So I decided to take apart an old bike to make an UW for the hell of it. I took out the spokes and put the plywood in so now i have a rim with the plywood in it. I just don’t know how to get the pedals in.
I can’t get the cranks off of the bike easily so I was wondering if there was any way to put the pedals directly into the wood. Also are there any other methods besides the common one of cutting the hole in the wood then putting the crank in then securing with the metal plates. That seems overly difficult and complicated.
Thanks!
Oh and any other advice about UW in general would be appreciated too!
I’ll see if I can find the post, but a while back I made an ultimate wheel. I figured out a way to make a pedal mount from common hardware that cost about $5 at the hardware store. The only trick is that you need 1/2" pedals like the ones that fit 1 piece cranks. It is super easy to make the mounts, and they are very solid.
Here’s a link to a nicer wheel that used my pedal mount method. He did a much nicer job with the consruction than I did. I’ll still look to see if I can find the original thread, but to be honest the photo’s may not be there anymore. A few years ago there was a gallery on the forum that you could upload photos to. When it went away a lot of threads lost their photo’s including mine. Still I’ll see if I can find it.
jtrops that’s exactly what i was looking for! Only problem is I can’t exactly understand what’s going on in the pedals.
So here’s what i think is going on:
On non pedal sides there are three nuts chiseled into the wood.
On pedal side theres a metal plated which is the washer i guess that has a hole in the middle for the pedals.
Then three holes are drilled through the washers and bolts are put through them to go into the nuts on the other side.
The questions I have about that is does the hole in the washer need to be the same exact size of the pedal? And does the bolt need to be the same length as the thickness of the wood?
I think I have the right idea though and this seems like a great method. Great job coming up with it jtrops!
The washer is acting like a flange that the pedal is snugged up against. The pedal is threaded into a nut on the other side of the washer. The flange is held in place by the bolts, and matching tee nuts on the other side. I used two stacked washers on each pedal mount, but at the time I was figuring it out for the first time. In practice I think one heavy washer would be plenty strong considering the three tee nuts/bolts.
Parts:
2, 2" washers to use as plates for mounting the pedals
1, 1/2"x20tpi RH nut
1, 1/2"x20tpi LH nut
6, small pronged tee nuts with matching bolts
Drill a hole in the plywood that fits the nut. This can be blind, or through. Drill holes in the washers that will be used to bolt them to the plywood. Use the washers as a drill guide for the plywood. If the nut fits snuggly in the hole you drilled for it you can put the nut into the disk, and attach the rest of the hardware. If it is a loose fit you can attach the nut/washer to the pedal, and then attach this assembly to the wheel with the tee nuts/bolts.
I’m sure I have the original photo’s on a disc somewhere. I’ll see if I can find them. If not maybe I’ll dismantle my UW to take some photo’s for you.
Here are the old photo’s that were in the original post. Anyway you can see that the nut is essentially clamped against the washers with the pedal, and the washers are attached to he plywood with the bolts/tee nuts. I am happy to answer any questions you still have. After looking at the original thread it looks like the hardware actually cost around $2 so a bit cheaper than I remembered.
That’s an interesting way to do it. I wonder if it will give the rim enough support. If so, you just dropped a couple of pounds off the weight of mine.
You may want to swap out the tire for a slick, or something without side knobs. Any kind of tread on the edge of the tire will make riding it more painful. Even when you do it right the tire will rub against the inside of your leg. As you get better it will be less so, but it will still happen.
Of course you could just make a habit of riding in jeans.
Wow, that nut + washers technique is brilliantly simple! Much easier than what I used (in the 80s) for mine. That was an Ultimate Wheel Insert from The Unicycle Factory. It was a pre-made part that you bolted into the wood with a couple of sets of pedal holes for different virtual crank lengths. But you had to cut out a rectangular hole for it to go in, and chisel out some notches for the bolt parts so they would lay flush. The washer approach is much simpler and only requires a drill.
Actually that’s not entirely true, as you still had to do a nice, circular cut to fit the wood to the rim. I chose to use a rim with little “bumps” around each spoke hole; this required filing 36 notches all around my rim. Fun.
I imagine you could find some 9/16" nuts to use with common pedals? If not, cut the ends of a pair of old cranks and make snug-fitting holes for them, so they don’t turn.
That’s how I did mine. I cut the last couple inches off an old pair of aluminum cranks and cut out shapes in the wood to match. Sandwiched them in the plywood between a pair of large washers and bolted together with carriage bolts. It worked great for all the ‘riding’ I was able to manage. Maybe I’ll have another go after reading this thread!
