Questions on Torker TX

Unicycles and Equipment
1

Hi folks!

As you can guess, I just got a brand new torker TX, and have been trying it out. I am rapidly learning why I got it for only ~160 canadian! Some simple problemns have to do with the seat, which is less than comfortable. However, the seat post is bigger than those on my other uni’s and the way the seet post is attached to the seat is also different, so the airseat I wanted to put on it will have to wait for a novel solution, or the discovery of the right parts. Also, the seat post is not long enough for me… sigh…

The one serious and damning problem (which has shattered my confidence in it), is that the “cog” conecting the chain to the weel comes loose when too much pressure is exerted on it when pedaling backwards. This has resulted in me falling several times even when it seemed secure prior to riding. The way it’s designed is that the cog threads o one way so that it canot rotate past a given point, and a “cap” threads on the other way over top of it so that when it is as tight as it can be made, any force trying to unscew the cog will have the effect of trying to tighten the cap, -which will result in the whole mechanism being held firmly in place.
The problemn is it dosen’t work. There is give somewhere which allows the cog to slip. when it slips back, it unscrews the cap, and everything becomes loose. The temporary solution is to get hold of the appropriate tool for tightning the cap propely. it dosen’t come with the unicycle, and there is no mention of it in the “how to” that does come with it. It’s basically a metal “disk” with teeth cut out of it at intervals, 4 or 5 in all. Does anybody know what I need? Has anyone ever experienced this problemn?
Personally, although the design is interesting, I consider this a design defect. The connection should hold without it having to be checked before each ride.

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Mike.

2

Do you know what type of seat it came with? The Torker TX should have come with a Miyata clone saddle. Most people find these decently comfortable. If your TX came with a different saddle, you may have grounds to complain to who ever sold it to you. Here is a pic of the tx and the saddle it should have come with:

This saddle is easy to convert to an air saddle if you don’t like the way it came.

I’m sorry that I don’t know anything about the cog problem. But I do know that a friend of mine has this same cycle and I don’t think he ever had a problem with the cog. Personally, I like this uni and think it’s a great deal.

Daniel

3

Yes, the thread on cog with a lockring is a defective design for a Giraffe unicycle hub. It’s too easy for the lockring and cog to loosen which results in the cog spinning on the hub which results in the hapless unicycle rider taking a quick and uncontrolled and potentially dangerous fall off the unicycle. It’s not a good design.

The threaded on cog and lockring setup comes from single speed fixed gear track bikes. The design works for track bikes because bikes are ridden predominately forwards and track bikes also use much higher quality (and much more expensive) components so they don’t have the problems that we have with giraffe unicycles.

The first Schwinn giraffe unicycles used the threaded cog and lockring. That wasn’t a very reliable design so Schwinn changed to a cog that actually bolted to the hub with three bolts that went all the way through the cog. No chance of the cog spinning off the hub.

Unfortunately, the threaded cog and lockring setup is still in popular use now even though it is not a safe and reliable design. The Torker giraffe is using it, Semcycle giraffes use it, and most other commercial giraffe unicycles use it. Sigh.

The failsafe solution is to weld the cog to the hub. A welded cog will not slip. You also cannot remove a welded cog later should you need to do something like replace a spoke or replace a damaged cog.

The less failsafe solution is to use high strength red Loctite when installing the cog and lockring. This solution will hold better, but can/will still slip if the unicycle is ridden hard.

For now the solution would be to take the unicycle to a good bike shop and have them install the cog and lockring with high strength RED Loctite threadlocker. It is absolutely critical that they use the Loctite and then get the cog and lockring really tight. Impress upon the bike shop that it is really really really critically important that they do it right and use the high strength RED Loctite. Otherwise you could fall and get hurt or hurt someone else when you fall on them.

Here’s what the bike shop needs to do:

  1. Remove the cog and lockring
  2. Clean off the hub threads with Loctite Primer or some other acetone based solvent
  3. Put RED high strength Loctite on the hub threads
  4. Install the cog and lockring
  5. Make sure the cog and lockring are really tight
  6. Wait 12 hours or so for the Loctite to cure
  7. Now you can give the unicycle a test ride

Print out this post and make sure the bike shop doesn’t skimp. Remind them how critically important this is. Cleaning the hub threads with solvent or primer is important so that the Loctite can get the strongest possible bond. Even at it’s best, the Loctite solution is barely adequate so the Loctite bond needs to be as strong as possible.

The tool used to tighten the lockring is a lockring spanner. That link will take you to the Park Tool lockring spanner. There are better lockring spanners available. The better ones have several teeth which gives the spanner a better grip of the lockring allowing you to get the lockring tighter. Your local bike shop should have one that you can buy if you want to do the repair yourself. But I’d recommend letting the bike shop do it unless you are comfortable with these types of repairs.

The other solution is to spot weld the cog to the hub. If you’re paranoid, this is the way to go. Just make sure that the cog is in the right place before welding it. There is no undoing it after it’s done.

4

Hi again!

I say the seat is unfomfortable… what I mean is that it is uncomfortable when I compare it to an air-seat, and when I ride it for over an hour a day -which is what I plan to do soon !!!

I totally agree with Schwinn. I came to the same conclusion when I discovered the problem. No other Giraff’s should be on the road -if any giraff’s should be on the road in the first place… :slight_smile:

How -do- I go about replacing it with an air-seat?
-I have a bedford unicycles airseat, but the seat post is to small.

Thank’s a million for the info, it’s exactly what I needed to know!

a note for anyone out there -if you want to invest in a giraff, get a schwinn!

Mike :slight_smile:

5

This is option number 1 http://unicycling.org/airseat/
There are items on unicycle.com, which will allow you to make an even more luxurious saddle.
Option number two is to get a shim so you can use your existing saddle and post in your new giraffe.

6

Ralph Nader should write a book and title it “Unsafe At Any Height”. It will be about the use of track bike style hubs on giraffe unicycles. Someone has got to wake up the unicycle industry and get them to change their ways. Otherwise they’ll continue to make these unsafe giraffe hubs. :wink:

One solution is to make a giraffe hub from a front wheel disk brake hub for a bicycle. You bolt the cog to the hub where the disk would go. The process is described here: Disk Hub / Fixed Hub. There have also been a couple of threads here mentioning this possible solution. Thread One and Thread Two

I don’t know how well the disk brake hub would work in practice. I don’t know if the bike hub will be the right width to fit in standard giraffe unicycle frames. I don’t know if chain alignment will be right. Lots of unknowns at this point. I do know that if I was building a custom giraffe from scratch that I would use a disk brake hub and bolt the cog to the hub. But retrofitting an existing giraffe could be tricky.

As long as you are aware of the problems with the threaded on cog and lockring, it can be relatively safe. You just have to make sure that it gets installed correctly (with Loctite and all) and be aware that it could still slip. And there is always the welding solution that pretty much solves the problem.