I was examining my tire last night and noticed that I have a well worn
spot on only one location of the tire. The spot is in contact
with the ground when my right pedal is at 12:00 or slightly
beyond. I’m trying to come up with an analysis on why this
happened and could use your input. I will try to take note of my
riding habits next time I’m “up on top”. It may help to know that
I am relatively new unicycling and have been riding since January of
this year. At 285 lbs., I ride the United Trainer for large
adults with the 24x2.125 tire that John Drummond affectionately calls
the “Fat Boy” (love the name of the tire!). It’s a 40 psi tire
that I run with 60 psi. For the time being, I plan to rotate the
tire relative to the rim to a new spot to even out the tire wear.
Your well worn spot is from idling or turning. It’s common. Before it
gets really well worn, just let the air out of the tire and rotate it 60
or 90 degrees.
—Nathan
“Bruce Edwards” <yoopers@inwave.com> wrote in message news:3AF0585F.C1895CEA@inwave.com… Hi folks, I was examining my tire
last night and noticed that I have a well worn spot on only one location
of the tire. The spot is in contact with the ground when my right pedal is
at 12:00 or slightly beyond. I’m trying to come up with an analysis on why
this happened and could use your input. I will try to take note of my
riding habits next time I’m “up on top”. It may help to know that I am
relatively new unicycling and have been riding since January of this year.
At 285 lbs., I ride the United Trainer for large adults with the 24x2.125
tire that John Drummond affectionately calls the “Fat Boy” (love the name
of the tire!). It’s a 40 psi tire that I run with 60 psi. For the time
being, I plan to rotate the tire relative to the rim to a new spot to even
out the tire wear. Thanks for your help, Bruce
nathan@movaris.com writes: >Your well worn spot is from idling or turning. It’s common. Before it >gets really well worn, just let the air out of the tire and rotate it 60 >or 90 degrees.
I was just talking the other day about another solution: rotate the
cranks 90 degrees. On a coker, frex, you can easily remove the cranks,
rotate them 90 degrees, and replace them – much more easily than
rotating that humungous tire. On a little uni or one with different sorts
of cranks, do as Nathan recommends (above). Just remember to reinflate
after the rotation!
<!doctype html public “-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en”> <html> I
thought about rotating the cranks and even looked at it last night.
Problem is that the cranks are 1) difficult to pry loose (but probably no
more difficult than removing and relocating a tire on a 24"), and 2) gives
me only 90 degree increments of rotation. This argument may be
futile though as the tire may well wear out completely before I make it
through three 90 degree rotations. Last night, I removed and moved
the worn spot 30 degrees away. And yes, I did remember to begin
reinflating the tire but ended up waking my wife from the noise and
getting a scolding.
<p>Bruce
<q>David Stone wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE>nathan@movaris.com writes:
<br>>Your well worn spot is from idling or turning. It’s common. Before
it gets <br>>really well worn, just let the air out of the tire and
rotate it 60 or 90 <br>>degrees.
<r>I was just talking the other day about another solution: rotate the
cranks <br>90 degrees. On a coker, frex, you can easily remove the
cranks, rotate <br>them 90 degrees, and replace them – much more
easily than rotating that <br>humungous tire. On a little uni or one
with different sorts of cranks, do <br>as Nathan recommends (above).
Just remember to reinflate after the <br>rotation!
<s>david</blockquote> </html
nathan@movaris.com writes: >Hold on - are you speaking from experience or theory? After a few hundred >miles on my Coker, I decided to rotate the tire. Went over to Geoff’s >house where he has motorcycle tire levers and infinite tools. Got ready >for a big deal. Turned out though to be a trivial job. You don’t need any >special tools or strength or anything. It rotates easily.
Great to know, bc after I rotate the cranks as described below, I’ll only
have used about 1/2 the tire and am glad to know that less-than-90-degree
rotations won’t be difficult. I was speaking from theory mainly, since my
Coker is fairly new – only 250 miles or so. I think rotating every 600 or
so ought to do it. > > >The crank rotation idea sounds pretty good too, but you can rotate the >tire any amount instead of just 90 degrees and thus do it more than once. >In the case of my Coker, I have now ridden over 1000 miles on that same >tire after rotating. I think I learned to turn more smoothly and I don’t >idle very often.
I avoid idling – tough on the knees and even harder to do now that I
switched to 5" cranks. I have few sharp turns to make, either. As i
guessed above, rotating every 600 miles might be about right depending
on how you ride it. My tire looks pretty good for 250 miles. My
brother’s is flatter and will need rotation soon, but he’d got more
miles on his so far.
I wonder if the European tour folk will start with fresh tires or rotate
once on the ride – about 1,000 miles altogether. My brother is going on
that tour, so I’ll get the low-down from him this summer. > > >—Nathan > >“David Stone” <dstone@packer.edu> wrote in message >news:fc.000f4e67004e960d3b9aca008add4f86.4e962f@packer.edu… >> nathan@movaris.com writes: >> >Your well worn spot is from idling or turning. It’s common. Before it >gets >> >really well worn, just let the air out of the tire and rotate it 60 or >90 >> >degrees. >> >> I was just talking the other day about another solution: rotate the >cranks >> 90 degrees. On a coker, frex, you can easily remove the cranks, rotate >> them 90 degrees, and replace them – much more easily than rotating >> that humungous tire. On a little uni or one with different sorts of >> cranks, >do >> as Nathan recommends (above). Just remember to reinflate after the >> rotation! >> >> david >
Hold on - are you speaking from experience or theory? After a few hundred
miles on my Coker, I decided to rotate the tire. Went over to Geoff’s
house where he has motorcycle tire levers and infinite tools. Got ready
for a big deal. Turned out though to be a trivial job. You don’t need any
special tools or strength or anything. It rotates easily.
