UW pedal distance/crank length

Unicycles and Equipment
1

Howdy!

Me and my Dad are making an UW from a 26" rim and some old unicycle cranks.

We know what to do and how to do it, we just aren’t sure what the best crank length (distance from the centre of the wheel to the pedal) would be.

I have searched for and read similar threads on the forums but none I read stated the exact length they used.

My 24" muni has 165mm cranks so I reckon 170mm would do for a 26" UW.

Does anyone have any experience in building/riding UW’s that can help me as we would appreciate any advice before we start cutting.

Nice One.

Thomas.

2

I have 165’s on my 36" one, and 130 on my 24"

You will get used to anything you put on really, but holding a tape measure up to a 26" wheel, I would suggest 150 would do nicely

3

UW crank length

Cheers, man. Much appreciated.

Thomas.

4

My 24" Bedford UW has a crank length of about 127.5 mm. It’s a standard 24" UW with a 24x1.75 street tire.

A crank length of about 137 mm would actually give the same crank ratio on the 26" as what I have on my 24".

The club I’m in has a 26" UW and it has really long cranks. I don’t know what it’s crank length is, I just know it’s long. It seems to be easy to ride with the long cranks. It would probably be better to error on the side of too long rather than too short for a general purpose 26 UW. Maybe a crank length of 150 or so.

5

cheers, here it is

Thanks brian and john for your advice, here is the finished wheel. Still needs painted, pedals, tyre and tube, but it’s done. We went with 150mm.

I’ll let you know what it’s like when I’v managed to ride it for a bit.

Thomas.

wheel.jpg

6

UW failure

The UW didn’t work.

I went the length of my hall about 3 times before it broke.

The plates covering the cranks weren’t thick enough metal and allowed the crank-ends to move underneath the plates. The plates were fine for vertical pressure on pedal (i.e. crank-end vertical) but horizontal pressure just made the crank-ends roll over within the wheel and bend the metal plates.

I’ve ordered me an UW pedal boss kit from unicycle.com. Then I’ll start again!

Cheers for your help anyway people!

T.

7

my 24 uw is 2 streel squrare tubes from home depot with crank pieces welded on…it will never break (bars welded to rim in a + pattern)

Much easier to deal with than a big solid peice, being ablt to carry a uw in your hand…as well as something else, well that’s just great.

8

Brian, man. I think I saw a photo of your UW while I was looking for tips etc for my own. It does indeed look cool.

As for the carrying issue, I was thinking about drilling 5 finger-sized holes into the centre of it so it’s kinda like a bowling ball to carry.

Anyway, I got an email from Roger saying the boss kits are specially made to order so I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks to get it.

Ho-hum.

T.

9

I’ve seen many pictures of UWs built this way. Does this design require a stronger rim, as compared to the disc style Udubs, because it’s only being supported by four points?