The cranks are held on with a crank bolt…I am not sure if it is a standard isis bolt since I have never used isis cranks before this. The buttons go on after you screw the bolt on tight. The manual says to turn the button two times then push it in and continue turning it until it is flush with the crank. Then you take the small screw and twist that inside the button while holding the button with the tool (much like the older buttons I am assuming).
I think the only difference is that the buttons are stronger and the screw that holds them on is a larger diameter (I never saw what the old screw looked like though).
Hey that’s AWESOME! I personally have a Nimbus 36 (“old,” from October '07) that absolutely rocks, but I’ve been pining for a higher gear. I can hold around 14-15 on it, and hills are awesome, but I still need bigger… that 29er is like a 44", no? Mewants!
I’m also planning on getting a hub. I emailed Florian and Kris about how I’d get the ISIS hub in a 36" (I’d break the road hub so fast…) and Kris and I have figured out a way; I can’t wait for Florian to get back to his office tomorrow so I can finish out the order with him! I only hope there are some left in February’s batch! I also think I’m going to get the 137/165 double-drilled cranks. 137s should be a great low gear and a great cruise high gear for the road, whereas 165s should be a great MUni crank length for riding off road in low-gear, and switching up to 54" mode on some XC stuff with 165s and a break might work pretty well, too. I think 125/150’d be going too short… this is actually a bit of a dillemna… posts thread.
It’s going to be superly awesome to see all the goods at RTL this year, eckspeckially all the new geared unis, of which I’m sure there will be far more than few.
Here’s the photos I took a few months ago; http://www.sowen.com/button/index.html
(the coke bottle top is there for size reference - it’s not really part of the fixing )
I’ll take some photos of the parts and axel nuts and everything the next time I take off the buttons and check to see if the cranks are still on tight. The axel nut goes on with a 6mm hex wrench. The little screw that holds the button on goes in with a 2.5mm hex wrench (all included).
What was the solution that you worked out with Kris/Schlumpf in order to fit it to a 36" wheel? I would be interested in hearing what frame/bearing holders and spoke length/configuration was recommended.
As far as crank size goes…I guess it is tough, but I would think the 125/150s would be a bit nicer for a geared 36. My view would be that the 125s would only be used when you knew you were going to keep it in low gear. If you were going to be shifting with low and high gear you would use the 150mm slot. 125mm cranks on a geared 29er feel pretty good to me for road use, so I would assume 150mm cranks on a geared 36 would also feel pretty good. I tried 150s out on a geared 36er that used one of Harper’s hubs and it felt about right. The 165s would probably be a lot easier to control though and Hans Fiby actually uses 170mm cranks on his geared 36 and says he enjoys that size a lot more than anything smaller. He is also a tall guy.
The 165s would be better for offroad coker riding though as you said. I personally have never tried off road cokering with anything larger than 150mm cranks, but I am sure you would have more control with the 165s.
Just try out what you feel will be best (135/165) and you can always get the 125/150s later
36" KH frames will be available in late June, but unfortunately not quite in time for RTL. Design on that frame will be similar to the existing frames except that the seat tube has been dropped through the fork crown.
I had a single prototype 36" frame lying around so mailed it to Chuck to get him going on the 36’er geared hub. So he got a bit lucky on that one =). Unfortunately that’s the only one I had, except for one other that I previously mailed to someone in Europe.
I did get lucky (Jeez, thank you Kris!!)… BTW, I just ordered a hub and both sets of double-drilled cranks from Florian, and he says about two weeks 'till they’re done. I figure I’ll sell the crankset I use least and try to make some of the money back on it.
I think that the best way to get a geared hub going in a 36" frame, other than a KH36 frame, is to weld some 42mm holders on to the Nimbus like Corbin was saying; you’ll just have to make sure to angle them very slightly more “outwards” than the existing bearing holders, considering that the frame was designed for the UDC superwide, which is wider than the geared hub. Then, when you bend the forks together to fit the narrower hub, the bearing holders will still both face in the same direction. Well, maybe that difference isn’t enough to really cause a problem… but it’s crossed the minds of myself and others in the past.
And re: the frame, LOL; I just PMed Corbin telling him what Kris just said, thinking that maybe Kris didn’t want people to know (you become accustomed to secrecy when Apple news and stuff are your non-uni, non-school ways of spending your time :-P), but I guess he doesn’t care as much after all. Thinking that it could be confidential, I probably overstepped my bounds by even mentioning it at all, so, for that, I be sorry Kris. :(. And I can’t thank you enough for your frame! (BTW, your check should arrive any day now!)
