I was riding my Coker home to warm up for my uni.5 test ride when it started to rain. Dang! I didn’t want to ride the new uni in untested because it might fall apart…who knows? So I took the Coker in and made some spare shoulder bolts this morning.
When I got home, I locked the new uni.5 in 43.5" mode and took it out in the rain. It has HUGE starting inertia. It took a couple of rolling mounts to get the timing right the first time especially with the 5.5" cranks. Once going, it was CLEARLY faster than a Coker and much more manueverable. The big, 29" wheel is much more stable than the 24" on the original uni.5. It also smooths the bumps out better even at a high tire pressure. Climbing was slightly more difficult than the Coker but not as jerky as the 24" uni.5. Descent was a trip into the terror zone. GREAT care much be exercized with that wheel easily rolling along and then coming to a sudden, steep descent.
The Lasco cranks SUCK big time. I was thinking about taking them inside and vacuuming out the house they sucked so bad. It’s not because they broke; it’s not even so much that they have such a big rake to them. The worst thing is, and I measured this, the pedal axles ARE NOT PERPINDICULAR to the hub axle or frame. Can you imagine how much wobble and fish-tailing that adds to a ride? I think I’ll just order some Montys before I start trying longer distances. I only went about a mile in the rain.
The 29" mode I tried in the basement last night briefly. There are no surprises there. The annoying backlash is reduced by about 50% because of the lock setup, though. The 29" mode is one I plan to use for otherwise unmanageable hills (up AND down) so I don’t care so much about it but will report more on it later.
A wimp like me can probably get up to 18 mph now. A real rider can probably go over 20mph. After riding the 29" wheel geared up I would say that a geared 36" wheel would not be too difficult to ride.
Woops. Antique brain entering function free zone again. The pedal axles are neither parallel to the hub axle nor perpindicular to the frame.
How long does it take to move the pin? Does it still have that… uh… fun gasket that has to go between the flang and the frame? Does it feel like it will put up with alot of switching? Have any ideas about other mechanisms to perform that function (a cam, maybe…)? Do you hear doppler effects from all the swooning young women? Why did no one tell me being a physicist could be cool… ahh, all the bitter life choices. Doc Savage, Buckaroo Bonzi, Greg Harper. You should start working on the grapling gun and silence beam right away.
>Would you be able to put that uni.5 gear thingy on your coker wheel?
>(despite the danger of breakin the sound barier of course)
Yes, the hub should be put on a coker so we can get serious gear inch!
36" * 1.5 = 54" gear, that is. Yaahoo!!
>wow, if you could make it, it would be extremely hard to freemount.
I have a 56" solid wheel chair rubber tire big wheel. It is hard to
freemount, but I wouldn’t consider it extremely hard to freemount. It
is (56" - 36") / 2 = 10" taller than the as yet unbuilt coker.5, so I’d
expect that the coker.5 would actually be easier to freemount than a 56"
big wheel.
Concerning the difficulty of freemounting, everyone who hasn’t
freemounted a 6 foot giraffe considers it “nearly impossible” to do
until they finally do it by practicing enough. Big wheels and cokers
are easier to freemount than a 6 foot giraffe (in my opinion at least),
so just a little freemounting practice should suffice in learning the
skill.
It may take a few more minutes to learn to mount the coker.5 than the
blue uni.5, but once one gets the timing down right it will be
relatively easy there after.
I got a chance to ride it again before it was unusable. I switched from 43.5" to 29" mode in the evening, in poor light, with no glasses, standing up. it took about 30 seconds. The rubber gasket has been replaced with a thick, nylon spacer which is stiff and easy to handle.
I agree with Ken after my experience doing a rolling mount on the geared up 29" with short cranks.
> It may take a few more minutes to learn to mount the Coker.5 than the
> blue uni.5, but once one gets the timing down right it will be
> relatively easy there after.
Until you die.
It does sound like a fun way to go, though.
It would make the argument for brakes and armor way more compelling.