DustinMichels said:What about 102mm then? I'm planning to try those next.
Your crank preference will be a factor of your height/leg length and
also riding style.
I've tried 102mm, 110's, 125's and 150's on the Coker.
My preference for perfectly flat terrain is the 102's- for me it's
about 5% faster and much smoother than 110s. I've not tried 89's yet.
102's are absolutely hopeless for climbing though.
The 110's I use for general riding- uphills up to 5%, and dowhills to
10% works really well on 110's. It's really smooth and safer going
downhill on these than on longer cranks- you can pedal really fast
without any wobble, which makes you more stable.
Most people believe long cranks give you more control- so I'll qualify
my above statement. In terms of riding downhill there are two schools
of thought- you can use long cranks because it gives you more leverage
and therefore in theory you can stop better. Or you can use short
cranks and pedal really fast (but look where you're going!) and that
gives you more control because your lower limbs will not be flying all
over the place. It's also much harder to let your wheel "roll"
underneath you with long cranks: Because your limbs are travelling in a
bigger circle, it's difficult to relax. If your muscles are tense- you
lose control, you get tired, and it impairs your ability to slow down.
On downhills you should only have enough pressure on the pedals to
correct your balance. The only time to put hard pressure is when you
need to slow down.
The 125's I like for climbing- I used it for about half the AUT, where
the passes were over 10% in places. I would have swapped it back to
110s for the downhills but it wasn't worth the trouble every time I got
to the top of a hill. I certainly had the most fun descending on my
110's.
I use 150's for off-road. It'll climb most things.
Also, note that the above is for an Airfoil Coker with Tommy Miller
spokes and a tubeless kit and standard UDC hub. That makes it about
500g lighter than a standard airfoil wheel. I would probably go up a
crank length with a heavier wheel.
Ken
--
GizmoDuck
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'Laos Unicycle Tour' (http://www.laosunitour.org)
'New Zealand Unicycle Federation' (http://www.unicycle.org.nz)
"It's not a unicycle ride if it's less than 30km." - note to self
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