So I just got a shiny new unicycle. A lovely (completely stock base spec) Qu-Ax RGB 27.5" in red.
However as soon as I built it up I noticed a few things that had me concerned.
-
Firstly what’s up with the bearing holders? Why on earth is Qu-Ax obsessed with having the bolts centred to the clamp rather than centred to the bearing? When you tighten up the bearing holders they visibly stop being perfectly parallel to one another; the gap being slightly narrower on the crank side which puts uneven pressure on the bearing. This was an issue on the older Qu-Ax QX series but I had presumed that they would have changed this on the RGB series.
The bearings already felt somewhat gravely out of the box (not even in the frame, just rotating by hand to apply a light grease) like some of my other unicycles feel after a few years, so I’m not expecting they’ll live a long life!
Also, a blasted surface as a bearing surface? I’d expect this to be a flat machined finish, but perhaps this isn’t an issue at all. -
Secondly the zero Q cranks and the space in between them and the frame is pretty small. Now I understand that their goal here was to have a super narrow setup, but having ~4mm between the frame and cranks (145s -
on a related note UDC, your page for the 27.5 says 137s on the spec and 145s in the description - I was rather expecting 137s!) seemed a bit small. This issue then revealed its ugly head on my second ride out with the dog where I fell off the thing (still training the dog - he went for a sprint) and apparently put enough force on something for the frame and crank to smash into one another.
Getting home I presumed that I had done something wrong with the setup, but I couldn’t find anything. The bearing holders were tight (if anything erring on too tight), and the cranks were tight onto the splines, bottoming out on the spacers with the caps properly locked in as they’re meant to be. I’m doubtful this is user error but I’m open to the possibility if anyone has any ideas, especially as this is my first Q-Axle unicycle.
I also a bit over 60kg so if I’ve somehow managed to do this while having a UPD onto my feet on a flat grass field then it doesn’t seem impossible for others to have this issue. -
Thirdly quality control/build quality…
People say that the build quality/QC of KH unicycles has been going downhill, but how good is everyone else?
-The bearing caps appear to possibly have been cast (which is fine), but then not machined/finished afterwards - there’s unevenness on both of them in places. It’s not on a mating surface, a purely aesthetic issue, but I guess I expected better.
-The anodising on the seat post is weirdly uneven. It’s all been blasted in some manner for the matte finish, but there are streaky lines near the top that again I just didn’t expect. If it was a discolouration in a paint finish, it probably wouldn’t/shouldn’t have passed QC.
-There’s a tiny bit of raw aluminium visible on the frame near a weld where it looks like cleaning may have not been perfect so the anodising hasn’t gone quite right and there’s some visible bubbling next to it too.
-Metal shavings fell off the hub splines as soon as I took off the cranks. There’s no damage so it’s swarf left over from machining, and now it’s in my carpet. They were a fraction of a mm in diameter/size and maybe 10mm long - a good dozen of them on one side and a couple on the other. I own a vacuum, but they could have easily been missed and end up in a human or animal foot.
-The brake mount doesn’t fit in the handle without filing the corners. This is close, and you could force it to fit, but I’ve seen so many people strip inserts in saddles forcing things so this could perhaps do with being machined to better fit the shape of the saddle handle of the QX Eleven.
-The top of the frame where the seat post goes in is slightly oval with the edges of the clamping slot having a tendency to mar the seatpost. This is something I’ve seen a lot, and is a far bigger issue with steel frames, but why is this the case here? Are they all like this? Is there any post-processing done to try and mitigate the issue once the clamping slot is machined?
I noticed the issue and mostly managed to ensure the tube was circular and everything was well greased up for seat post insertion, but others may not know to be so careful. -
Fourth minor thing, why such crap pedals?
It’s a MUni. Ship some pedals that are grippier than an ice skating rink.
They’re obviously cheap pedals which is fine, and composite is a good option these days, but anybody who keeps these pedals doesn’t ride offroad, or just thinks that having almost zero grip is normal.
The Nimbus competition ship the version with metal pins on them at least.
I’d love to hear anyone else’s thoughts on the matter - is your RGB everything you ever dreamed of? Have you noticed anything similar?
I’m really not trying to just throw a load of negativity towards @qu-ax here as despite these issues it is a lovely unicycle. It’s fabulously lightweight (if seemingly a few hundred grams heavier than they say on the website, after chopping the seat post down a few inches), and I think that the spec they’ve put together is well considered and very practical for most riders.
I’m just a little disappointed having spent a big chunk of money here and it’s not as I expected.
