I bought a Sun 20" in January having not been on a Uni for many years. So far I have done some mild Muni rides but also been practicising on my hopping, riding off curbs and SIF. Today I managed to bend the Spindle where the right crank attaches. I already replaced the saddle after 6 weeks. I guess it wasn’t designed for that kind of abuse from a 220lb guy!
With the pedals mis-aligned as they are now it makes for some interesting riding.
Does it make any sense to buy a new hub or should I just keep it as is until I can afford to upgrade to a better Uni?
That hub doesn’t have much time left. It might last indefinitely if you only use it for teaching friends to ride, plan old, a to b riding or other “easy” stuff, but even idling on it may kill it. Be ready for when that happens…
Obviously you need a stronger uni; invest in one of those before fixing this one or it will just start to look the same way after a while.
Thanks Killian and John. It’s a bit of a catch 22 - Can’t afford to upgrade right now, but no point sinking money into a hole.
The other dilemma I have is that I am currently working with 4 other “riders”, 2 that are at the 100 yard level and 2 that are at the 10 feet level and two other persons that have said they want to learn - I don’t want to lose the momentum of getting these new people into the sport. Living on a small island like this it takes time to get replacements and the shipping costs are silly. We also only have one bike shop in the country, they have traditionally averaged selling one Uni every other year - so far this year they have just sold their 3rd one (myself and my two hundred yarders), they are reluctant to buy more than one at a time for stock, though their last order was for two. I want to work through the bike shop as much as possible as I see them as a possible sponsor in the future. Maybe I might have to bight the bullet and buy their last one just so I have something available for my “cadets”, I do believe they are due to place an order for 2 wheelers next week so will persuade them to add in 1 or 2 more uni’s.
Just a thought, but maybe since you’re dealing with such a number of new riders (and it sounds like they want to learn) and you’re in such a specialized location, perhaps you all could pool some money together, and get a decent learner uni (or two) that you all could use. Trying to think out of the box a bit here…
While saving for a new uni (I’d get something w/ an ISIS hub) here’s some skills you can practice that shouldn’t stress it too much. Also watch lots of vids to see better the kind of style uni you want to get.
Ride w/ one foot (L & R)
wheel walk (ww) two feet then one foot.
ride backwards
spins (tight circles)
You could do more SIF or SIB fwrds or bkwrds but if John thinks idling would be bad then these would be just as bad for the hub/cranks if not worse.
Like a Nimbus 24 Muni ($340 USD) and a trials. ($280)
I figured that now was as good a time as any to learn one footed! I have been watching some vids on this - its a case of my brain allowing me to commit to take the foot off the pedal!
Ride backwards I can do, the really tight spins I can’t do but that might put more pressure on the hub and the wheel walk not sure I am ready for that yet.
Ideally you wouldn’t be putting much pressure on the pedals. To turn, say left, lean left, & turn your hips and shoulders to the left (you can also put more pressure on that inside pedal on the down stroke, but prob not good w/ that hub). But tight continuous turns there comes a point when you have to continue leaning in w/ everything hips down inward, but lean out w/ your upper body.