Today I went for a trail ride with John Childs and David Maxfield. They were scoping out trails for the NAUCC/UNICON meets. I was experiencing my first off-road riding on the Steve Howard MUni.
We ooed and ahhed at the elegant machining and beautiful red anodized finish for awhile. We also admired Steve’s machining expertise as evidenced by the beautiful fit and finish of his hub and rail type seat clamp as well as the crown to frame fork fit. David and John tried it out briefly to see if it was in fact a unicycle. It passed that test. John Childs put one of his airseat converted Miyata saddles on it and away we went.
Mostly, David and I watched and tried to emmulate John but usually fell short (heavy on the fell) and so Steve’s frame took quite a beating (as atested to by the photo.)
The frame held up fine but the forks splayed inwards (yes, inwards) slightly after about four hours, on and off, of thrashing. I would guess that about 1mm of the bearing races had emerged from the clamps and were exposed on the crank sides of the frame. Both sides this time. The frame assembly remained screwed in place and the seatpost tube remained intact. This is after an inexperienced guy rode it so it spent alot of time bouncing off the roots, rocks, dirt, and whatnot.
These are the parts that didn’t hold up. The right crank loosened this time out. I left the 14mm socket and ratchet in my truck but fortunately the loose crank was noticed at a point on the trail as it emerged from the park and one of John’s favorite bike shops was within one foot riding distance…if it were my right foot. Which it wasn’t. So we walked a couple hundred yards and fixed it. At the end of the ride, things began getting a little creaky. I could feel that the seat hardware was loose so I figured that was the problem. As it turned out, all of the spokes had uniformly stretched and were all entirely too loose. The wheel was slightly out of true.
The problems didn’t reflect on the frame performance at all. John Childs will have it for awhile now and he has experience with a number of MUni’s so will hopefully be able to make a more educated review.
My review conclusion: MUni-ing is a gas and the Howard frame can stand up to the abusive incompetence of a total novice.
P.S. Gilby’s tee-shirt is again being shamelessly displayed in the photograph, this time embarrassingly soaked with my sweat.
At the end of the ride, things began getting a little creaky. I could feel that the seat hardware was loose so I figured that was the problem.
-and then all the tension exhaled when questions of crown integrity are layed to rest-
[B]
As it turned out, all of the spokes had uniformly stretched and were all entirely too loose. The wheel was slightly out of true.
The problems didn’t reflect on the frame performance at all. [/B]
Engineering drama- gota love it. “Stay tuned, Kids; next week for epesode 3: ‘Bear-able Solutions’, in which Greg ponders weather to employ a physical or chemical solution to bearing migration. Same time, same place -same frequencey!”
The pic was a treat; having just perused Sean White’s photos from the Holm/Hoover trip to Bhutan -in which garish flames ostentatiously contrast with the local garb- the pedesterian vernacular armour sported by the Mad Scientist of Washington State was refreshing. Where’s the video?
I remember going to city “A” league basketball games. I wore denim overalls for warmups. Everyone laughed at me … before the game. When the second game rolled around they were too busy trying to figure out who was going to keep me from collecting 20 rebounds against people 4 inches taller than me.
The attire is only plumage, it doesn’t mean you can fly.
Great ride report Greg. I was a nervous wreck while reading it!
The bearings slipping in the bearing holders is a curious thing. I thought the scallops around the bore, which is a new “feature” for these frames, would grip the bearings better than a straight bore. I’ve been testing a frame without the scallops and haven’t seen the bearings move. What’s odd though is that it’s pretty easy to overtighten and make the bearings drag with the scalloped bore but I can’t tighten the straight bore holder enough to cause bearing drag. Doesn’t this lead you to believe that the scalloped holders put more pressure on the bearings, thus hold better?
I used swagged 14/15 gauge spokes on Greg’s wheel. I’m no great wheel builder … obviously. From what I’ve read, swagged spokes are the way to go for bikes but evidently not for MUni. Do you think the spokes can be re-tensioned or should the wheel be rebuilt with 14 gauge spokes?
Yesterday I assembled a MUni with a frame that was built some time ago but never ridden. It’s almost the same as Greg’s frame but an ugly color. In the evening I took it for a ride on a great trail but SUFFERED A MAJOR MECHANICAL! The seat tube slipped in the crown while coming down a steep hill. Look here to see some pictures of the failure:
This morning I reassembled the crown with Locktite (I don’t think it was assembled with Locktite originally) and added a press fit sleeve inside and at the bottom of the seat tube. This is how bike suspension forks are assembled. I rode the same trail as yesterday with no problems this time. I was hoping that the inner sleeve wasn’t necessary but now I think it is.
