The bike shop built my wheel on Friday and I spent a while there figuring everything out with how to put the uni together.
Initial problems:
The 2007 KH 29 frame fit on the bearings perfectly…but the bottom bearing holders that were shipped with the KH frame were definitely not the right size. I called unicycle.com to see if they may have accidentally sent the wrong bearing holders with the frame, but they informed me that all KH frames of that year are the same bearing size (42mm). It must have been a bad batch of bearing holders or something…
The guy at the bike shop went ahead and used a dremmel tool to sand/cut away a little bit off the bearing holder lip to make it fit perfectly. He spent his time and made the bearing holders fit on how they should. Andrew at unicycle.com told me that if there were any problems that he would glady send me new bearing holders, so I will see how this goes.
In the manual it says to make sure that the side of the hub with the metal/grooved bearing is clamped on really tight to hold the force of the hub while in high gear. I knew this and made sure to tighten down one side (which I thought was the metal side) really tight, and made the other side how I would normally tighten the bearing holders. while taking it for a test ride the gear slipped and did the same thing when I mounted. I was freaking out thinking that maybe the hub was defective or something. Then it hit me that I may have tightened the wrong side and after looking at the diagram I realized I did indeed tighten the wrong side. I made sure to tighten the grooved bearing side down really tight…as tight as possible (we also put loctite on the bolts). It has been riding smooth since! Scary to think that the gear could slip of those bolts came loosened though…something to make sure to check!
As with all cranks I had to retighten the cranks after riding for a few miles…my right crank was really loose. I took off the buttons and tightened the bolt and now they seem to stay tightened.
Things that were easy about the installation:
The button installation was really straight-forward. Very simple process…and I have been messing around with how far out the buttons go.
Now for the review:
This thing is amazing. I haven’t been on a guni since last year in New Zealand, and this new hub rides pretty much the same as the older versions I tried. I cant feel any significant difference in the play in the hub, but I would have to ride the std model and then the kh model back to back to actually test the differences. It is very easy to shift (like the std version) and I moved the buttons in a little bit further than they recommended so that it was a bit harder to shift. I can shift about 70% of the time now (it was in the upper 90s when it was easy), but I feel more confident about not accidentally hitting the shift buttons (which I have not done before).
The dual drilled moment cranks are great. I have tried it in both the 150mm slot and the 125 slot and I currently have it on the 125.
You definitely feel the wheel wobbling some in high gear (much like high speed wobbles with a coker with 150mm cranks), but I am sure I will get used to that. I was taking it for a test ride today with a friend on a bike with a cycle computer and in high gear I was comfortably riding 16/17 mph no problem…I didn’t try to max out my speed or really try to go too fast either. I see no problem keeping that speed for a long distance ride.
I also took the new guni offroad some. I rode up to a cycle path and then switched it to low gear right before the path turns into a steep downhill/grassy section and was able to go down fine. My friend had to dismount on his bike haha. I then rode on the gravel/dirt trail in low gear for about a half mile and came back out to the street and popped it into high gear. I was able to go down/up sections that I could never do on my coker with 125s.
Another plus about this beast is something that I saw Joe doing when I was riding with him in Christchurch last year. When I am riding in the road and come up to a stop light I switch it into low gear and idle by rocking back in forth. Then when the light turns I pop it into high gear and I am off. This is much easier than hopping in place with a coker with 114mm cranks!
Seat = miyata plastic base with GB4 stiffener plate and GB4 handles (not sold anymore). On top of the base I have a thin layer of foam from an old KH seat and on top of that I have the foam from a new KH freeride saddle with a leather cover laced on top of it to hold it all in place (sort of a frankenstein seat I came up with from parts).
The new Nimbus 36 sounds really awesome. Don’t get me wrong I am excited about my new geared 29, but the ungeared 36 is still an amazing ride and is such a great uni. I will be using both the geared 29 and the ungeared 36 for RTL.
You’re a bit ahead of me. I got my hub on Friday and now I have to figure out what other parts I need. I’ve got my tentative parts list below. One thing I’m not clear on is what spoke length I need. Can you post your parts list, spoke lengths, etc? I also don’t know what seat post diameter is needed for the KH frame – can you post that also?
29" big-apple tire – maybe the 2.00 model to reduce side slope problems?
Kris Holm 29-inch 36 Hole Rim-XC
Kris Holm 29-inch XC Cross-Country Unicycle Frame (perhaps overkill, but it’s guaranteed to work with the hub)
Spokes (not clear on what length - the installation guide says 242mm for 26" rim and 280mm for 28" rim, but I’m not sure what rim size the 29" rim really is)
Kris Holm Double Hole ISIS Moment Cranks 2007
Seat post and seat - I probably have a spare seat lying around, but I may need a different diameter seat post
Spare cranks I probably have
I am so looking forward to riding this. I’ve done enough riding on Reprah’s Blue Shift to know that a geared 29" is a really sweet ride, and I look forward to on-the-fly shifting.
Getting a bike shop to help with building is probably a really smart idea.
Big Apple tire (2.35) - I went for the larger diameter tire to make it a smoother ride and make offroad better. Also because Joe Marshall used that on his and I liked his set up. Anyone else have comparisons of the 2.35 vs the 2.0?
Seat post needs to be 27.2mm…I have the 27.2mm KH rail type seat post.
2007 KH frame (make sure to get the 2007 frame, not the 2005 frame)
I have noticed the grooved bearing on pictures. I did not realy like the metal/grooved bearing and that it have to be fasten tight. Maybe better with the standard hub and the torque lever?
No no no. The torque lever is a right hassle. Tightening up a bearing holder is way less hassle than fitting that darned torque lever. Plus the ability to use good frames with the new version without screwing your warranty is a big advantage too.
Oh and being able to change a tyre by just removing the bearing holders is good too.
No no no. The torque lever is hardly any hassle. And once it’s fitted, it never needs to be tightened up.
Ok, it’s not good that you can’t use any old frame with it, (although I would have thought that something like the jubilee clip thing that Schlumpf sell for their Mountain Drive system would work fine with a unicycle), but I really don’t find it a problem to carry a 10mm spanner.
It’s fiddly when you have to take the wheel off, it takes an extra few minutes to put the thing back together. Having changed the tyre / packed up the unicycle for travel at least 10 times now I’d love it if it didn’t have the silly torque lever to fit. Plus, you really need a 10 and 11 mm socket, one on each side, or else it can come loose. There’s no way in which the new system is going to be worse, I mean it shouldn’t come loose either, same as the torque arm.