The crank rotation idea sounds pretty good too, but you can rotate the
tire any amount instead of just 90 degrees and thus do it more than once.
In the case of my Coker, I have now ridden over 1000 miles on that same
tire after rotating. I think I learned to turn more smoothly and I don’t
idle very often.
—Nathan
“David Stone” <dstone@packer.edu> wrote in message news:fc.000f4e67004e960d3b9aca008add4f86.4e962f@packer.edu… > nathan@movaris.com writes: > >Your well worn spot is from idling or turning. It’s common. Before it
gets > >really well worn, just let the air out of the tire and rotate it 60 or > >90 degrees. > > I was just talking the other day about another solution: rotate the > cranks 90 degrees. On a coker, frex, you can easily remove the cranks, > rotate them 90 degrees, and replace them – much more easily than > rotating that humungous tire. On a little uni or one with different > sorts of cranks, do as Nathan recommends (above). Just remember to > reinflate after the rotation! > > david
> Hold on - are you speaking from experience or theory? After a few > hundred miles on my Coker, I decided to rotate the tire. Went over to > Geoff’s house where he has motorcycle tire levers and infinite tools. > Got ready for a big deal. Turned out though to be a trivial job. You > don’t need any special tools or strength or anything. It rotates easily.
Nathan, I agree that rotating the tire would be best. But, I’ve tried 3
different times on 3 different tires to do this & always ended up having
to remove the wheel! The tube always sticks to the tire(s). I have patches
on all of my Coker tubes-could that be the problem or maybe I’m doing
something else wrong? I let out all the air, but it always sticks! Maybe
some Coker tires are slightly different sizes or maybe it sticks because
of the heat when I leave it out in the car or ??? because I can easily
rotate my Miyata tire. -Mark
Sounds familiar. Anybody else gotten a scolding for hammering on cranks
in the middle of the night and waking up the
family/roommate/significant other?
Joe Merrill
In a message dated 5/3/2001 12:57:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, yoopers@inwave.com writes:
> the worn spot 30 degrees away; And yes, I did remember to begin > reinflating the tire but ended up waking my wife from the noise and > getting a scolding. Bruce > >
<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>Sounds familiar.
Anybody else gotten a scolding for hammering on cranks in <BR>the
middle of the night and waking up the family/roommate/significant other?
<BR> <BR>Joe Merrill <BR> <BR>In a message dated 5/3/2001 12:57:11 PM
Eastern Daylight Time, <BR>yoopers@inwave.com writes: <BR></FONT><FONT
COLOR="#000000" SIZE=3 FAMILY=“SANSSERIF” FACE=“Arial” LANG=“0”>
<BR></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=2 FAMILY=“SANSSERIF” FACE=“Arial”
LANG=“0”> Last night, I removed and moved <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE
style=“BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT:
0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px”>the worn spot 30 degrees away; And yes, I <BR>did
remember to begin reinflating <BR>the tire but ended up waking my wife
from the noise and getting a scolding. <BR>Bruce <BR> <BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BR> <BR></FONT></HTML>
Sounds familiar. A true sign of the obsessed unicyclist. Anybody else
gotten a scolding for hammering on cranks (or engaging in other unicycle
maintenance/activity) in the middle of the night and waking up the
family/roommate/significant other?
I always coat the tube and inside of the tire with talc powder (baby
powder). That keeps the tube from sticking to the tire when you rotate the
tire. The talc powder also makes it easier to get a new tire on without
accidentally pinching the tube.
Rotating a Coker tire on the rim is real easy if the tube is coated with
talc powder.
I try to avoid taking the cranks off a unicycle. Every time you take the
cranks off you run the risk of not getting the cranks on just right and
having them come loose on the next ride. Once the cranks are tight I like
to leave them alone.
john_childs
> >Nathan, I agree that rotating the tire would be best. But, I’ve tried 3 >different times on 3 different tires to do this & always ended up having >to remove the wheel! The tube always sticks to the tire(s). I have >patches on all of my Coker tubes-could that be the problem or maybe I’m >doing something > >else wrong? I let out all the air, but it always sticks! Maybe some >Coker tires are slightly different sizes or maybe it sticks because of >the heat when I leave it out in the car or ??? because I can easily >rotate my Miyata tire. -Mark
>I agree that rotating the tire would be best. But, I’ve tried 3 different >times on 3 different tires to do this & always ended up having to remove >the wheel! The tube always sticks to the tire(s). I have patches on all >of my Coker tubes-could that be the problem or maybe I’m doing something >else wrong? I let out all the air, but it always sticks! Maybe some Coker >tires are slightly different sizes or maybe it sticks because of the heat >when I leave it out in the car or ??? because I can easily rotate my >Miyata tire.
I always apply talcum powder to tubes before putting a wheel together.
Tubes given this talcum poowder treatment have never stuck on me. :0) Do
apply liberal amounts to the bare tube inflated enough to maintain its
shape; the excess will fall off onto the floor or ground. I also pour some
talcum powder into the bare tire and rotated it, oscillating it from side
to side to cover every square inch of the inside of the tire. Every time I
remove a tube and tire, I repeat this treatment, though not as thoroughly
the second, third … time, since most of the talcum powder is still there
from previous treatments.