My coker came w/ 6 inch (150mm) cranks. I am now using 5 inch (125mm) cranks. And am cruising at near 11 MPH for a 6 mile route that has some hills over 1 mile and the rest is flat.
Would I benefit from shorter cranks? What’s the optimum crank length for you on a Coker?
Thanks
You should really get used to going fast with 152’s before you go any lower, but crank length is a very personal choice.
my distance cranks are 110’s. my normal cranks are 175’s (this allows me to bomb around super fast and still ride very aggresively through town, and the woods. you really have to learn how to spin properly before you really enjoy the longer cranks, but you can get them going quite fast if you try.
127’s seem to be everyone’s second pair of Coker cranks, you can go alot faster and more smoothly than with the 150s, and still keep hills manageable. 127’s change it from ‘a big unicycle’ to a Coker!
it all depends on what you want to do. the benefits of one crank size have limiting factors compared to another size
On my Coker I used to sustain over 12 mph for an hour at a time on 150s, and I’m no spring chicken. Having been there and done it myself, and spent a fortune on cranks, my advice is, get to the limit of what you can achieve on the size you have before you change. Can you idle it? If not, there’s still more speed and control to be found with the cranks you have.
Short cranks on a very big wheel make a very specialised machine. A little bit more top end speed, but at the cost of low speed control and versatility. Then you’re restricted to easy routes, and you start to blame the uni for being boring.
Thanks for the help. I’ve never really tried to idle on it. I do idle on my 20". You’ve given me motivation to try idling on my Coker. I think I’ll go back to the longer cranks first… Oh, I just remembered my long cranks are on my 20 inch uni, which someone has borrowed to unicycle in a High School Play.
This will have to wait.
-Mike
Cranks
When buying a new Coker, do they come with 150s? it sounds like that would be the optimum length for me to get used to the bigger wheel. My plan is to use it for distance riding.
I find freemounting very easy on my 20" and more difficult on my 28". Will it be noticably more difficult on a 36"?
A different technique, and a bit more difficult. The difficulty is more with starting to move than actually getting up there in the first place.
I’m 5’8". I’m imagine it’s easier if you’re taller.
I hope to do a fairly lengthy ride 60km in about six months so I guess I’m going to need to do a lot of training. Complicating things is a surgery-induced delay. I had a “tune-up” on my right knee (very advanced arthritis) a few days ago and won’t be able to ride for a while.
This is the main reason I chose to have a geared hub in my 36" uni. I knew i’d want it to be both these things; easy cruise and smooth spin on flat & downhill routes, with high speed and lower control, as well as off road capability, hill climbing and maneuverability. Since my schlumpf coker can be both of these things at the flick of an ankle, it serves my purposes perfectly.
I currently ride with 165mm cranks, which are far too long for a normal road coker, BUT in 1:1.5 they equate to 110mm cranks. This change (although abrupt, and takes some getting used to) is perfect for changes in terrain & environment, as well as gradient. I use the low gear for technical work close to traffic, bumpy terrain and low speed maneuvering. As soon as I reach a wide, open stretch of (at the moment at least) clear cycle path, I kick the button across, panic for half a second, recover, overcompensate, recover the other way, slowly smooth out my cadence then concentrate on slowly building speed. I’ve only clocked one trip on it so far using my GPS, which gave me a peak speed of 16mph (in high gear) and I seemed to be averaging about 12, although I have to slow down slightly to take my hand off the saddle to read the display. My change up/down speed is at about 5mph.
I would recommend, on a 1:1 coker for versatility and speed, 125s are pretty much perfect. 150’s are good to learn on, but are too slow for distance work, there is much greater potential in the wheel. 110’s and below make it hard to climb steep gradients, and reduce maneuverability.
Loose.
I went between the 125s and 150s and got a set of 140s
Last night I ground off the sproket from a bicycle we found in the trash and now I have another pair of 6" cranks. (150mm). It’s amazing the bicycles people throw away around here. I am donating 9 bicycles to a school fundraiser rummage sale and all were given to me or found in the trash. Some look brand new. Most needed work, but nothing too major. The one I took the cranks from was sacrificed to fix at least 3 of the others, including new tires for Tom Miller’s training unicycle.
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=17606
Yes, Cokers come with 6" cranks. Last summer I exchanged the cranks with the 5" cranks from my 20" uni. I learned to idle the 20" with the long cranks, and have gotten comfortable with the 5" cranks on the Coker. It’s taken me quite a while to exceed 10 MPH on the Coker, even w/ 5" cranks. My next goal is 11 MPH for 6 miles. My times depend on the wind direction and traffic on the roads.
O.K. On to my first Coker idling session!
I don’t own a coker. I have ridden probably 15 different cokers (no 2 are the same!).
I think 125 is a good crank to try because you will then know whether you want to go up or down. Its a good median. I like a 110 but I have MacKenzie-esque quads. 102’s were too short for me. Basically for road riding you want the shortest cranks that you are comfortable riding in traffic. I could ride the 102s but once I got going I found it took me several rotations of the wheel to slow everything down.
Edit: Proper use of a brake changes everything…I may be willing to try 102s if I had a brake.
cranks arn’t very expensive so it would probably be wisest to get a whole set of 'em… I have 90,102,114 and 127 and I like 90 best for indoor riding* and 114 for touring, I’ll probably be using 102 in the summer when there’s little or no wind.
For my style of riding and physical condition I really like 140’s. I don’t like 125’s on hilly rides.
Dustin, are those your cranks for Coker? Your neighborhood ride profile probably doesn’t look like this:
Yeah they are, I don’t really use my coker in town, mainly touring and I’ve recently taken to indoor riding. 90mm cranks are still okay for turning and slowing down, I can still U-turn in a street and I don’t have to come to sudden stops as I don’t ride in town.
Right, what’s this called in normal english? Someone called it a ‘bike ring’ but that sounds wrong…
Most people use 125mm cranks, but don’t be scared to try shorter ones, I wasn’t disapointed when I tried them.
Edit: Can’t make image smaller, sorreh :S
Looking for the work “Velodrome”?
Fair enough for short cranks. I’ve said before that I’m impressed by those that can control big wheels with short cranks. For my personal taste they just don’t offer any advantage in hills, I have to be too careful.