While on my near nightly ride last night I managed to cripple my Stealth Torker. It was on a rather mild hop attempt up three stairs. While on my compression, my left foot went straight down sheering off my crank in the process. Yup, my hub is toast. For those of you looking at getting the Stealth, it’s a great cycle and I do recommend it. Just don’t expect it to take too much abuse. Before it broke I rode it down many sets of stairs, hopped up just as many stairs, did hundreds of 1.5 – 2 foot drops, and was in the process of learning to rolling hop. I was surprised it lasted as long as it did.
Now, I have to figure out what I’m going to do. First, I have to replace my fallen cycle. I was thinking about getting a 29er before my stealth broke. Now I have to decide if I want the 29er or a 24x3. I could always get a 20-inch Trials but I want something a little bigger and faster. So now, how does a 29er compare to a 24x3? I want to use it for distance on asphalt. But, I also want to use it for cross-country. MUni is where I’m eventually headed, but I don’t think I’d be doing anything too hard-core on the trails.
I’ll keep you posted on what I eventually do. Right now the two cycles I’m looking at is the Yuni 24x3 and the Yuni 29er. My LBS has the 24x3 for $310, does anyone have any experience with it? My other choice was to build up a 29er around a suz hub, Yuni frame, and KH saddle. However, when I priced it out, it was nearly the same price as the ready-made Yuni. How does that sound?
Given that you broke your Torquer you might well be better off with a 24x3. A 29 will be nowhere near as strong and I doubt it would hold up to the riding you’re doing now.
If you’re going to change directions and do faster, smoother stuff the 29 will be great, but if you keep jumping you’ll probably kill it.
On the other hand, I have four fingers and a thumb.
I’ve had the Yuni MUni with the 24x3 for a little over a month now and love it!!! I bought the 26’ frame because I’m running a Gazz. I’ve ridden both on and off-road and it seems to work very well for me. It is not all that heavy, even with the Gazz. I think you would most likely have a hard time destroying it. It is definately a good MUni for the price!!!
Well, I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do. I am leaning toward the 29er. I figured that the good thing about unicycles is that the parts are easy to change. I was thinking about swapping the hub, but that would be a lot of time and money (I don’t know how to build wheels and besides shipping the hub to Hawaii would cost me).
I was wondering if it would be bad to run a 24 inch MUni on a 28 inch Yuni frame.
By the way, I forgot to mention in my first post that in addition to snapping my hub, I also managed to shatter my pedal. They were cheap POS Redlines. At the time, I didn’t even know they were broken. While I was walking home, I was carrying the pedal and thought that it was digging into my hand a lot. I stopped under a streetlight, low and behold, the dang thing was broken. Not wanting to be a letter bug, and really wanting to take a pic of the parts, I went back to look for the pieces of my black pedal in the dark. Ten minutes of searching reviled that my pedal was in four pieces. I must say that I was quite proud of myself.
Thanks for the suggestions and keep them coming,
Daniel
You say that you sheered off the crank and that the hub is toast. Which is it? Both? I have always thought that the UniStar cranks were painted Lasco equivalents so I would expect them to go. Evaluating the hub is a bit more difficult. Is the hub really damaged? It would be nice to know what the weak link is in that unicycle. As far as I know, yours is the first case of destructive testing. Any chance for some photos?
A new 48 spoke Suzue hub would get that Torker back up and running. You could likely reuse the spokes. The flange size on the Torker hub and the Suzue hub look to be very close to the same size. A new Suzue hub is $30 and then figure about $30 for a wheel build.
Hmmm, 30 for the hub and 30 for the build. My friends got their Stealths for 65, I got mine for 80. I think I’ll just wait for them to go back on sale and get a a new one. It does seem like a waste, to have a complete uni with a broken hub. I will keep the parts and perhaps one day I can use it to practice wheel building (I have never done it before).
Harper,
Just to make it clear. My hub is destroyed. My crank is fine. Though I do have part of my hub stuck in it.
The real problem I’m having now is deciding what to replace it with. I understand that the bigger the wheel, the weaker it will be. So now my main concern is, will I be able to resist going down stairs and drops every time I see them.
Eventually, I would like to have a Trials, MUni, and 29er but for now I have to figure which one I want the most. I’m heading to my LBS after work today to check out the Yuni MUni again. Perhaps I’ll buy it.
The Suzue is a stronger hub than what came with the Torker. You have already demonstrated that the stock Torker hub is not strong enough for you so the Suzue would be a good upgrade.
Rebuilding a wheel is expensive. It gets to be even more if you have to get new spokes and a new rim. It can get to be over $100 for a complete rebuild (new hub, new spokes, new everything).
The price of the Stealth Torker is amazing especially considering the wheel that comes with it. Going to a bike shop and asking to get a new unicycle wheel built to the same specs as the wheel that comes stock on the Stealth Torker would cost more than the Stealth Torker.
Looks like I missed the photos. I need glasses or a brain … or both. Well, rats, I was hoping the hub survived. I’d hate to think that those cheap cranks are stronger than the hub.
I think the main reasons the hub broke was that it took repeated hits when I was learning to hop. Every time I tried to hop onto a wall and missed, I would come crashing down on the hub where the crank is attached. The left crank was the one that broke, and I do most of my hopping to the left when trying for max height.
I just returned from my LBS. The only non-Torker Uni’s they had were a Miyata freestyle and the Yuni Muni. I don’t think I’m ready for a Uni as big as the Yuni MUni with 3 inch tire.
I’m no chicken. I boldly stole your idea to replace the hub with a Suzue, expanded on it, and made it my own. No shame. I did it right out in the open.
I think you are. If you’re jumping up on things, riding down drops and riding down stairs you’re riding it hard enough to enjoy a 24x3 tire. The extra air volume gives it much more cush for jumping and drops.
If you’re doing street riding rather than dirt riding then consider the 24" slick tires.
There’s the Dyno Fireball. Unicycle.com has them for $75 which is a bit steep. But it’s a good tire.
Hopefully soon we’ll be able to get the 3G Hoggy-G. A 24x3 slick. See <http://www.3gbikes.com/> I’m guessing this tire will be in the $30 range.
There is also the Maxxis Hookworm 24x2.5. It’s $29, but does not have the volume of the 24x3 tires.
A 24x3 uni with a slick tire is an urban assault vehicle. You can cruise around, jump on things, jump off things, and just have fun. The 24" size makes it big enough that you can actually get somewhere, unlike the 20" Monty trials unicycles.
Re: My Stealth Torker has broken has a broken wing.
daino149 wrote:
> While on my near nightly ride last night I managed to cripple my
> Stealth Torker.
Hi Dan,
Man, I’m sorry to hear about your uni! Based on what I’ve seen of your
riding style when we visited, I think you need a good trials Uni with a
fat Monty tire.
I will send you photos tonight of our visit. I pulled them off the
camera yesterday.
Re: Re: My Stealth Torker has broken has a broken wing.
Hey Jason!
It was great to be able to ride with King MUni Man. I will be looking forward to seeing the pics. Hopefully next time you will be able to ride with us. By then I should have somesort of heavy duty cycle.
I don’t know if this helps or makes matters worse, but…
I’ve got a 20" stealth that I don’t even use. I really wanted the all-black miyata saddle for my Muni, and I managed to convince myself that I’d still use the Stealth - I was wrong.
So I would let it go for cheap - all but the saddle. The problem is, I’m in virginia and your in Hawaii and the shipping has to suck. You would know about shipping to Hawaii better than me. So, if you think its worth it, let me know and make an offer.
