Just thought I’d post an update after a few more days’ use.
I put the 145mm cranks on and they suit me much better for my usual route - I think it’s just too rough and hilly for the 125s, at least until I get MUCH more used to them on the flat first. I also changed the brake blocks (cheap ones that came with the BMX brake) for some decent Aztec ones and the braking is now extremely smooth and controllable, meaning I can ride faster down steep hills without the feeling of losing control.
The lighter weight of the wheel is very noticeable, making the unicycle feel much easier to ride and balance, especially on the rougher parts of the route.
An unexpected bonus is that I really like the reduced Q of the standard width hub. I had a super-wide hub in my old wheel and was a bit concerned it might end up too flexy with a normal one, but I wanted to use ISIS cranks so it had to be a normal hub. I know a few people who ride normal width hubs with no problems, so decided to go for it. Wheel flex is no more than my old tank-like wheel, and the narrower Q feels really nice to ride (it’s actually even narrower than my muni because I’m using QuAx straight cranks). I didn’t think I’d notice the difference (it’s only an inch narrower after all, and I’m quite tall), but I’m sure it feels better.
So, overall I think it was a very worthwhile upgrade. I’m still no sprinter on a coker (although my top speed has been up about 1mph to 16mph on the new wheel), but my actual average speeds and journey times have improved noticeably. Now to find somewhere flat to get used to those 125s…
I would not mind having the pedals less apart. My 36er has the super-duper wide hub mainly because I belive the size craves it. If someone can convince me that the wheel won’t become weaker with the normal hub I will relace it. I just hurled my (very) Q-ed quax cranks into the lake (yes, figuratively). Having to pedal in cowboy-fashion is a nuisance.
The wheel is certainly slightly stronger with a wider hub - nobody can deny that, it’s just a fact. But I reckon it’s strong enough with the normal width hub, and if the spokes are nice and tight the flex isn’t bad either. I think the people who complain about wheel flex are mostly using Magura brakes, which needs to be set up quite close to the rim. With a caliper brake the pads can be set up much further apart, so brake rub isn’t a problem. I can JUST get the rim to brush the brake while honking it up a really steep hill, but it’s really not a problem. I swapped to a normal width hub on my new wheel purely because I wanted to use ISIS cranks, not because I was unhappy with my old super-wide hub, but since I’ve had it I do like the feel of the lower Q. You could try some straight cranks on your existing hub - my old hub with straight cranks had about the same Q as my muni with ProWheel cranks. My new ISIS hub with straight cranks is considerably narrower than the muni.
The longer your legs are, the less you should notice a given change in Q, but I’m fairly tall and I’m sure the narrower hub feels nicer to me.
I have another reason to downgrade to normal hub - my spokes are a tad too short for the airfoil rim. A smaller hub would get them a little further into the nipples. But on the other hand I have maguras and the reason for me upgrading to airfoil, super-duper hub and nimbus frame in the first place was that the brakes were chafing the rim. So I better brood some more on the matter before I take any action.
Only by a miniscule amount - probably hardly noticeable.
You’ll certainly get a bit more flex with a narrower hub, leaving the rest of the components the same. With the amount of clearance you get with Maggies (i.e. not much) you may need to keep the flex to an absolute minimum, which means using a wide hub. All the people I know who use normal width hubs in cokers have caliper brakes, so I can’t comment on whether it can be made to work satisfactorily with Maguras.
If you’re not using straight cranks then just doing that would be an improvement - as I said, my setup with super-wide hub and straight cranks was no wider than my muni with ProWheel cranks. I don’t think I’d be desperate to swap to a narrower hub if I wasn’t buying a new wheel anyway, and given that you use Maggies I’d say the extra bit of stiffness with the wide hub probably outweighs any benefit from the Q reduction in your case.
Yes I have switched to an old pair of alu cranks that are straight. The qu-ax prowheel cranks made distance between pedals almost absurdly wide.
I think you’re right about the spokes and the nipples, the narrower hub won’t do much difference. So I will stick with it at least until next upgrade which I hope to be a stealth rim with ss-spokes.
Or – if someone cares to invent it – a 36" carbon fibre wheel.
I think somebody may be working on one. Dave (kington99) mentioned to me last weekend about somebody making a cf coker frame with blade-type forks, like a road bike fork. Should look nice if nothing else.
really? that would be cool, I’ve been researching doing up a carbon fiber rim and frame but the fact that I’m a poor teenager affects my ability to try anything as far as actual production.
My first impression was “I’m not impressed with this ugly white!”. Because there was no choice of black in NZ. Replacing a black Airfoil in a black frame seems a bit silly.
My first problem when getting my wheel built was finding spoke washers. On my previous wheelbuild I had a lot of snapping spokes problems due to the Coker hub being designed to take 13 gauge spokes- so the ends of the 14 gauge spokes would wriggle around in the holes. I managed to find stainless steel washers easy enough but in my opinion they should come with the spokes and come with advice on using them since it was only $2.
The weight saving is nice, but at what cost? If you ever get a puncture how the heck are you going to take the tire off? It took me 3 tire levers to get the damn thing on- resulting in a pinch flat. I got it off and on, fixed with a slow flat left over, and snapped my tire lever trying to get it back off. Now I am going to order Nylon coated steel core tire levers from England to get this ridiculously tight tire off, negating most of the weight savings if I carry them. If I am ever in an endurance race and I get a flat tire I will probably have to give up instead of fixing it cos I am not looking forwards to taking it off again.
In my opinion this might have happened due to the bad batch of Airfoils. They were made the wrong size and some people’s tires popped off at high pressure I think- so they went and made the Stealth pro the wrong size bigger- so they are not practical!
I’m sick of hearing the old excuse from manufacturers that “It costs too much to make a new tire/rim and there are not enough unicyclists”. I reckon if one was available, I’d use a tire that is similar to 700c, but around 40" or 42" in size. Make a Carbon or alloy rim. We have had so many new combinations of 36" tires and rims but very little innovation- basicly the same thing but a few grams different. There was obviously a lot of money to be made or they wouldn’t make so many different sorts- airfoil, coker, stealth pro, wheel ta, nimbus nightrider etc. All these wheels are basicly designed to be ridden offroad- we need a lightweight high pressure road version! And a new narrow innertube to match!
Maybe I don’t understand how difficult it would be to mount such a tire/rim combination and have it stay on successfully.
I get the feeling unicycle.com is there to make money off us rather than to serve our needs sometimes.
My TA tyre isn’t a particularly tight fit on my Stealth rim. In fact, the first time I fitted it I was going to pump it up hard to seat the rim, but it blew off the rim at less than 50 psi. That’s not a problem to me because I never run my tyre over 30psi anyway. I can’t fit it without a tyre lever, but plastic levers (just normal Park ones) are enough for removal and fitting.
Perhaps the Nightrider tyre is a tighter fit.
And I quite like the white finish (and that’s coming from somebody who would usually go for black everything)
The nightrider and stealth pro rim fit quite nicely, not hard to put on but a solid fit and can easily pump up to 80 PSI without it blowing off. (I’ve never had it blow off, but I have gotten it up to 80 PSI in case you misread the previous sentense.)
I have a new KH 36 with the normal width ISIS hub, 125 QU-AX arms and Airfoil rim - and coming from the superwide hub, I was worried about the amount of wheel flex I was seeing and yes with the Magura brakes, there was some rubbing, but most of the rubbing was while idling, so I adjusted the brake pad on the side I idle on to be further away from the rim. I do like the lower Q with this new set-up and after several hundred road/commuter miles, it appears to be holding its true.
Brycer1968
