also help you get the rust off.
Then cover the axle and the splines with anti-seize before putting it back together. The anti-seize will help protect the steel parts from rusting again. And don’t forget to put some anti-seize on the crank bolts too.
I don’t wash off my muni or my bike with water. Water just causes rust problems. And if you spray the water on the uni with a nozzle you can end up getting water in the bearings and in other places where the water shouldn’t go. It’s better to just brush off any dirt with a utility brush.
If you ride your uni in the rain or other wet conditions (snow, mud, streams, etc.) then you’ll need to check for rust more often and make sure that the grease or anti-seize is still there and not washed away.
Ok, I covered every part in anti-sieze (the axle, the axle bolts, pinch bolts) and then reassembled it and crancked everything down as tight as I could. But just now when I rode it, it started creaking again when I hopped
Should I tighten the bolts down again? Do they just come loose a little after the first ride?
Check the bolts again. They will work themselves loose after being greased. Eventually they’ll settle in and stay tight longer.
But don’t overdo it. One person managed to break off one of the big crank bolts by overtightening the bolts. Don’t get them too tight. You can break the bolts off.
At this point it is probably not the cranks that are making the noise. It could be the spokes. Take the wheel to a good bike shop and ask them to tension all the spokes. The KH unicycles don’t get a top notch wheel build at the factory and the spokes aren’t as tight as they should be. A good wheel build will strengthen the wheel and get rid of any spoke creaking.
Your local bike shop will charge somewhere around $15 or $20 to do the wheel tensioning. Have them tension in up tight and then stress relieve all the spokes. It is best to find a bike shop that is known for their wheel building skills. Not all bike shops do a good job of wheel building. Ask a local MTB club for local bike shop recommendations that do good wheel builds.
If the spokes are loose or if the spokes have a lot of wind-up you can get creaking noises from the spokes. Where the spokes cross each other the spokes will rub and make creaking noises. One thing you can do is put a little dab of grease or a little drop of oil at each point where the spokes cross. But a well built wheel should not creak like that. The creaking is a sign of a poorly built wheel.
I’m pretty sure its not the spokes, they don’t seem very loose and the noise it makes isn’t the same I hear when riding.
Also, when I hold the uni up and just put my foot on one pedal and push down hard the crank moves a little bit and it clicks
I have the bolts as tight as I can possibly get them, could this be a problem caused by the axel being too small or something? Could some rust have done that or something, so that the cranks don’t fit tight anymore?
Spokes can make strange noises and not sound the way that you would expect them to. Unless you’ve got experience feeling the spokes of a really well built wheel it is hard to know how tight is tight enough. You can feel the spokes of a poorly built wheel and say “these feel tight”. And then feel the spokes of a well built wheel and say “wow! these feel really tight”. Without a frame of reference it is hard to say what is tight and what is not. A good bike shop will know the difference, so if you’re unsure have the bike shop take a look.
But all that stuff on wheels may not be the problem. Jerad brought up a good possibility. It could be the axle is actually moving inside of the hub body. This would happen due to poor tolerances during manufacture.
The steel axle is actually press fit in the aluminum hub body. If that press fit isn’t tight the axle will move inside of the hub body and feel like a loose crank. Steve Howard has a gallery with pictures of a dissected KH hub. The pictures will show you how the hub goes together. Now imagine that the axle was slightly undersized or that the hole in the hub body was slightly oversized. You’ll end up with slop and the axle will move in the hub body. That may be what is happening with your hub.
What you can do is push down on one crank and feel if the other crank rises up an equal amount. If both cranks are moving in unison then it’s a loose axle in the hub body. If the cranks move independently then it’s a loose crank and not a loose hub. It may take two people to test this. You may have to stand on one pedal while someone else holds their hand on the other crank and feels for movement. What you’re trying to determine is if the cranks are moving in unison or independently. It may take some force to get the cranks or axle to slip so it may not be easy. A bike shop would be a good place to go for a second opinion on the matter. Print out the pictures in Steve’s gallery so the bike shop guys can see how it’s put together, then explain the problem and see if they agree that the axle is loose.
