Profile Clicking

General
1

I’ve done a search on this but it didn’t seem to help because mine seems to be alot worse than other peoples. Mine click like 20 times for every wheel rotation and not only when I put pressure on the pedals when riding, if I take it off and spin it freely it makes the same amount of clicks. Although it doesn’t click when hopping like other peoples.

I havn’t got a crank removing tool thing so I need to find out where I can get one in Australia. I made sure evrything was tite and even blue loctited the allen key thing on the side (is that the keyway?).

Any help will be greatly appreciated because it’s making so much noise!

2

I get a similar thing on my KH hub/crank set. It only happens occassionally so I have no idea what causes it. Can you feel the click through your foot/feet? If so it may be a loose keyway. John Childs is the man to ask about noisy/wobbly Profiles.

3

Nothing is loose… unless I missed something round the side of the profiles or something? But mine doesn’t happen occasionally… it hasn’t gone away and like 20 times per rev. I just wanna get it fixed or find out its just a noise so I can ride it, but for now I’m off it so it doesn’t get damaged somehow.

4

are you sure it isn’t dirt in your pedal bearings clicking?

5

I’m positive it’s not the pedals because they are not rotating. And when I do rotate them they don’t make the noise. I took my frame off and there was dirt near the bearing there so I cleaned that but it didn’t seem to make any difference at all. Well… not permanently. It seemed to stop it to 1 or 2 clicks a rev but then it went back up with me spinning the wheel freely in about 2 mins. Considering I didn’t ride it and only span it inside I don’t see how more dirt could have gotten in again.

I bought it from unicycles.com.au so andrew carter… got any ideas yourself.

But I know when John Childs comes online he’ll be able to help… it’s be really useful if he has MSN aswell…

6

Ok what it could be, take your crank off and it should have a washer in side against the bearing. This is what happend to my washer due to it was riden loose and when tighten it did it.This made a clicking sound just file it down and should be ok.
Ben
Can i have a link to your video?

butter.jpg

7

by the pedals not rotating, they are infact rotating

(I picture you mean they stay parellel to the floor while the cranks spin?)

And spinning them with your hands does not replicate the force and pressure of rotating while you are standing on them.

It may not be your pedals, but don’t quite rule them out yet

8

i thought he meant the pedals don’t spin in relation to the cranks. i.e they stay still around the bearing

9

Profile noise

Try this:

No Puller:

find an allen bolt that will thread into the crank arm and also make sure it is short enough to bottom out and use a hammer and a punch seated in the allen hole to drive the spindle out from the crank arm. Profile’s crank tool is just a larger version of this method. Make sure what ever bolt you use is bottomed out to put the force on the axel and not the threads.

Noise Fix:

once you have it all apart, soak the interface between the axel and aluminum hub body with WD-40 or some version of penetrating oil from both sides. Repeat this several times

Clean the spacers, bearing and crank well.

coat every surface that contacts an other surface with anti-sieze compound. don’t be shy with the stuff. Your crank should have come with some bronze colored stuff but you can get some from an auto parts store also, sometimes it is silver, thats fine too

Re-assemble

This should minimize or eliminate any noise.

10

It shouldn’t be the keyway since that would only come into play when there is a change of torque from front to back or v-v. Also, if your hub is recent (manufactured in the last couple of months)Profile has minimized the keyway problem by increasing the size of the keys. Not your pedals because of your experiment. Probably not your cranks because it makes the noise unloaded and because of your efforts to tighten, etc. I suspect that you need to replace the bearings. Try to get rubber-sealed bearings. The other thing I’d do while you have it apart is what thinuniking mentioned - inspect all your spacers and clean them up as required, then coat them all with anti-seize and reassemble.

11

Based on your description, I believe U-Turn’s assessment to be most likely accurate. It is exactly what I would recommend.

12

Firstly, it’s probably better to anti-seize the allen key rather than locktite it. But thazt’s unimportant. Whatever you do, DON’T TAKE APART THE HUB AND AXLE! That’s completely unneccessary. It’s not the keyway because the key would only be one click or movement.

From the description, I will bet that the clicking is completely superficial. What frame do you ride? Does it have the same kind of bearing holders as the united main-cap and Yuni or Nimbus 2? Does the wheel seem to stop spining faster than it seems it should?

If so, you probably don’t have enough spacers between the hub and bearing and the hub and crank. This is causing the hub to rub against the bearing holders, and mkaing a clicking sound in the proccess. This was the case on my Onza, and it rubbed on my profiles, except it never clicked because the rubbing was too hard. I think most profiles come with three spacers per side. Remove your cranks (described below), and then pull off your bearings and anything else on the axle and remember the order that they went on (except the hub, of course). You should have six little rings of metal probably coated in grease, two cranks, a hub/axle, two bearings, two allen bolts, and two little aluminum washers that go with the allen bolts.

