äh, sorry, Schlumpf hub…
I have never understood the unicycling community’s obsession with short cranks. Long cranks can do anything - distance, hills, off road, you name it.
152 mm for life 
I agree. I really like the 125s on my 29", but prefer the 150s on the 36". I don’t know why I feel guilty using long cranks. On the forum it sometimes comes across as shorter cranks = better rider. Silly I know.
It’s not an obsession per say… I ride 125’s on my 36-er because I can go faster and my pedal strokes aren’t as long. This equates to faster rides and less overall stress on my knees (more on my leg muscles). I just started riding in November so I don’t think it’s because I am a good rider or anything, I just prefer it.
Interesting. I tried 127’s for a period. I developed knee pains from riding with the shorter cranks which went away when I returned to the 152’s. To me it felt like I was using leg muscles lower down my leg with the shorter cranks.
As an experiment I rode a section of rail trail (old railway line converted to a bike path) which I have ridden many times on the uni. The trail is flat (it was designed for underpowered steam trains) and the surface is good quality - two factors which should favour the 127’s. The time it took me to complete the 80 km ride on 127’s was within a few minutes of what I normally get with the 152’s, a time difference too small to be attributed to the change in crank length.
On bumpy roads and when ascending/descending hills I feel I have more control with the extra leverage of the longer cranks.
Short cranks make some sense when you consider that the distance your pedals travel in one rotation grows dramatically with even a small increase in crank length. That being said, I think there is a balance between pedal circle, and leverage. At some point the cranks become too short to be of much use.
In my experience I used 125’s and had pretty good control as long as I wasn’t going down a long grade. I liked that I had little to no chaffing/pinching with the shorter cranks. When I moved back to 150’s I liked the leverage that I got, and I felt like I could spin just about as fast, but the chaffing is more pronounced. I am using 140’s right now, and I feel like they are the best of both worlds. I have leverage that is much like the 150’s, but no chaffing to speak of.
Everyone is different for sure, but I think 150’s are a good length for Coker’s. It’s too bad more people don’t make 140’s. If they were more available I would bet that they would become much more popular. Of course 137’s are pretty close.
short cranks = speed
too short cranks = not enough speed.
I can’t even get up to 30km/h with my 89mm. I can get 30+km/h easy with my 114mm.
Guys, let’s keep on topic here. This is a place to post your 36er, not discuss crank length. That is a very personal choice and there is no right answer - discuss in another thread.
Very apropos!
My LBS, Twins Bike shop, set me up with these cool Profile Aero bars with the elbow cups, and they also installed a really nice Cateye cycle comp, since my gps watch won’t hold charge for the whole day.
I tried the aero bars yesterday, but I’m not sure if I’ll use them on my 100 miler. I had them adjusted well enough, but leaning down and forward seemed to put extra pressure on my crotch, which is something I sure don’t want any more of than can be helped, during my ride.
They do fit perfectly onto the “T” of the KH touring bar, and the original bar ends are just flipped 180, to have two options. I think I will just go with the regular KH touring bar though.
I’ll be riding the first half of the century tomorrow, to get a feel for that route. The second half Ive done, which is on the beach bike path.
Since you have the “Century” model it would be a shame not to use them on the 100 miler.
You must be like 8 feet tall to ride with the seat that high?!?!?!?!?!
I got my KH36 last week! Stock setup, except I switched to a non-adjustable seatpost for the small difference in seat height. Even with that, I can just reach the pedals on the 125mm hole, and I’ll have to cut the frame to reach 150mm…
If you switch to a Nimbus seatpost I think you might be able to get the seat low enough without cutting the frame. The CrMo version looks like you could get it just about all of the way to the mounting plate. You may want to talk to Josh at UDC to find out how much lower you could go with one of these.
Maybe not…
oh those are sexy ; )
the lowest you can go is a naomi saddle with a non-KH seatpost. The naomi takes a good 2 inches off of the saddle height, it’s more comfy if you have a handlebar though
I looked at the pictures when I ordered the uni and they looked roughly the same for a 27.2mm, but I’ll ask. The issue is that I do actually need an entire inch more (since at 125mm it’s just barely ridable), and I don’t think all of that can come from the seatpost… Would be nice to get at least part of the inch from something other than cutting the frame though.
Thanks, I’ll look in to that too. That’d pretty much solve the problem (though I love the Freeride so much…).
Just to think about…
if you change to single bolt clamp you can cut the frame an other few mm.
“elk-e” and “enaddi” had the same problems. I cut their frames as much as possible and then it works although a little more would have been better.
I know some people build themselfs special low frames - and that was also for me the reason to designe the Triton 36" x-tra low.