My, how many new Coker riders are there? I’m one, too.
Another positive vote for John and the UnicycleSource!
On to the quality.
The wheel is true, but the rim seems a little rough. I can see the weld and some
other areas that were obviously touched up with a grinder after fabrication and
before plating. I can’t see any rust, but the plating looks as though it will
require some extra care in order to make it last. I’ve cleaned the rim
thoroughly and polished it with my product of choice. The axle, bearing, and
whatever that middle part of the wheel is called seem of better quality than the
rim, which makes me think that Coker obtains the middles from conventional
sources, and has the rims themselves fabbed in small runs as demand requires.
Overall, I figured that there’s gonna be some degree of fragility in a wheel
that size, but it’s surprisingly stable!
I’ve seen better crank castings, but I’ve seen worse. The pedals grip the
bottoms of my sneakers pretty good even when moderately wet.
The fork required a shim (.020 inch) on the right side to get the alignment
right (which contributed to the stability of the wheel). Plating’s considerably
better than the rim, but it got a clean and polish anyway. Welds look good, a
bit of roughness at the very top on both sides, no problem.
The seat’s similar to the Schwinn I’m used to. The seatpost is too short.
(John’s getting me another, 300mm, which I’ll probably have to shorten a bit to
accommodate my 34-inch inseam. The clamp seems serviceable and holds the
seatpost securely even though I’ve got the post extended as much as I dare.
Overall, to me, the Coker is a good buy. I’ve only had it a couple of weeks and
ridden it perhaps 50 miles, so I guess we’ll see how it holds up…
What an amazing ride this thing is!
Rick Plavnicky plav@eclipse.net from my box to yours
<URL:mailto:plav@eclipse.net><URL:http://www.eclipse.net/~plav/