The 130/150/170 Kooka cranks I got from pdc have been an amazing addition to my 36-er setup. Kind of a lazy man’s guni, I can swap the pedals and adjust the seat in under 2 minutes, making the setup extremely adaptable on long rides.
I logged a lot of miles last summer and fall, and noticed I was spending the significant majority of my time at the 130 setting, using the 150s only for extended climbs, and the 170s only for long steep (brakeless) descents. Meanwhile, I was hearing more and more about the speed and distance advantages of even shorter lengths.
So I decided to get another set of holes drilled, to make the cranks 110/130/150/170. I finally got them set up on my Hunter 36 today, and boy are they fun. They’re 15cm shorter than the shortest I’ve ever ridden on a 36, and they were definitely a little squirrely at first. I need to log some miles, some climbing, and some free-mounting practice, but hopefully by spring I’ll feel as comfortable at the 110 length as I do today at the 130.
Hooray for short (with the ability to become long) cranks! Thanks again to pdc for having and executing on this idea in the first place. Glad I got 'em while the getting was good.
Great to see your having so much fun with those cranks.
Sorry, I missed the initial thread about these(if there was one), but can you tell me if PDC did the drilling, or did you go to a shop up in your neck of the woods for the drilling of the additional hole?
Are Kookas, the only cranks you can do this with? I know there hard to find.
I ask only for my own curiosity. I still don’t have a Coker, but the concept intrigues me.
There were actually a couple different threads started by pdc on this topic, but the original one is here. Do the “find all threads started by…” thing and you can see some of the other discussion. In all cases, pdc helped arrange for the drilling via a very skilled machinist. I thought about having the fourth set done locally, but decided it was not worth the risk, so sent them back to the original machinist and have no regrets with that decision. I think there are other cranks that would be okay for multiple drillings, but it’s not something I’ve ever researched. I hadn’t thought of the concept at all until pdc’s thread came along, after which I could think of little else. You can still find Kookas on ebay and other online sources, but they’re getting rarer. PDC just ran into a nest of them somehow, and was nice enough to secure the lot of them for the unicyclist community.
It fit perfectly…the outside of the hole closest to the hub exactly touches the “bend line” where the plane of the crank’s surface shifts slightly. I was too hopped up on pho when I did the job today, so forgot to take pictures of the cranks before they were mounted. We can pull the pedal for an official JC inspection as soon as we get together for that saddle-building session. This weekend perhaps?
The new 2008 DualCross Pro with the NiMH battery. They also have a diffuser option for the DualCross Pro now. The diffusers are lenses that stick (adhesive) to the stock lens and give a more wide angle light spread. Wider angle spread with an LED is nice. Very few LED lights have a wide angle option. I just got the light. I’m waiting on the helmet mount to get here (had to order it separately).
Tom,
They look great. Keep your shoe laces tucked in. I haven’t actively looked for old Kookas in a while. Were I to find some sets, I might do another round of them. If the Isis hubs become a 36er standard or option (is the Quax 36er Isis?), then the 2 hole KH cranks (125mm 150mm) would be very nice. If someone else comes up with some they need drilled I or Tom could put them in touch with a machinist. He has a jig made specifically for drilling that make of Kooka cranks. I have the tooling (drill and taps) and could make them avalable.
Well, getting towards the length anyway… surely 100s are the length!
Tom - How do you find the large amount of extra crank spinning next to your heel? At 110s setting you must be going quite fast - is there no fear of catching them on your foot?
You already have the £800 Schlumpf. Clicking the button costs nothing. Things don’t get much cheaper than that!
I thought the thread was about finding a machine shop or bike shop that could put threadded holes in cranks. The point being that there are other options to buying pre-drilled Kookas from the USA.
Thanks Sam…you are one of a few people that have inspired me to go shorter. I’ll look at the 100s after I have the 110s wired.
I have had zero problems with “the nub” while spinning. The only place it comes into play is during mounting. If your foot lands too far in on the pedal and you don’t adjust before the first trip around, the nub can knock your foot off when it comes around. The good news is you don’t have any speed going yet. The bad news is it makes you look like a klutz whilst mounting, but that is something I made my peace with long ago.
You can still find Kookas on ebay and other online sources, but they’re getting rarer. PDC just ran into a nest of them somehow, and was nice enough to secure the lot of them for the unicyclist community.
Glad to see you’ve joined the party!