Profile Thoughts

General
1

Well, I’v been riding the Profile setup (24" wheel with 170’s) for a bit less than a month now, and had a few observations:

  • Very high cool factor.

  • Great feeling of substance.

  • 170’s: the longer crank length is a mixed bag: you can’t crank the wheel up as fast, but allows for added leverage. This can be doulbe edged- your foot has further to go to get out of it’s weak spot, and you have to shift your weight more to bair down on the pedal when weight shifting up tough climbs. Profile makes 150’s too, so now worries, if that’s your gig. The 170’s are great for pulling speed out of a REALY steep decents.

  • The sprocket fixture on the left crank is just ground off and left to rust. Profile should do themselves (and us) a favor by omitting the hole all together.

  • The cranks are hollow and open at pedal, allowing water easy access- more rust.

  • No sign of crank bending.

  • No sign of axel damage.

  • Heavy(er).

  • Did I mention no crank bends or axel damage? Whoo hoo!

  • Replacement Guaranty.

Christopher

2

I’ve been riding on my 145s in black for a week or so. So far so good. Makes the whole unicycle feel a lot firmer. Pedal grabs have been easier with such a firm setup. Tons of kids at the BMX track gawk that I have Profiles on my unicycle… good stuff. Keep you guys updated with how they work out for me.

3

Re: Profile Thoughts

[QUOTE]
Originally posted by rhysling
[* The sprocket fixture on the left crank is just ground off and left to rust.
Christopher [/B][/QUOTE the left?do you mean the right?i never ground anything off,is your clearance that tight that you had to ?

4

To me, the feature that is most unique about the Profile hub is that the bearings just slip right on the axle with no press fit. The only thing keeping the bearings in place is the cranks pressing against the spacers and bearings.

I would feel better about the hub if the bearings weren’t so loose on the axle before the cranks are tightened down. The whole system seems to work fine, so maybe it’s not a big deal. However, sometimes while climbing or jumping around I think I feel a thunk. In my imagination I convince myself that the thunk is the bearings settling on the axle. I might be able to chalk that up to an overactive imagination, but I never have those kinds of feelings while riding on my DM hub.

Yes, I do check the crank bolts on my Profile hubs before each ride to make sure they are still tight. Heck, those crank bolts are the only thing keeping the uni together.

john_childs

5

On my 170’s the hole is on the right. On my 145’s there is no hole. Yeah, this hole sucks. I got the crank w/a metal chip stuck in there and it took me too long to get it out.

The only complaint that I have about the setup (other than it’ weight) is that it squeaks a lot. I’ve heard that this has to do w/the washers/spacers, and that a little lubrication should take care of the problem. It hasn’t worked for me thus far. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with the setup.

~Charles

6

rust

I might be wrong, but arnt the profile hub’s Aluminium ie No Rust. Just a though I had…

7

That hole ‘left, right’ thing can be so overwelming. :wink:

Checker, the cranks are chrome alloy.

My ride is silent, still- but Lewis’ Profiles have had a loud sqweek from day one, and produce a strange thunk at the same spot, under load. Sometimes the thunk disapears. It feels like a spoke had snaped, or something… Should we attempt to take off the cranks, ya think? Is there anything that could be adjusted? Anybody else have a cyclic thunk? Shouldn’t be any moving parts…

Christopher

8

I also have that annoying THUNK!!! - I just forgot to mention it last time… that is besides the CLICKING and the SQUEAKING… all specially annoying considering how much we paid for the damn thing… I spoke w/ David Poznanter (this is the guy who designed the hub) about it at the RIT convention, and he commented on the squeaking by recommending the lubrication procedure that I mentioned earlier, and on the clicking by recommending that I tighten the cranks often. Some might say that the thunk can be fixed by tightening the setup as well; and this might be so… however I’ve had no luck in getting any of it to be quiet yet…

I wish better luck for you guys…

~Charles

9

Thanks for reminding me Chris!

http://www.lwb.org/vault/public/univault/squeaky.mpg

That is a video where you can clearly hear the squeak (its nice to have your own personal chase cam). The thunk is absent in this segment.

Lewis

10

I totally agree with all that is being said here. However, the noises that I found so terrible - especially because of the price that was paid to get the best - have since almost completely gone away. I have hammered my Wilder/Profile set-up and have been given no indication that I’ve maxed-out on the performance. I hope that as our sport grows so too will the opportunity to refined the products and the evolution of the quality that we expect. I still think that it is pretty amazing that anybody created the ride (my uni set-up) that is almost always near me. These products that we spend so much energy talking about and abusing on the trail were created out of a labor of love first and profit second - if at all. I’ll put up with the squeeks and creaks - until something better comes along. As for now, I’m totaly in love with the thrills that come to me from the hops and drops.

11

animation

holy crap that was the loudest sqeakin i’ve ever heard.i had asumed that the noise was universal,but i guess some are louder than otherz.

make sure that you dont have to many spacers between the cranks and berings.the more you have, the less amount of spindle is in the crank arms and then the connection is weaker(and i belive louder)

there sould be as much of the spindle in there as possible w/out touching the fork legz.Profile says that they are at max strengh when the spindle is just past the half-way point inside the crank arm.i got mine in there about all the way and the squeaking comes and goes but its never been that loud.

dont neglect your cranks like you did that tire or your cranks will go boom too.get in there and grease those periodicaly or else its a call to the bank manager again.

unicycle_038.gif

12

I was annoyed by the clunking and squeaking, but funny thing is, after much riding, and having such a blast on the trail, I forgot all about it. My profile setup still squeaks a bit, and I suppose I should grease it, but I just never seem to get around to it. Is it important that I grease it?

