Coker setup for offroad

I have discovered a whole new way (to me) of cokering, and can't get
enough of it.

I have 175 mm cranks on it.

I ride it as absolutely hard as I can, and expend as much energy as I am
able to handle.

This goes for either on the trail, trials, or doing urban stuff.

You are able to meet the speeds that you could with shorter cranks, but
also fly up and down stairs, and up curbs, and stop on a nickel.
Cruising down the road, hopping up a curb to 180 land and ride away
backwards...on a Coker??? well that's just too fun!

152's can be used for trail riding, but I am so glad I discovered this,
I may not put shorter ones on again anymore....except to kick Ryan's ass
again next year on the 60km ride

--
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Tom

Check this thread afor some discussion on 170 cranks. Makes me think
about getting a set of 170's

http://tinyurl.com/5uxw7

Bill

--
billham

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I currently have 170's on my Coker. I put them on a couple weeks ago
when I was planning on doing a climb up Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic
National Park (the climb gains about 5000 feet over about 17 miles).
But I caught a cold. Then when I got over the cold the weather has now
turned and it would now be a wet and cold ride up the climb. I don't
know if I'll end up doing that climb this year. Oh well.

Anyways, I've been riding around with 170's for the past couple weeks.
Works great. Lots more control. For rides where you're going up and
down hills they're great. However, if I went on a 40 mile dead flat
ride I'd probably go stir crazy.

My top speed is down. With the 170's my top speed during a ride tends
to be about 12 mph. With 140's my top speed during a ride tends to be
about 14 mph. Where the 170's are better is for faster acceleration and
faster deceleration. On rides where you are constantly changing speed
the 170's could end up being faster (e.g. muni). To maintain a fast
speed it takes more mental determination. You have to keep reminding
yourself to keep the pedals turning fast. If you stop thinking out
going fast it is too easy to slow down. With shorter cranks it's easier
to maintain a faster speed without thinking about it as much. I'm sure
that with more time on the 170's I'll get used to it more and it will be
less of an issue.

I have not yet tried much muni with the 170's. I've still got my long
handle extension installed and the bike rack installed. My current
setup is not good for muni. I'd have to remove the handle extension and
the rear rack to turn my Coker in to a muni cruiser.

Give the long cranks a try and see what they're like.

--
john_childs - Guinness Mojo

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you want big cranks for your Coker you can buy these 8.25" long custom
CNC machined aluminum cranks for sale on ebay.

http://tinyurl.com/4wwt9

talk about torque!

--
hungfromhooks - uni newbie

Philip Barbosa

people photographer- side show performer - newbie unicyclist

Witness an average man, flesh skewered deeply and imbedded with shark
fishing hooks! Marvel as a mere mortal fueled only by free will...
Ferociosly Pulls, twists, and stretches hooked apendages to transform
the pastey dermal landscape of his own hide and finally ascend to new
heights, literally!" This is NO ILLUSION! What you will see is real...
and remember ladies and gentlemen all this done without the assistance
of his unicycle.
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Hmmmmm.

Crank length seems to be a fashion thing, to some extent. A year or two
back, it was all short short short, for speed. I got down to 89mm
cranks on my 24, and did some quite hard cross country on my 24 with
102s. Recently, Aspenmike posted a few reports of rides on a Coker with
170s, and suddenly everyone is long long long. (Next thing you know,
we'll be gone gone gone, jumping like a catfish on a pole.)

I tried 170s on my 26 and found it unrideable. It had no momentum at
all, so every bump and rut became an obstacle. I put 150s on and that
was comfortable.

Then again, I am in fact an undersized midget with short legs.

On the Coker, I've always managed with 150s. On 150s, I can freemount,
ride, stop, idle (usually) and ride quite hard corss country. On 125s,
I can mount, ride, stop, and do mild cross country.

Would the Coker be more fun on 170s than the 26 was, because of its
greater momentum? I wonder. Unfortunately, I gave my 170s away in a
rare moment of charitable feeling. Maybe one day.

--
Mikefule - Roland Hope School of Unicycling

Everyone should be fatuous for 15 minutes.
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hungfromhooks said:

*you want big cranks for your Coker you can buy these 8.25" long
custom CNC machined aluminum cranks for sale on ebay.

http://tinyurl.com/4wwt9

talk about torque! *

Whoa! Who is selling them? They're in the Bay Area, but I can't make
any guesses as to who they are based on their ebay name.

My interest would be in finding out who he managed to find to machine
the cranks. Machining the square tapers would be tricky. If I ever get
serious about getting some adjustable cranks made I'm going to need to
find a machinist who can do the job.

