ethilien said:*I'm pretty sure its not the spokes, they don't seem very loose and
the noise it makes isn't the same I hear when riding.
Also, when I hold the uni up and just put my foot on one pedal and
push down hard the crank moves a little bit and it clicks 🙁
I have the bolts as tight as I can possibly get them, could this be a
problem caused by the axle being too small or something? Could some
rust have done that or something, so that the cranks don't fit tight
anymore? 😕 *
Spokes can make strange noises and not sound the way that you would
expect them to. Unless you've got experience feeling the spokes of a
really well built wheel it is hard to know how tight is tight enough.
You can feel the spokes of a poorly built wheel and say "these feel
tight". And then feel the spokes of a well built wheel and say "wow!
these feel really tight". Without a frame of reference it is hard to
say what is tight and what is not. A good bike shop will know the
difference, so if you're unsure have the bike shop take a look.
But all that stuff on wheels may not be the problem. Jerad brought up a
good possibility. It could be the axle is actually moving inside of the
hub body. This would happen due to poor tolerances during
manufacture.
The steel axle is actually press fit in the aluminum hub body. If that
press fit isn't tight the axle will move inside of the hub body and feel
like a loose crank. Steve Howard has a gallery with pictures of a
'dissected KH hub' (http://gallery.unicyclist.com/KH_hub). The pictures
will show you how the hub goes together. Now imagine that the axle was
slightly undersized or that the hole in the hub body was slightly
oversized. You'll end up with slop and the axle will move in the hub
body. That may be what is happening with your hub.
What you can do is push down on one crank and feel if the other crank
rises up an equal amount. If both cranks are moving in unison then it's
a loose axle in the hub body. If the cranks move independently then
it's a loose crank and not a loose hub. It may take two people to test
this. You may have to stand on one pedal while someone else holds their
hand on the other crank and feels for movement. What you're trying to
determine is if the cranks are moving in unison or independently. It
may take some force to get the cranks or axle to slip so it may not be
easy. A bike shop would be a good place to go for a second opinion on
the matter. Print out the pictures in Steve's gallery so the bike shop
guys can see how it's put together, then explain the problem and see if
they agree that the axle is loose.
If it turns out to be the hub then contact unicycle.com or the place
where you bought the unicycle and find out what to do from there. If
the hub is loose you can still ride it. You're not going to damage the
cranks. If you're handy with shop tools and machining tools you can try
fixing the hub by bonding the axle inside the hub body with epoxy. That
would be a temporary fix until you can get a replacement hub, hopefully
under warranty.
--
john_childs - Guinness Mojo
john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
Gallery: '' (http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/john_childs)
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