@siafirede, did you ever ride offroad in high gear? I think it’d be so amazingly sweet to take something like that out on a smooth, long, rolling-terrain singletrack/XC trail and just let the speed fly…
ALSO (one more question!) Do you think you’d be able to shift at speed as in, going faster than you’d be able to stop from in one pedal revolution (so you really have no choice but to try to hit the button as your foot comes around)? It seems like the sudden change in cadence would make me either accelerate or decelerate very quickly as my legs changed rotational speed due to the new force (or lack of force) from the pedals, which could cause a quite a healthy UPD, especially from a 29 or 36.
I have used it in highgear on smooth offroad tracks, but sometimes it seems easier just to have it in lowgear and spin faster on the offroads. It is definitely harder in high gear to control, but depending on the terrain it is doable.
As far as shifting at speed…I don’t plan on shifting from high gear to low gear when I am traveling very fast…that just seems like you are asking for a UPD. I have shifted while riding 8mph-10mph though and it isnt too big of a deal to change your cadence to a faster speed. Same thing with the low to high…you really don’t want to shift when you are spinning really fast in low gear because you wont have as much control in the shift as when you are going a controlled speed. For the most part when I want to shift I slow down and then do it…it is much safer this way.
I find shifting very easy, but others have experienced trouble getting used to it. Make sure to take your time with it and stay within your limits. I still would not recommend shifting at full speed while either in low or high gear.
Maybe I misinterpreted your question, but I hope that answers it.
Yeah, that helps, thanks you. The 8-10mph figure does it for me.
That means that I’ll (hopefully) be able to get going in low gear and shift to high gear, say, at the crest of a hill, without having to slow down much. Also, being able to use the low gear as a way to slow down from the high gear would be cool (yeah, a brake is necessary, though, I knowww!)
I don’t know how necessary a brake is…I think that it would be detrimental to your riding technique. If you are cruising fast in high gear and you use a brake to help slow down I think that is worse than slowly using your legs to slow down. In the scenario where you have to stop suddenly…it is better to jump off than to use the brake anyway. The brake will come in handy on hills though with controlled descents…but I still don’t think you should use it for stopping in high gear.
That’s funny because my opinion is the exact opposite. To stop suddenly or normally with 125’s on my coker I find a brake to be very useful. I’d say even more so on a geared 36er. I think it depends on the type of brake and rider skill.
On the geared uni I’ve found a brake very useful because otherwise it can take a long time to stop in second gear. Plus, offroad riding on a 29’er benefits hugely from having a brake for descents, regardless of gearing.
I don’t remember if it was Joe or Ken who said this, but he said that it was faster to use first gear w/ a 29 on off road. Joe said he’d use second gear on scary fast downhill fire roads.
I’d agree with that. Second gear on the 29’er seems just too high for most singletrack unless it’s low angle and really easy. Mostly I’ve gone into 2nd gear on fire roads or commuting to/from the trail.
I agree that a brake can be very useful and I would definitely use it for descents and offroad riding…but I do not see myself using the brake to slow down or stop while riding on the road and not going down hill. If I am on flat ground in high gear riding fast, I would not use a brake to slow down if I wanted to stop in a short amount of time/distance. I currently do not do this on my coker, but maybe with the guni it is different…When I put a brake on my guni I will mess around with this though and see if it does indeed help slowing down while in high gear.
This is true, it is faster to spin in low gear offroad. However if the trail is very smooth and flat I think high gear would be faster. It all depends on the trail, but I would agree that most singletrack is going to be faster in low gear. I haven’t had much experience with it yet. I will write a full review once I ride the guni more this weekend.
The unicycle.com site really doesn’t make this easy. They sell the KH frame but they don’t say what year it is, so I’m just going to have to take it on faith that it’s the 2007.
The site doesn’t say what length the spokes they sell are. Should I just grab these at my local bike store?
They also don’t seem to sell the 2.0 Schwalbe tire. Given my desire to get everything from one place I might just get the 2.35 for now.
Can you tell that I don’t usually assemble unicycles from individual parts? I usually buy them in one piece, or buy them after Tom Blackwood has assembled them and added nice accessories.
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