--
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john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
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a good friend of mine is a machinest, i asked him about making me a set
of kooka replica cranks once and he said it requires way way too many
special tools he does not stock in his shop.

if you can find a CNC shop and have your own CAD drawings you might be
able to get it done.

he was only able to mill the basic shape and heat reat them.

square taper and splining require special tools, special expencive
tools.

there is the eMachine website mentioned in previos threads?

--
hungfromhooks - uni newbie

Philip Barbosa

people photographer- side show performer - newbie unicyclist

Witness an average man, flesh skewered deeply and imbedded with shark
fishing hooks! Marvel as a mere mortal fueled only by free will...
Ferociosly Pulls, twists, and stretches hooked apendages to transform
the pastey dermal landscape of his own hide and finally ascend to new
heights, literally!" This is NO ILLUSION! What you will see is real...
and remember ladies and gentlemen all this done without the assistance
of his unicycle.
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hungfromhooks said:

*a good friend of mine is a machinest, i asked him about making me a
set of kooka replica cranks once and he said it requires way way too
many special tools he does not stock in his shop.*

It's the square taper that's the tricky part. The KH style splines or
Profile style splines can be machined with a custom made broach (at
least in aluminum alloy).

--
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john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
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The Coker-sized unicycle is actually a relatively new development, as is
off-road. I see the crank length thing as not a fad, but as a process
of distributed investigation by the unicycle community.

As a point of note, Tom Miller of the Unicycle Factory has the exact
setup required to do square tapers, and I have seen a videotape of him
doing the operation. Give him a ring; he does excellent work.

'The Unicycle Factory' (http://www.tux.org/~bagleyd/unicycle_factory/)

--
U-Turn - Member of Generation XO

Weep in the dojo... laugh on the battlefield.

'29er Tire Study' (http://u-turn.unicyclist.com/29erTireStudy/)

'Strongest Coker Wheel in the World'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albup39)

'New York Unicycle Club' (http://www.newyorkunicycle.com)

-- Dave Stockton
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U-Turn said:

* I see the crank length thing as not a fad, but as a process of
distributed investigation by the unicycle community.
[/URL] *

Not a "fad" (fad being very much a pejorative term) but there is an
element of fashion, I'm sure. Unicycling would be an unusual sport
indeed if it were not subject to fashion, and equipment fetishism.
People buy kit because of its perceived benefits, rather than any real
benefits it will offer them in their own game.

There are many ways to ride a unicycle. I've done 15 miles in a muddy
forest on a 28 with a road tyre and 110 mm cranks. It was hard work,
but rewarding. I've ridden the Coker on and off road with various
lengths of cranks, and I've done 20+ mile rides on a 24. Each
combination of wheel size, crank length and tyre section behaves in a
characteristic way. Some set ups are optimized for certain types of
use, but the most important component of all is the rider's
experience.

I read with amazement Aspenmike's write up of his 3 mountain passes on a
Coker with 170s, averaging speeds that I could not manage on 150s on the
flat over that distance.

I suppose all I'm saying is, a new set of cranks is not a short cut to a
whole new level of riding. Practice and experience make more
difference.

--
Mikefule - Roland Hope School of Unicycling

Everyone should be fatuous for 15 minutes.
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That's Gary Kanuch selling those 210mm cranks. I remember when he tried
them for the first time, at the Mt Diablo Challenge. They are the most
beautiful looking cranks I have ever seen. I think they are ade by the
same guy who made my 'adjustable cranks.' (http://tinyurl.com/36b8h)

About Coker crank length, for offroad, of course you want 170mm or so.
152mm just does not cut it. 2 days ago we did a nice ride starting in
Santa Cruz, up about 1000' (mostly paved, but a couple miles of
fireroad), then down 1000' all on fireroad/singletrack, some steep and
bumpy. Then a final 8 miles or so back to town, flat and paved. Total of
20 miles. I used 165mm cranks and it was great. If I didn't have a brake
I might've wanted a little longer. Other's had 140 (too short), 158 and
170. Rob Bowman's record time for this ride is 1:56 without dismounts -
we were very relaxed and took a little over 3 hours. Try that on a 24"
Muni!

---Nathan

--
nathan - BIG rides: Muni & Coker
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Oh yeah, along the lines of what John Childs said: an offroad Coker
needs more than just the right cranks. You also want a good handle
system. Don't get confused and try to use your touring setup. For the
ride Sunday I was using a Scott Wallace CF handle which is fantastic.
You want something with a really positive grip that you can pull hard on
when needed.