13

Ya, we had to give a big “we’ll call you” to Lewis when he tried out for the Uni Ninjas. Still, I think he has a future as a Shylock, or the next Terminator. Think of the drama: “Do you think we lost him?” sqweeksqweeksqweek

Great flick, Lewie- who took the shot? was that at work?

Christopher

14

That was a squeak? That sounded like a turkey being beaten with a rake handle. Maybe Lewis was using some souped up microphone that’s the latest high-tech gizmo and that’s why it was so LOUD.

15

Yeah that was my co-worker, Tate, who is into Skate-boarding at least as much as I am into unicycling, and he is twice as much into cameras as me. He was following me on the skateboard (the full segment is 14 mb, but there is another vid at http://www.lwb.org/vault/public/univault/lewis_15.mpg where you can hear him following me). By the time we get to where the creaking portion of the video was shot, he had jumped off the skateboard to better follow me.

We have started skating and riding up by the old Wal-mart location near work. Fun stuff!

Um … was that really loud compared to everybody else’s squeaks? I mean it seems loud to me too but I’ve grown mostly used to it.

Ack. OK apparently it is loud. On top of all of that, I’m new to unicycles, so I have no idea what any of that means, or what I should do to achieve improvement or to avoid neglect.

Help?

Lewis

16

Just an addition, the full video segment is 15 mb (sorry for the size) and you can find it at http://www.lwb.org/vault/public/univault/lewis_uni.mpg

I havent edited it down or anything yet, but there is a lot more audio of the squeaking, plus it is footage of me. How can you go wrong? :slight_smile:

Lewis

17

That is much louder than my creaks. In my case, you can only hear it up lose, but you can really feel it when riding the uni… I’d take your uni to the emergency room and just lubricate it a bit between the spacers and stuff… it’s better to prevent than to lament…

18

Yikes! That squeaking isn’t right. Did it squeak like that right from the start? I have never heard Profile cranks squeak like that. I have heard them make a little creak when doing a jump or landing a drop, but never squeaking like that when just riding around.

My Profile hubs are quiet. No squeaks (yet), but they are only a couple of months old.

It’s wet over here right now and all the trails have puddles and mud. The first thing I did when I got my Profile hubs was prepare them for Winter riding. That means grease them up everywhere so they don’t rust. I used copper colored anti-seize all over the axle and splines. The anti-seize is water proof and has additives to protect against water contamination and rust.

Pull the cranks off. Clean off the axle with a degreaser like Simple Green or Formula 409. Make sure there is no rust on the axle. If there is rust then use WD40 and a wire brush to remove the rust. Check the splines on the axle and crank to make sure there are no metal slivers or shavings in there. Check the bearings to make sure they still spin freely. If necessary get new bearings from unicycle.com (they are about $8 each). Put anti-seize on the axle, including the areas under the spacers and bearing. Put anti-seize on the splines of the axle and on the splines of the crank. Use a toothpick or something similar to get the anti-seize down into the splines. Put some anti-seize on the sides of the spacers and slide them on. Slide the bearing on and slide the rest of the spacers on. Now slide the crank on. Put some anti-seize on the crank bolt threads and thread the crank bolt on snugly, but not full on tight. The anti-seize on the crank bolt will allow you to tighten the bolt down tighter than you can with a dry bolt and will also protect against rust. Do the same for the other crank. Now tighten both bolts as tight as you can.

You can get anti-seize at an auto parts store. Loctite makes some copper colored and silver colored anti-seize and that is the stuff that the auto parts stores usually carry. Another alternative is to get Finish Line Ti-Prep from a bike shop. The Ti-Prep is basically the same stuff as the copper colored anti-seize, but more expensive per gram. It only takes a little bit of anti-seize to do the whole hub. A few ounces of the stuff from an auto parts store will last you years.

Hopefully that will get rid of most (or all) of the squeaking.

You can pull the Profile cranks off with the Evercrest bearing puller tool that unicycle.com sells. Put the grabber arms on the short side of the tool and it will be able to pull the cranks off.

Before a ride check the crank bolts to make sure they are still tight. Carry a 5.5mm hex key with you so you can keep them tight.

That’s the basic Profile hub maintenance. If you ride in wet weather or through puddles then this maintenance procedure should be done every couple of months. The hub is the type of steel that will rust easily and that is the reason for slothering the whole thing with anti-seize to protect it.

Links to the Loctite anti-seize and Finish Line Ti-Prep
<http://www.loctite.com/catalog/product.html?ProductLine=ASC5A+++++++++++++++>
<http://www.finishlineusa.com/lubricants.htm#Ti%20Prep>

Just remember that anti-seize is not bearing grease so don’t use it in pedal bearings or other similar applications. Use it on threads and splines.

john_childs

19

my crank bolts are 7/32 in fractions not 5.5mm?as far as i know everything Profile does is American Standard

20

Yes, it has done that from day one. It also used to make a THUNK sound every pedal-cycle, but it stopped doing that. I have only got it muddy once, and only slightly.

Most of the details of repair and cleaning are (currently) beyond me but hopefully with Chris’ and/or Tommy’s help I can figure out what is going on.

I had heard of “profile squeak” before I ever got my cycle, so I just accepted it at face value.

Weird.

Animation