I have been swapping cranks between my unicycles, replacing bearings, and generally working on my unicycles a lot the last few months. So much that is has become a form of upper body exercise which compliments the workout of actual riding.
I tried working with the uni on benches, the floor, and eventually found the solution pictured below works reasonably well being 1wide 2long 2high (foot) cardboard box. The cardboard box doesn’t scratch things, gets the uni up to a decent working height, provides space for the pedals/cranks and captures loose nuts and bolts when they drop.
I’m thinking a good project for an upcoming blistering winter day might be to build something similar to the top of the box in wood. I’d have the 1 foot wide sides about 2 inches lower than the long sides for the neck of the uni to escape. Then staple some carpet padding on the top edges.
There must be other even better ideas, what do you suggest?
(pardon the mess, but that is the way my basement always looks.)
I’m working up money for a airfoil rim, so I don’t want to spend much money, even the reasonable cost of the stand your using. Thank you for the great pictures and ideas.
Copying Brian’s setup. Maybe I could simply mount on the end of a bench top a clamp that will securely hold to one frame fork side. I’ll have to see I can find a proper clamp. That Black and Decker workbench in the background of my picture would be nice to mount the clamp onto.
(I know it would be better to clamp to the seat post as Brian shows, but my seats are so low (short legs) that there is no space.)
Continuing toward a uni bench bench, I’ve found a clamp which I would bolt to the top of the bench. The first pic shows the original clamp. The second pic (sloppy photoshopped) shows how I would cut it back and drill about a 1 inch round grove between clamp faces to hold a side fork of the frame.
Wood is easy to work with, and is not likely to bend the frame. The clamp may even clamp hard enough to hold the frame securely. I’ll look for some rubber padding to put over the clamping surfaces.
I went to buy the wood clamp. I realized in the store that the two jaws are floating, so the clamp faces are not kept parallel to one another. This will not securely hold the frame since the jaws will roll as the frame turns between the jaws.
I believe Jagur once posted a picture of him using a water cooler type water bottle weighted down with sand. You take out the seatpost and put the frame neck into the neck of the bottle.
I’ve perfected my work area, with a bike stand similar to the one Brian suggested (it’s a Park Took PCS-9 ebay~$80 including shipping) , and second bench (it’s a rigid plastic trash can, had in the garage). Both work great.
I love the Park bike stand, it is perfect for unicycles and you can do most adjustments on this.
The trash can bench is good for pulling bearings.
I’d rather have used a trash can without wheels, but this one was from my garage, it is steady enough. I’d suggest a rigid plastic can like this one instead of the softer plastic cans that may be weakened with the slot cut in the ridge.
I cut a ~2inch deep ~3inch wide slot for the frame to stick out through. One nice touch is that when cutting slot, just cut the two vertical slots with a hack saw, and then fold the small piece down, and pop rivet back to the side just, this leaves a nice rounded edge for the frame to rest on. The resulting garbage can remains perfectly useful for it previous function.