If it turns out to be the hub then contact unicycle.com or the place where you bought the unicycle and find out what to do from there. If the hub is loose you can still ride it. You’re not going to damage the cranks. If you’re handy with shop tools and machining tools you can try fixing the hub by bonding the axle inside the hub body with epoxy. That would be a temporary fix until you can get a replacement hub, hopefully under warranty.
Ok, I just did what you said, I held the wheel in between my knees and pushed on the cranks. I can see now that both move in complete unisun without the wheel moving
So I guess the diagnosis is the axle is slipping in the hub huh? So should I send it back to unicycle.com (that is where I bought it) and get a replacement?
Thanks for all the help guys, I really am clueless when it comes to reparing something like this
Call unicycle.com and find out from them what to do. I’m not sure what process they have for replacing the defective hubs.
My guess is that they’ll have you ship the defective wheel back to them and then they’ll ship you a new wheel. Hopefully they’ll cover the shipping.
One option that would result in lower shipping costs would be to have them ship you just a new hub. You can have a local bike shop swap the hub and rebuild the wheel. Then you ship back the old hub. A local bike shop will probably charge somewhere around $30 to $40 to do that. But they’ll need both hubs so they can swap the spokes and keep the spokes in the same position on the new wheel. This option might be less than shipping an entire wheel back to Georgia and then shipping an entire wheel back to Denver. I don’t know if unicycle.com will consider this option. Most likely they’ll just have you ship the entire wheel back.
The advantage here (in addition to saving shipping costs) is that you’ll end up with a hand built wheel out of the deal. It will save you the $20 later of having your new wheel retensioned. Being in Denver you should have some very good local bike shops who can do the wheel build.
But for now you can still ride the uni. You’re not going to damage the hub more than it already is.
> One option that would result in lower shipping costs would be to have
> them ship you just a new hub. You can have a local bike shop swap the
> hub and rebuild the wheel. Then you ship back the old hub. A local
> bike shop will probably charge somewhere around $30 to $40 to do that.
If you want to come up to Fort Collins I’ll rebuild your wheel. No
charge. I do a quality wheelbuild (way better than the stock KH24).
Thanks Ken, I’d love to take advantage of your offer, but I think I’m gonna call up unicycle.com first to ask if they’ll ship me a new hub so that would work, or if I have to send the whole wheel back
If that’ll work out I’ll figure out some way to contact you
Ok, here’s the problem, I had a new wheel shipped to me by unicycle.com (sorry ken, I can’t have you just switch the hub ), and I’m supposed to switch it out with my current one. I have a couple of questions regarding doing this however:
How do you get the bearings off? They’re the only thing stil on the wheel, but I can’t get them off. Do I just pull really hard, or what?
When I’m reassembling the wheel, is there a certain amount of pressure I should put on the fork axle clamps?
The bearings on the KH hub should come off without too much effort. The bearings slip on the axle. They’re not pressed on like with the standard square tapered hubs. But even still, they may be a little bit stubborn to remove.
Try some light penetrating oil to loosen the bearings up. Try something like Tri-Flow or a similar oil. Note that WD-40 is not a lubricant and won’t give as good of results. Maybe after the oil has worked its way in you’ll be able to pull the bearings off by hand.
If that doesn’t work you can resort to a bearing puller like the Evercraft bearing puller. But that’s a little overkill for the KH bearings. You can find these bearing pullers at auto parts stores like NAPA. They’re used to remove pulleys from things like the power steering unit and the water pump. At the auto parts store they’re called a pulley puller. At the unicycle store they’re called a bearing puller.
The bearing clamps on the frame should be tightened so they’re snug but not tight. If you get them too tight the bearing won’t spin freely. If you get them too loose the bearing will wobble in the bearing clamp and the bolts will vibrate loose.
My rule of thumb is to just get them finger tight. Hold the allen key with your finger tips and tighten it up. If you make a fist around the allen key you are going to get the bolts too tight.
Screws (bolts) can generate a lot of clamping force with just a half or quarter revolution. There is a lot of mechanical advantage in the screw threads. It is very easy to get the bearing caps too tight. A little experimentation and you’ll get the hang of it and discover exactly how tight is just right.
Yay! My unicycle is finally in working order again
Luckily, my grandpa happened to have a bearing puller, so I was able to get the bearing off. Then putting the uni back together was pretty easy, and it works great! No creaking whatsoever (I hope it stays that way )
