We can influence the making of some strong short cranks!

Unicycles and Equipment
1

Hey there Ya’ll,
I was just on the phone with a Scott Laliberte, the international sales manager for Kooka Components. They are doing some restructering right now, but when they fire up the machines later this year they will be looking for unique and specialized components to manufacture…

Kooka makes some good stuff, I’ve had 170mm Kooka cranks on my MUni for almost two years and I’ve yet to bend them. They’ve been to the North Shore a couple times and dropped off many stages, picnic tables, etc. No bendy!

Since quality cranks in shorter lengths are non existant, I contacted him about making some shorter cranks for trials Unicycling (and he called me back!). My preferred length for the 20inch Monty wheel would be 135mm. and I think my preferred length for a 24inch would be in the 150mm range. Scott said he would try to get the owner to manufacture at least two lengths of shorter cranks for us and possibly even make a hub.

*What is your ideal crank length for 20inch trials?

*What is your ideal crank length for 24inch trials?

Please email me with your preffered crank lengths (in millimeters please) and I will get the info back to Kooka. Email your answers to cranklength@dustinkelm.com

If you would like to contact Kooka directly and show them your support and interest you can write Scott at kooka@shaw.ca

2

Cool avatar, Dustin. Is there alot of this “artist formerly known as…” stuff going on in Minneapolis because Prince is a local and a trend-setter?

Are these cranks going to be steel or aluminum? My interests are strictly selfish.

Will this hub have an axle with a square taper or spline? If splined, will it be the same as Profile’s for interchangability?

3

We like to joke about the little man and his purple house…hey we’re famous for something other than a football team that has been to the Superbowl 4 times and lost just as many.

I’m think Kooka only deals with aluminum.

I think we are most likely to get cranks out of Kooka. Scott mentioned the possiblity of making a hub but he didn’t really understand at the moment how a uni hub/bottom bracket worked. He is going to check out the Profile set-up and look at some hubs at unicycle.com

If we only get cranks, they will probably have a square taper. They are planning on manufacturing their own proprietary 3-piece crank sets for the two wheeled crowd. I’m guessing these would be splined. If you think they should be the same as Profile’s give them your input… kooka@shaw.ca

4

i could use some 135mm for my 29er,and even better if they can make them smaller.theres no small alloy cranks for Coker,29er distance riders etc.

hopfully they can be made without the chainring attaching bolt on the right side

5

Not joking, but probably being foolish. I was wondering about telescopic cranks. No really, stay with me on this one…

I have heard of people using cranks drilled with two or three different holes at different lengths. Great, except on the short length, surely the extra bit catches your ankle.

Imagine a crank consisting mainly of two cast sections which slide together and telescope. The length could be controlled by a threaded adjuster, similar to the way that the back wheel is adjusted to tension the chain on a modern motorbike. (Older bikes have a system similar to the DM giraffe, and this leaves an exposed threaded section. Dangerous on a crank.)

Now, with a few turns of an Allen key, a crank could be lengthened or shortened by say 10 - 20 mm to allow for different terrain ahead. Lengthen them for the off road section, stop for a sandwich and a drink, then shorten them for the ride home along the tarmac.

Anyone out there who thinks this is NOT a totally impractical idea?

6

Count me in but I think that 30-40mm travel would be much more useful… say 120-160 or 110-150. That would be an ideal Coker range, I’d imagine. So far I’ve only tried 150s on the Coker, though.

For strong fixed-length short cranks with tapered axle like Suzue, 125mm would be perfect for Cokering in most types of terrain, according to people I’ve asked.

7

Re: We can influence the making of some strong short cranks!

in article Mikefule.5fsdz@timelimit.unicyclist.com, Mikefule at
Mikefule.5fsdz@timelimit.unicyclist.com wrote on 5/29/02 5:43 PM:

> Imagine a crank consisting mainly of two cast sections which slide
> together and telescope. The length could be controlled by a threaded
> adjuster, similar to the way that the back wheel is adjusted to tension
> the chain on a modern motorbike. (Older bikes have a system similar to
> the DM giraffe, and this leaves an exposed threaded section. Dangerous
> on a crank.)
>
> Now, with a few turns of an Allen key, a crank could be lengthened or
> shortened by say 10 - 20 mm to allow for different terrain ahead.
> Lengthen them for the off road section, stop for a sandwich and a drink,
> then shorten them for the ride home along the tarmac.
>
> Anyone out there who thinks this is NOT a totally impractical idea?

Well, there’s these. No idea how well they’d work on a Uni. Of course, at
$120/pair you’d have to use them a lot to make them worth it.
http://tinyurl.com/8up

-Carl

8

Mikefule write:

Sounds possible to me, I said something similar in another thread, though I hadn’t thought in detail so I didn’t elaborate.

How about hydraulic adjustment from a lever under the seat so you can adjust it on the fly, like when you hit a steep hill, just lengthen your cranks without stopping.

Difficult but technically possible though I doubt anyone would make them so the allen key idea’s probably more practical.

Those ones at $120 a pair are expensive for what they are and look a bit clumsy to me.

Gary

9

RE: We can influence the making of some strong short cranks!

Hi Dustin.

135-mm cranks are Dan Heaton’s preferred size also for the Monty wheel.
If we can convince Kooka to manufacture this size, we’ll stock them.

Scott at Kooka Components just lowered our price so that we can run a
special on the 170-mm and 175-mm cranks. They’re now $129, down from
$149.

Best regards,

John Drummond


1-800-Unicycle

-----Original Message-----
From: rsu-admin@unicycling.org [mailto:rsu-admin@unicycling.org] On
Behalf Of dustin
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 1:23 PM
To: rsu@unicycling.org
Subject: We can influence the making of some strong short cranks!

Hey there Ya’ll,
I was just on the phone with a Scott Laliberte, the international sales
manager for Kooka Components. They are doing some restructering right
now, but when they fire up the machines later this year they will be
looking for unique and specialized components to manufacture…

Kooka makes some good stuff, I’ve had 170mm Kooka cranks on my MUni for
almost two years and I’ve yet to bend them. They’ve been to the North
Shore a couple times and dropped off many stages, picnic tables, etc. No
bendy!

Since quality cranks in shorter lengths are non existant, I contacted
him about making some shorter cranks for trials Unicycling (and he
called me back!). My preferred length for the 20inch Monty wheel would
be 135mm. and I think my preferred length for a 24inch would be in the
150mm range. Scott said he would try to get the owner to manufacture at
least two lengths of shorter cranks for us and possibly even make a
hub.

*What is your ideal crank length for 20inch trials?

*What is your ideal crank length for 24inch trials?

Please email me with your preffered crank lengths (in millimeters
please) and I will get the info back to Kooka. Email your answers to
cranklength@dustinkelm.com

If you would like to contact Kooka directly and show them your support
and interest you can write Scott at kooka@shaw.ca

–
dustin - artist formerly known as UnicycleDK

dustin kelm


isa40:30.31

“Confidence doesn’t come from not falling, but from not being afraid of
falling.”

dustin’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/920
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/18389

rec.sport.unicycling mailing list -
www.unicycling.org/mailman/listinfo/rsu