Care and feeding of my XL

[Chris Bogart]

I just bought a unicycle at the beginning of August. I've been trying to
learn to fall off it, but the more I practice the longer it takes me to
accomplish this :-)

Seriously, though, it's coming along pretty well but I've reached the stage
where I'm slammin' the thing into the ground over and over and over again. I've
got the seat seriously taped up (It looks like The Unicycle of the Mummy) so it
won't do too much damage before I learn the old "catching the seat trick".

But in general I have no idea how to take care of it. I know nothing about
bicycles; I've barely ever ridden one. When it comes time to look under the hood
or check the fluids or cauterize the gaskets or whatever one does, I have some
bike-knowledgeable friends who can probably look at it with me/teach me. But I'm
not sure when to have it looked at, outside of checking the tire pressure once
in a while. Are there a few preventative things I can watch -- like some way of
quickly ascertaining if the spokes are still adjusted and threads aren't
becoming stripped or anything like that? Or do I just wait 'till something goes
wrong? Or check everything once a year?

PS I have a 24" Semcycle XL.

This is very damn fun. Where has this contraption been all my life!

____ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \ /
Chris Bogart ftp://ftp.csn.org/cbogart/html/homepage.html \/
cbogart@quetzal.com
________________________________________________________-
__________

[Doug Borngasser]

>But I'm not sure when to have it looked at, outside of checking the tire
>pressure once in a while. Are there a few preventative things I can watch --
>like some way of quickly ascertaining if the spokes are still adjusted and
>threads aren't becoming stripped or anything like that? Or do I just wait 'till
>something goes wrong? Or check everything once a year?
>
>PS I have a 24" Semcycle XL.

There were earlier post about some of the common problems people have with their
unicycles. The biggest problem I remember was with the cranks coming loose. I
have started having this problem as well. When riding with cotterless cranks it
is important not to ride with them loose since you will destroy your axel. I've
started keeping my 14mm socket wrench around to tighten things up as soon as
they come loose and as soon as I notice a problem, I stop ridining until I can
tighten it up again. If anyone has a good idea for keeping things tight without
basically welding on the crank I'd love to find a better way than carrying my
wrench everywhere.

_ _ Doug Borngasser
(o)(o) San Diego CA db db@ucsd.edu \__/ You know you're a
unicyclist when walking feels strange.

[Paul Halter]

Doug Borngasser wrote:
>There were earlier post about some of the common problems people have with
>their unicycles. The biggest problem I remember was with the cranks coming
>loose. I have started having this problem as well. When riding with cotterless
>cranks it is important not to ride with them loose since you will destroy your
>axel. I've started keeping my 14mm socket wrench around to tighten things up as
>soon as they come loose and as soon as I notice a problem, I stop ridining
>until I can tighten it up again. If anyone has a good idea for keeping things
>tight without basically welding on the crank I'd love to find a better way than
>carrying my wrench everywhere.

Ok, here's my low-tech solution: I had an ever-worsening problem with a
loosening crank nut on my XL. I tried a thread locking compound which held the
nut in place for about 3 days. So I cleaned up the threads and used a somewhat
stronger method: super glue. A good coat on the inside of the nut has held up
very well. Yes, you can still get the nut back off again if you need to, but it
seems to keep it from coming loose on its own. It's been several months since
I've had to reglue the nut. YMMV.

Paul Halter

[Iain Hibbert]

Doug Borngasser <dborngas@sdcc3.ucsd.edu> writes:
> If anyone has a good idea for keeping things tight without basically welding
> on the crank I'd love to find a better way than carrying my wrench everywhere.

the solution is to get it fixed by a cycle mechanic who should know how to make
it proper.. if your cranks keep getting loose, then your uni is malfunctioning
and it needs to see the doctor.

--
]ain

[Damion Yates]

I had mine welded together by a department in my university and haven't had a
problem since.

--
Damion Yates - Sheffield Uni, UK. http://www.bath.ac.uk/~exxdmy

[Ken Fuchs]

Doug Borngasser <dborngas@sdcc3.ucsd.edu> wrote:

>There were earlier post about some of the common problems people have with
>their unicycles. The biggest problem I remember was with the cranks coming
>loose. I have started having this problem as well. When riding with cotterless
>cranks it is important not to ride with them loose since you will destroy your
>axel. I've started keeping my 14mm socket wrench around to tighten things up as
>soon as they come loose and as soon as I notice a problem, I stop riding until
>I can tighten it up again. If anyone has a good idea for keeping things tight
>without basically welding on the crank I'd love to find a better way than
>carrying my wrench everywhere.

Try pounding the cranks on with a rubber mallet or a block of wood and regular
hammer. Once the cranks are pounded on tight, tighten the crank bolts or nuts to
keep the cranks tight.

If the crank bolts or nuts loosen up, try putting the non-permanent lock tight
on the threads prior to tightening.

On One Wheel,

Ken Fuchs <kfuchs@winternet.com