---Nathan

--
nathan - BIG rides: Muni & Coker
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nathan said:

*Oh yeah, along the lines of what John Childs said: an offroad Coker
needs more than just the right cranks. You also want a good handle
system. Don't get confused and try to use your touring setup. For the
ride Sunday I was using a Scott Wallace CF handle which is fantastic.
You want something with a really positive grip that you can pull hard
on when needed.

---Nathan *

A cross bar at the front of a GB handle works wonders and is a fantastic
all around handle

pulling up through the rough, pushing down to unweight the saddle for
endurnace...couldn't ask for more!

--
Brian MacKenzie - LAN Solo

Forthcoming DVD
TRAINING WHEEL NOT REQUIRED:
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My Coker is set-up with 150mm cranks for off-road, and usually 125's or
110's on road.

It's always going to be a personal thing, but if you want to go fast you
need to find a crank length that YOU can spin fast the time for the
terrain you are riding, which will be different for everybody.

Personally, I ride a 29'er with 150's off-road for anything that I can't
ride well with Coker/150's. I think the 150mm cranks suit me well,
whereas (maybe it's a leg length thing), I can't spin 170's fast no
matter what the terrain.

The other thing for off-road is to lighten you wheel. It will feel much
livelier and climb better. Either go tubeless (do a search for my
recent thread), or else use a 29'er inner tube.

A stiff carbon seat also helps climbing because it will not flex when
you pull up or push down on it.

A Coker is certainly a capable off-road machine- it rolls over bumps
better than smaller unicycles. At the UNICON12 DH race- there were
people flying all over the place as they got caught by the hidden bumps.
I rode a Coker over the same bumps with no problems.

Good luck,

Ken

p/s I will post my Coker Setup on a website soon.

--
GizmoDuck - NZUNI

o-kO
Adventure Unicyclist
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Ken, you're certainly right. It's a personal thing. Also, there is
offroad and then there is real offroad. Muni rides on a Coker, on steep
terrain will be really tough on 152mm cranks. One good solution is to
use a 29er or a Muni for these, but for those diehard Coker riders, they
will likely find that going to longer cranks results in a pretty amazing
ride. Not so much ultimate speed, but lots of fun and excitement.

---Nathan

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Mikefule said:

*Recently, Aspenmike posted a few reports of rides on a Coker with
170s, and suddenly everyone is long long long. *

That is because He opened our eyes to the potential. Look at the
friggin' vertical! The record speaks for itself...pushing the ride to
where it has not been before. I don't blame folks for wanting to jump
on that. Everyone was trying shorter and talking about the speed
improvements, but no one was really testing the limits of what you could
do in the opposite direction. Aspenmike has been, and the test results
have been very interesting.

Mikefule, you are an artist on the big wheel. Think of it as adding
another color or brush to your distance pallette. Now you just need to
get yourself near some terrain to justify that extra leverage.

--
tomblackwood - Registered Nurtz

Tailgate at your own risk.....

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A few things,

Tall people can spin longer cranks better. I guess Aspen Mike is pretty
tall? I know Tall Paul can ride really fast on longer cranks.

Long cranks are great for serious mountains, which Aspen Mike obviously
rides in. Especially if you're riding off road. For cross country muni
in areas without several 1000 foot mountains, I'd be surprised if you'd
need them.

I think people with brakes can get away with a bit shorter cranks than
without, as long as they have leg strength for the uphills.

Also, there are a few people who are just super-human and can ride way
more than the rest of us. Roger Davies rides insane things on his coker
with 150 or shorter cranks, due to having very very strong legs, I
suspect Aspen Mike is similar in being able to ride so fast on 170
cranks.

Joe

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hey brian, i remember using your coker with those awesome 170mm race
face cranks at muni weekend. remember the big log pile we went up? that
was awesome. i have 127's on my coker at home and am soon upgrading to a
hardened hub, 14g spokes and an airfoil rim. i wanna be like you when i
grow up! (get a lil older?) anyways, any chance of seeing that footage
of us both going over that pile of logs? i would like to see it and show
my friends that dont ride yet. (i have two groups of friends, those that
ride and those that dont ride yet)

--
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"No one is taller than the last man standing"
"hygeine is for squares, like pants!"-Mr. Turner

Me: "could you replace the rim on this uni when i get the new one?"
Bike store guy: "Oh, HELL NO!!"
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tomblackwood said:

*
Mikefule, you are an artist on the big wheel. Think of it as adding
another color or brush to your distance pallette. *

Think of me as having Dorian Grey's Coker in my attic. The Coker isn't
going rusty, but I'm getting older. Not ridden for weeks. :0(

--
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