Tighten cranks [Was Re: mushrooming your cranks]

John Foss <john_foss@asinet.com> wrote:

>What I do with my cotterless mountain unicycles is to give the cranks a
>little tighten before every ride. Almost all cotterless unicycles have a
>14mm nut on the cranks, so you need a 14mm socket wrench.

Tightening cotterless cranks with two 2"x4" blocks of hard wood, a 24 oz
hammer and a 14mm socket wrench:

  1. Put the cranks on and hand tighten the nuts

  2. Tighten the nuts with the socket wrench till they are “snug”.

  3. Place one block of wood on solid ground such as a concrete floor.

  4. Lay the unicycle down with the axel part of the lower crank on the
    wood block.

  5. Hold the second wood block over the axel and pound this wood block
    hard with the hammer several times in line with the axel.

  6. Tighten the nuts with the socket wrench till they are “snug”.

  7. Lay the unicycle on its other side.

  8. Repeat steps 4-7 above 4-6 times.

  9. Tighten both nuts so they are extremely snug, but be careful not to
    apply too much force so the threads become stripped.

I’ve never had a crank come loose after or damaged any component using
this procedure.

The top wood block and hammer could be replaced with a rubber mallet,
but I’ve never trusted that the rubber mallet could pound the cranks
on enough, so I’ve never used a rubber mallet.

Sincerely,

Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com>