Hello I got myself a coker this week, once I got the heavy wheel rolling
it felt great! To bad it’s soon to cold for long distace riding…
One of the bearings is loose, so it can be moved a little along the axle.
This makes the bearingholder touch the crank, resulting in a unpleasant
“grinding” sound, and worse, the feeling of “metal friction” is transfered
straight up to my spine.
There is also more room between the frame and the other crank, the axle is
not centered in the frame.
I assume the long fork is not supposed to be so stiff it holds the bearing
in place by itself.
Should I pound the bearing onto the axle? What about the risk of
damaging it, use of grease, etc…?
Should I use loctite or similar? But I would like to be able to
remove/replace the bearing in the future
My Coker did about the same thing after 25-30 miles. I removed the left crank and removed the dust cap from the right crank. I put the right crank on a piece of lumber on the floor. I found a piece of copper pipe with ID about equal to the ID of the inner race of the bearing. I pounded the bearing back onto the axle.
The fork is not so springy that it should push the bearing back away from the bearing stop, the lip on the axle against which the bearing rests. But it seems to do just that. Mine is starting to drift again after only another 10 miles.
The folks at unicyclesource.com in the U.S. (from whom I bought the Coker) have offered to send me new bearings and some Loctite which they now recommend applying. On my Coker, the left and right bearings were from two different manufacturers.
I got my Coker last week and had the same problem.
I bent the frame inwards and also added 12mm long hard plastic tube
between crank and bearing. The plastic tube was about 1mm longer for the
space so that the tube compressed a bit when I tightend the crank. I also
drilled a small hole in the middle of the tube in order to avoid water
condensation.
My Coker had the same problem with bearing slippage.
Use Loctite. Even with the high strength or permanent Loctite you’ll still
be able to easily remove the bearing using a bearing puller (an automobile
pulley puller). If you can find the high strength Loctite sleeve retainer
use that, otherwise use the permanent strength red threadlocker.
To get a good bond with the Loctite you need to make sure the parts are
clean and free of any oil, grease, dirt, etc. before applying the Loctite.
Loctite sells a primer that will clean the parts and will actually help
increase the strength of the bond. If you can find the primer use that to
clean off the parts before applying the Loctite.
When replacing the bearing use a small piece of pipe that has the same
diameter as the inner racing of the bearing to press the bearing on. You
want to only press on the inner racing, don’t press on the seal or the
outer racing. You can use either a hammer or a large C clamp to press the
bearing on.
john_childs
>From: e00_spa@e.kth.se (Staffan Palm) > >Hello I got myself a coker this week, once I got the heavy wheel rolling >it felt great! To bad it’s soon to cold for long distace riding… > > >One of the bearings is loose, so it can be moved a little along the axle. >This makes the bearingholder touch the crank, resulting in a unpleasant >“grinding” sound, and worse, the feeling of “metal friction” is >transfered straight up to my spine. > >There is also more room between the frame and the other crank, the axle >is not centered in the frame. > >I assume the long fork is not supposed to be so stiff it holds the >bearing in place by itself. > > > Should I pound the bearing onto the axle? What about the risk of > damaging it, use of grease, etc…? > > Should I use loctite or similar? But I would like to be able to > remove/replace the bearing in the future > > >Grateful for any suggestions > > Staffan Palm, Sweden e00_spa@e.kth.se