Thinking about Flat: Which purchase, if any, to make?

After watching a whole bunch of flat videos, I’ve decided that I need to give flat a try. After a couple days of practice, I’ve made no progress. Taking the easy way out, I’ve decided to blame my equipment. I currently ride Koxx trials cranks, and I find leg wraps(let alone different rolls) incredibly difficult. Is flat easily doable on the trials cranks, or could they be negatively impacting my performance?

If it is the cranks, could griptape make the situation much better?

If griptape is not going to do much, I can buy some new cranks. Right now, I have a Koxx hub, and Moments wont fit. My options are as follows:

Koxx Street Cranks= $129.00+Shipping

KH Hub+Moment Cranks+Rollo Disks= $154.00+Shipping+Wheelbulding Cost(I know, I should do it myself, but I’d rather fork over some cash to ensure a strong wheel)+Waiting until April 25 for Rollos.

Which of these options is best? Are the street cranks strong enough for big street(I max out at 7 sets right now, but I see myself improving)? Is the Q-factor on the Moments really noticable? I’ve ridden cranks with Q-factor before and have not liked the feel of it. Do I even need rollo disks if I’m just getting into flat?

EDIT:
…Or do I just need practice?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Practise. Everyone will pick it up at different speed. I’d say give grip-tape a try, it’s a cheaper thing to try than a new set of cranks.

Some people get okay at flat with the trials cranks, but…

I would get a pair of Street cranks, unless you weigh on the heavy side, and then I would prolly try the new Koxx 130mm cranks. Infact if you can get your hands on the 130s I would try them anyway… they look nice.

I have put Moments on a K1 hub. They dont fit perfectly but theydo fit. They stick out far enough that there is alot of room for flat, without rollos, but at the expense of a wider stance(more Q). Note, you will not be able to put rollos on this setup, even with the longer bolts. So Ideally you would not really want to use Moments without a KH or Nimbus hub.

Might be worth it to get some K1 cranks that are good for flat. The Street cranks are fantastically awesome cranks, tho, they may bend over time. Mine lasted well over 2 years of heavy abuse, and they are still perfectly rideable.

Just practice, it took me a little while to learn the basic flat tricks but once you get used to it you’ll learn other stuff easier. I learned legwraps, seatdrops , and crankrolls all on those crappy quax cranks that are really hard to stand on but I just got my moments so that should make life easier. If you learn stuff with harder cranks then it will be lots easier once you switch to better stuff

I weigh about 190, so I am a bit on the heavy side. Where can I buy the new Koxx cranks? I saw them on the website, but not for purchase.

Will the street cranks hold up to more than just tech street? The nubs look great for flat, but they look like ankle killers. Will I need to invest in some high top shoes as well?

I’m not a flat rider, but kh cranks are ridiculously strong. If your going to be doing really big street I would go that route. The q is noticeable for me, I go between moments and stock dx cranks. I like the q though, it is not a lot or anything, only 10mm.

I had the street cranks, but got a new green spirit and now ride the light cranks.

At first, I noticed that it was much harder to do flat, but after about a week of getting used to the cranks, and applying griptape, I feel that the trials cranks are actually fairly good for flat. I learned to rolling wrap with them, so they are not ridiculously bad…

okay so i am also new to flat. when it comes to the cranks, i can legwrap… but thats about it. i have the 137 moments and plan on buying some rollo disks very soon, although i have a few questions.]
my cranks are on a qu-ax crossfire hub so will the bolts for the rollos fit?
whats the deal with grip tape, and where do i put it?
what is Q factor?

You really should search stuff like this. Q-factor is one of the easiest things to search for… tho I was guilty of asking, back in the day, as well. Its the outward flare of the cranks, or the distance between the pedals. More Q = wider stance, no Q = straight cranks.

Grip tape goes on the top and bottom of the cranks as well as around the nubs, there is no wrong way to put griptape on your cranks, just put it on… if your feet still slip try some more, if you put too muchon, take some off.

The Rollos should come with a set of long bolts when you buy them… so no worries there.

EDIT: for grip tape I like to put a long strip that goes from half(long way) of the top of the crank, around the nub, and stops half way down the bottom, this give me plenty of grip while leaving a bit of metal for my feet to slid to the pedals.

Thinking about flat

I’m new to unicycling, although I’ve mastered the basics, but right now I have a $100 20" sun. Flat seems pretty cool and I’ve been trying some stuff on my current unicycle, but its not really working. I’m considering upgrading, but what are the real advantages to a specialized unicycle, or really my question is, is a Sun enough to do some basic flat or should I immediately invest in a better unicycle?

will search for things in the future, only i knew i would be able to get a better response if i was to ask the question myself. Anyway ill get right on the grip tape issue, i am pritty sure i’v still got some laying around.

cheers :wink:

What do you mean by basics? If you are gonna keep unicycling you are gonna wanna upgrade from a sun anyway. The sun doesn’t even have a handle right?

Next step up would be a nimbus(I like the x street) with Moment cranks. Throw on some Rollos, you go yourself one BAD ASS flat machine.

Can you ride backwards, idle, ride one footed, still stand? These are all very very very very usefull skills, and the sun will work for learning those. I can not see a sun being the most useful unicycle for trying to learn flat.

P.S for all the new guys in this thread, props on not starting your own thread and using this one for your questions… Also you can click the search button up top, go to advance search and select search thread titles only, search flat… you would find this thread: Flat Discussion Thread which has tons of stuff in there. a read through may help with other question you may have.

Well by basics I really just meant I can ride it and can go backwards, idle ect. decently. Ill probably try to get them down well and upgrade to a nimbus or something later. My budgets pretty tight now casue im also considering a Coker or maybe a muni right now.

So, you’re saying that KH Moment cranks won’t fit your Koxx-One hub? Would your Koxx-One frame fit a KH wheelset?

I dunno about the crank hub compatibility, but I have a K1 frame and a Kris Holm frame that both fit on my K1 wheelset so I’m sure they would both also fit a Kris Holm wheelset.

yes they do, K-1 frame can use KH wheelsets, I’ve seen some guys riding K-1 unis with KH Moment hubs and cranks.

That’s only true if you’re talking about the k1 steel frames.
If you want to use a black domina/xtp type frame then you have to file away the inside of the bearing holders because the KH flanges are much further apart than the k1 flanges and the k1 aluminum bearing holders are huge.

I’ve got the standard K1 Flight set-up. I just want to switch the cranks w/ KH Moments. Do you think those would fit an ISIS reinforced hub?

The Flight uni is just a normal Devil frame, so KH moment hub and cranks will fit in your frame. If you just want to switch the cranks, it just depends on the hub. You said you have a K-1 reinforced hub, the KH cranks will fit, but they wont go really far on the hub and I dont think it’s really good for it. Maybe some other riders can say it, I never rode KH moment cranks on a K-1 hub, I just tried the cranks on it. it stills depends if you hub is True ISIS, but I can’t tell.