Oh wow! 30 mm cranks. How big is your wheel? This would be challenging enough on a 12", barely ridable on an actual trip on a 16" and a monumental challenge on a 24" just to Mount it.
I suggest you make 50 mm or something holes instead just next to the other holes and give it a go, as one crank didnt work out.
Well, it’s unicycling. If he does manage to ride this, it would be awesome, but take a lot of work. Just like learning to ride all over again with amazing results.
I have a 32”, a 16” and a KH36” that’s supposed to arrive on Monday. I’m going to try to re-tap the existing hole and hope that it works long enough to try, but in order to get the pedal on I had to crank it pretty hard then it was nice and loose on the way back out and in. I’m going to try the 16” first
The 16" is a sensible choice! I a looking forward to a detailed Report. I am glad you managed to Mount both pedals! Your are probably going to conclude your experiment before the setup yields.
Are the 32" and the 36" even cottorless/square taper? There is absolutely no chance you will be able to get started on these even if they were, unless you are good at coasting and choose a downhill section Nothing would please me more than to be proven wrong through!
The 32” is square taper, I was only able to get the right side crank finished, the new left hand tap is supposed to arrive by mail on the 19th. It’s a running joke in the unicycle discord that I use mismatched cranks so someone suggested I use the tinny crank and a 175mm crank, I will do that tomorrow.
Now that sounds like a cool thing to do! I’m reconfiguring my kangaroo back to normal this evening (or tomorrow), so I may as well give this a try!
EDIT: So I took my 20er and mounted a 165mm crank on the left side - 114mm on the right side. Lowered the seat and hopped on the uni. The first revolution I rode backwards, then moved forward - as it happens sometimes after mounting. It was a tiny bit weird, but the 5cm difference was not enough for a proper WTF-feeling. First I was a bit surprised that the difference was more noticeable when riding forward than when riding backward. I guess it’s because I ride more smoothly forward than backward, so any deviations from the norm are more perceivable.
I normally use a 160mm on the right and 102mm on the left. It’s a personal preference because I live in a hilly area, I like to go fast but I need to be able to climb. If you want to actually try it the longer crank should go on your dominant side and you might have to experiment with length
Someone on the unicycle discord (TinyCrankz) was looking for a Schlumpf to put on their 20”, I know that Schlumpfs are hard to come by so I’ve been thinking about multi geared unicycles and came up with this. I need to play around with geometry to get everything working but overall are there any problems or suggestions? It may need to be mounted on a bigger frame but should still be able to use a 20” wheel
This is a very cool idea! I think this actually should be split into its own topic, for example “Idea for a geared unicycle”. As far as I can see from a quick search, similar topics are quite old. What do you think @Canapin ? Edit: I didn’t see that this olso exists in the current projects. Maybe my reply should be moved there?
I have also been asking myself why we can’t just make a geared uni as simple as a normal geared bike. And I bet a lot of others have as well. I hardly have any practical knowledge about this, but most examples of custom chain geared unis I have seen are for some reason far more complicated than that:
I also notice that both George Barnes’ geared uni and the Huni Rex has the chains running down on both sides. I don’t know why one chain should not be enough, like you suggest.
Some practical limitations i do see: You will obviously get a higher Q-factor.
You will, as you point out, need to find room for the “machinery”. And if you need a bigger frame than a 20" frame, why use a 20" wheel, and not a bigger wheel instead?
Also, if the machinery is on the outside of the frame, you risk damaging it when dropping the uni. It really doesn’t take much abuse to damage these parts even on a bike.
I think that’s an interesting idea. In fact, I have built a 20" Schlumpf wheel about two months ago. Unfortunately neither my QU-AX steel frame nor the Koxx 1 Karbon Koncept is useable with the Schlumpf. Well, I will hammer* the QU-AX to make the hub fit some day. But since I have some surgery to be done first, that’ll have to wait another month or two.
A G20 should make for a nice travel uni (like: a uni to take with you for your hollidays, not a uni to travel great distances).
*Actually, I will try and use a vise to flatten the fork legs.
Unless you want a coasting unicycle you can’t use a spring loaded chain tensioner. As soon as your pedal force goes the other way the tensioned side of the chain straightens out and the other side goes slack.
Single speed bikes vs. fixed gear bikes is the same problem.