Has anyone broken there Nimbus ventures?
I stripped the pedal threads on the inside of the crank (not sure how that happened) within a month and a half. The pedal threads on the outside were fine, but the inside ones were toast.
I called UDC, and they sent me another pair on warranty. They said it was only the 2nd time they heard of the Venture cranks failing.
My new pair has worked great and no problems thus far. Although the biggest drop I’ve tried has been 45".
Within 20 days of use, I also stripped the threads of my ventures. I thought it might be because of the cheap pedals.
UDC replaced the cranks and pedals so I’ll find out soon enough.
that is interesting as a young rider here who bought a Nimbus ISIS Trials with the Venture cranks has also had the same problem re threads.
hwo do they hold up to light to medium trials anyone???
Not sure how long they’ll last…
Hi all (here’s my first-ever post);
I just received my Nimbus X Street cycle yesterday w/ Venture 125mm cranks attached. (Standard configuration for U.S. UDC.) I would have preferred to have upgraded to Moments, but they were out of stock when I ordered, so I settled on the Ventures. After close inspection & pedal installation, I’m guessing that the Ventures won’t hold up nearly as well as the Moments.
Why?
As I discovered from first-hand inspection, the Ventures are all aluminum and don’t have the threaded cro-mo insert (that holds the pedal stems) that the Moments do.
Also, while carefully installing the first pair of pedals (Odyssey Twisteds) on the cranks, I noticed a good bit of resistance and “crunch” as I slowly screwed the pedals into the cranks. I suspect most of this crunch was due to the anodization/paint (?) on the crank threads, but it seemed excessive and made me wonder if I was doing permanent damage with this initial installation. (The pedal stems were NOT cross-threaded.)
Finally, as I “cranked down” on the pedal wrench to send the pedals home I couldn’t help but wonder how much tougher cro-mo steel is than 7075 T-6 aluminum. I’ll bet it’s a LOT tougher. Consequently, if the pedal stems are NOT super snug in the cranks, with each revolution of the wheel the pedal stem will wear away at the crank thread, little-by-little. If the fit was perfect and there wasn’t any play whatsoever there wouldn’t be any wear. Alas, I fear this is not the case. I suppose the best bet is to tighten the pedals in the cranks as snug as you can (without so much force that you shear the threads), and keep them tight with the occasional pull on the pedal wrench. (It may even be advisable to use some locktight goop, but that may present a problem upon removal.)
At any rate, time will tell if the cro-mo wins and the 7075 T-6 loses…
Oh yeah, one last thing, the cranks are very light indeed (a good thing), thanks to the “cut-aways” on the “wheel side” edges, and a tapered cut around the two hubs. However, these cut-aways and tapers make for a somewhat more rounded, more narrow, and not completely flat platform on the “tops & bottoms” of the cranks when the pedals are at 3 and 9 o-clock (a bad thing). Consequently, I suspect a lot of serous street/trial/flat riders would be better off starting with Moments. But what do I know – I can barely hop.
And that’s my $0.02.
Uni-On!
UPD in Utah
keep your wheel on the right direction, left crank on the left, and right crank on the right at all times if you have these cranks… and you want them to last.
Since I received them for testing in May, they have been holding up pretty good, except a slight bend from a quite big drop with a bad landing technique. I rode them for medium, some big trials (mostly drops and gaps) and big street. But if you are planning on buying the 152 mm cranks, I can’t tell you for sure that they will be as strong as the 127 mm ones, for obvious reasons.
Thanks for your great inspection/review. You may want to talk about your issue with UDC USA. In any case, I will tell Pete at UDC Canada about these problems you noticed and see if he can do anything (in the long term). I have yet to remove my pedals from my cranks, but when I will do so, I will see if I am having troubles.
Personally and like I said in my first review, I consider these cranks as a cheaper alternative to Moments. There is no doubt the KH’s are stronger and are better built than the Venture, but they offer a lighter option to technical street and trials riders. Sincerely, I don’t think the point of Nimbus is to compete with Kris Holm.
As for the cut-aways you are talking about, I have never hit my malleolus on them, but this might be because I am so used to Profiles. I even find them helpful for flat riding, a bit like the rollo disks.
Thanks for your input,
Hugo
Most cranks (bike or unicycle) don’t have steel inserts for the pedal threads. If you’re looking for absolute maximum strength, then the inserts obviously help (as long as they don’t come loose themselves of course), but pedals don’t eat away the threads in aluminium cranks like you fear. People have been riding bikes with steel pedals screwed into alumimium cranks for decades, and the pedals don’t drop out. Repeated removing and refitting of the pedals gradually digs into the front face of the crank in my experience, but the threads have always been fine.
If the threads are badly cut and/or filled up with paint that’s not good though.
Rob
Im kinda thinking people probably screw the pedals in whithout thinking too much and end up stripping the crank. Then they come here and blame something else like their awesome trials skill…
I have some on order. when I get them I will put a review up on them…
so, has anyone had new results on their ventures? no busting them on technical muni?
I was going to post a new thread, but it seems like everyone is sharing their thoughts here.
Ive got a Nimbus II on the way, and I was wondering if it was worth it to upgrade the cranks to the Ventures, or if the stock ones will do? What are the main differences in the two?
just upgrade to KH moments if you want cranks that will never brake…
But I have just paided for some nimbus veturens that I’m picking up today after school 
and a 09 KH rim lol dont ask about the rim
Just as a followup post as the Nimbus 20" ISIS Trials has become the standard uni pretty much for the local kids here who catch the uni bug.
As I mentioned for one young guy half the thread in both cranks (esp the half toward the pedal) was pretty well mashed after a couple of weeks, sounding similar to what other guys have posted here. Not really a stripped thread look, more a destruction.
FWIW the other day I assembled a Nimbus 20" for another guy here and noticed that there is a LOT of slop (too much IMO) in the Venture crank threads, even with the pedals almost fully in.
Think the message is if you’re running Venture cranks - which are a pretty cool, cheap, light alternative to Moments - keep them tightened just right.
I second that. I swapped my pedals recently and they didn’t really fit flush against the crank so I didn’t tighten them quite enough (I thought if I cranked em down tight that the pedal would chew up the face of the crank). Within 5 minutes of riding they were very loose. I tightened them as I should have in the first place and they have been perfect good ever since.
Now if you were out bashing around and didn’t notice it, you would destroy the cranks easily. I only noticed it because I was riding on the smooth pavement and something didn’t feel right, if I was riding out on a trail I could have easily missed it.
Keep em tight!
I’ve just built up my new wheelset and put verturens on going to test them tomorrow doing trials… post about it then NZ time
Didnt want to start a new thread so im gonna put my review for the 125mm ventures.
SOOO i got my ventures because i had 137 moments and i wanted to see how i would like smaller cranks and i wanted to make my uni lighter. I love the smaller cranks so thats a plus. I also liked how they were lighter to. I ride big street so i was kinda worried about my cranks after doing some more research into the ventures. The biggest set i hit with the ventures was a 7 set and they held up just fine with that. I then flipped a 6 and i landed funky on the pedals and slipped off. To my surprise i noticed that my cranks actually twisted inward… very weird. I can still ride just fine with the cranks like that but i got some KH 125’s in the mail so ill switch them out once i get them.
I had my cranks for 3 weeks and i never really road to hard with them but i figure if i ever tried anything bigger i would bend them more. Oh yeah also another thing about the ventures… they are straight so i hit my ankles a lot on them.
If using pedals with wrench flats that go to the end of the spindle, leaving a rectangular edge against the crank, you should use pedal washers.