The first thing John Childs is going to do with it is have the spokes retensioned and the wheel retrued. They’re butted spokes, probably plenty strong, and just stretched. After retensioning it will probably not need it again.
Sleep easy. I beat the crap out of the frame falling over and over and nothing extreme happened. The bearing clamps may stop sliding after a point. The bearings are only sticking out a millimeter if that.
The loose bolts on the air seat were my fault. John “Mr. Loctite” Childs didn’t put Loctite on the bolts when the seat was reassembled. The lock washers have been good enough in the past, but for now on I’ll use the Loctite on the seat bolts.
I dropped the wheel off with my favorite local wheel builder. He’ll get the wheel in primo shape. He’s a downhiller and freerider and builds wheels to take abuse. When he’s done the wheel literally sings.
I’m jealous of that upscale Alex DX32 rim. Steve managed to score the deluxe version of the Alex DX32 with the machined brake surface and nice black anodized finish. The US supplier that the bike shops order from does not have the primo DX32 with the machined sidewalls.
I’m anxious to try out the DX32 rim with the Gazz 3.0 tire. It will be fun see if there is more tire foldover with the DX32 compared to the Avro rim that I’m using on my muni.
As soon as I get the wheel back from the wheel builder I’ll give the muni a thorough workout.
It was amazing watching Greg levitate over the trail obstacles carrying the unicycle behind him just like a Wudan warrior from “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”. Not even Kris can match that.
The scallops may be putting localized forces on the bearing causing the outer bearing race to dimple. That might be enough to cause the ball bearings to hangup on the dimples and drag. My experience has been that perfectly round bearing holders work better and are more friendly to the bearing. I have not yet put the muni through a good test ride yet. When I get the chance I’ll pay attention to the bearing holder and see how the scallop design works.
Steve’s frame is the lightest Muni I’ve ever tried–and among the coolest.
Reading this thread it would be easy to think that the bearings slipped wildly
in the bearing holders, but that would be way wrong. At the end of a tough
4-hour beating, we could see that the bearings had just barely budged in the
frame. They certainly werent’ sloppy.
This is a very nice unicycle–much tougher than we were (except maybe John.
He’s an animal).
>What was that BIG stone building you started off at? Very cool- looked
>like a classic lodge that the rich might vacation at in 1930’s…
Yes, it is an old Catholic seminary–no longer active. I guess spending time
there would have qualified as a vacation–if you really liked “pontificating.”
Chris is referring to a photo of the seminary school on the premises (or which the premises surround in this case). It apparently is no longer used as such. The rest of the photos from the ride are in this folder and are untitled:
That’s where Chris found the photo. They show some of the trails John and David were scoping for the MUni rides during NAUCC/UNICON as well as David and I trying to ride and John actually riding.
harper wrote in message
> The first thing John Childs is going to do with it is have the spokes
> retensioned and the wheel retrued. They’re butted spokes, probably
> plenty strong, and just stretched. After retensioning it will probably
> not need it again.
>
It’s unusual for spokes to stretch much - if at all.
There are at least two more likely culprits:
Spokes not pre-stressed
The spokes need some “exercise” to get them to seat fully into the flange
and rim spoke holes.
The best way to do this is after tensioning the spokes go for a good hard
ride (like harper) and then retension them.
There are other methods involving pulling them about or standing on them
…!
Spoke wind up
As you add the final “tightness” to each spoke the spoke itself can twist or
“wind-up” (especially on butted spokes). The spokes can then unwind during
use and lose their tension.
To combat this as you tighten the spokes their last quarter turn instead
tighten by half a turn and then unwind a quarter turn hopefully relieving
any wind-up.
Sorry if this sounds all a bit techie!
Leo White
sorry if this is a duplicate … it didn’t appear first time
Engineering drama- gota love it. “Stay tuned, Kids; next week for epesode 3: ‘Bear-able Solutions’, in which Greg ponders weather to employ a physical or chemical solution to bearing migration. Same time, same place -same frequencey!”
ha ha, you sound like those radio shows from the 40’s and ealier times, and up to later times, lol, yes very funny, yes those radio programs are good, my favorite was the Shadow.
I see that the person in teh yellow unicyclist t shirt has soccer shin pads on, good, im glad the other people have seen how good they are.(was this harper?)