Now, take the hub and on one side, rather than having only 1 little ring of metal (spacer) between the bearing and the hub, try having two. Once you have two spacers on each side of the hub, put on the bearings. Then, put on the last two spacers and the cranks. My cranks have the unground nub and still clear my Yuni frame with just one spacer, so you should be fine.

That’s my diagnosis. Also, when you reeassemble, use lots of anti-seixe on the splines after cleaning them.

As for removing the cranks, go to your local downhill bike shop. They should have an abundance of profile crank tools. As for one, as one should’ve come with your profiles. Most likely the shop will be obliged to give you one. Hold the crank near the axle so it’s the only thing touching the wheel. Now, with the tool completely threaded in, begin tapping on it with a small hammer. Eventually the wheel should drop out of the crank. You should hold the wheel over a soft surface to protect it if it falls. An old scrap pillow is ideal. Now do the same on the other side. When putting the cranks back on, put both on before tightening ethier all the way. This keeps the hub from moving on the keyway.

13

That’s good to know. I’m glad Profile is addressing the issue. I hope the new keyway fixes the problem.

Yup, probably a bad bearing. If one of the balls in the bearing has split or if the cage that holds the balls in place has broken then the bearing will make a griding or clicking sound.

14

Alright it sounds like it’s the bearings, so I took it apart once more and span the bearings freely. How well/long are they meant to spin. When I used to skate I got used to how long they would spin when you just held them on your fingers, like 5 seconds and they were of a bad kind.

When I spin the bearings freely when they are attached to the axel they seem to stop almost instantly. Are they meant to spin for at least 2 seconds?

15

It really doesn’t sound like cranks, that’s all I can say. I know you said it’s not the pedals but just out of curiousity, what pedals do you have on it? Konas? Because without maintenance, they often make a REALLY horrible noise…but it’s fixable. But I know you said it’s not the pedals and I’m sure John’s probably right about the bearings (not pedal bearings).

Just take it to your local bike shop.

Andrew

16

Unicycle bearings are not like skate bearings. Unicycle bearings will not spin freely. They won’t even spin for a fraction of a second. The bearings used on unicycles have a thick grease in them. Skate bearings use a very light oil. The thicker grease used in unicycle bearings has more friction and won’t allow the bearing to spin freely like skate bearings.

Rotate the bearing with your fingers. Feel for rough spots. Feel for too much resistance. When the grease wears out, or when the bearings get full of dirt, they will be harder to spin. That’s when it’s time for new bearings.

Get ahold of some new bearings and spin them in your fingers. That will give you the feel for what bearings in good condition will feel like. It’s hard to explain here in text. You could also go to a bike shop and ask them “Is this bearing shot?”.

If something inside the bearing has broken you’ll feel some rough spots when trying to rotate the bearing with your fingers.

With the Profile and KH bearings you’ll get a better feel for if the bearing is good or bad if you take the bearing off the hub.

17

I don’t know how to remove the crank properly. I don’t want to have to use a hammer and a block of wood or anything to take them off/get them on. I’ll see if I can find some good bearings and then I’ll find out whether they are currently really bad.

Oh but for now should I just stay off it or is it ok to ride it?

18

Continue to ride it. You’re not going to hurt the hub or the unicycle. The worst that could happen is that you cause more damage to the bearing to the point that the bearing falls apart or stops spinning. But you’re going to be replacing the bearing anyways. I just wouldn’t do any epic rides where you’ll have a very long walk to the car if the bearing dies on you in the middle of the ride.

How long have you had the unicycle? If you’ve had the unicycle long enough, and have done enough jumps and drops, the cranks may be loose enough for you to remove them by hand without any special tools. When the Profile cranks are new they are very difficult to remove. After the Profile cranks have worn in they can slide on and off by hand.

19

6-8 weeks I would say and I havn’t been doing many drops because my ankles are really screwed right now. So that’s why I was a bit worried about it… shouldn’t be happening after so little time and so few drops - none above 3 and a half feet.

But also they are most likely to not be easy to remove aswell :stuck_out_tongue:

20

Ooh an update… possibly important?

I took the frame off again to try and find the problem and such. One of the bearings when I spin it makes no sound and spins for a fraction of a second like you said it should. The other one however makes a very quick bout very loud noise, 10 times that of the other. It also happens to spin for about twice as long. It also happens that this one that seems to spin better is the one that has spots where there is resistance and then no resistance so sort of jerky spots (not that bad, only VERY slight but you can feel it), while the one that doesn’t spin as long and makes no noise feels completely smooth when you hold your fingers on it and slowly rotate it.

It’s the right bearing that is the one that is noisy and such although I’m sure that makes no difference.