I'll try not to babble on too much in this thread (something I often do
when talking about unicycle projects). So here it is...
THE ORIGINAL CUSTOM FRAME
In early 2003 I had my first custom muni frame built. I adored it,
except for the horrible lack of side tyre clearance (1-2mm or so). It
was light, rigid, beautiful, and yellow.
Original thread - http://tinyurl.com/5ndom
Design changes - http://tinyurl.com/6jjkn
Bearing holders - http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albuo16/aak ,
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albuo16/aal
Frame crown - http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albuo16/aat ,
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albuo16/aav
Completed custom muni pics - http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albup21
I sold the frame to a friend who has built it into a beautiful light
muni with a smaller tyre and rim. I went onto another frame...
THE INTERMEDIATE FRAME
I was given this old prototype frame from unicycles.com.au . This is
the one I'm riding with for now. I don't like it because although it's
really rigid, it's also really heavy, the brake bosses are mounted
poorly, the bearing holders aren't quite the right diameter, and it has
the same 1-2mm side clearance as my old frame. I'm planning on giving
it away and getting a new custom frame made.
Here's a thread about it - http://tinyurl.com/4cle4
THE FUTURE CUSTOM FRAME
I'm changing frame builders this time, to a friend of mine who is a keen
muni rider and very skilled at this sort of thing. This is him -
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/album373/DSC08598 .
As I said, I adored most aspects of my original frame and hate most
aspects of my current frame. My future frame will have the best of
both...
- Light weight (under 1kg)
- Ample clearance (I meant it this time 😉)
- Moderate rigidity
- Elegant beauty 🙂
More details...
Twin brake bosses for HS-33's
- This time they will be mounted by a unicycling frame builder. As you
can see on the intermediate frame, I'm currently running my Maguras off
single bosses and it's horrible.
Long 'neck'
- 200mm long leaving only about 25-30mm for downwards adjustment. This
way it will be stronger and also look nicer in that it will carry the
colour scheme right up to the seat
Brake cable out of the way
- Nathan (the framebuilder) suggested this and I think I will go with
it...having the braided brake cable either passing inside the frame to
get it out of the way of sticks, legs, etc, or having it clipped to the
frame the same as on many bikes.
Custom brake lever mount
- I'll most likely get Nathan to make me a small brake lever mount the
attaches to the front of the seatbase. I had a lot of trouble tracking
down bar ends for anything bigger than 22.2mm tubing and this time I'm
going with 25.4mm.
Colour scheme
- I like this colour scheme more and more each time I think about it.
I'm going for white, black, and blue as my main three colours. White
frame, black seat, rim, and tyre, blue pedals (Jim Cielencki's) and
seatpost clamp, and the chrome spokes, hub, and cranks. As I mentioned,
the neck of the frame will extend to almost seat height. Here's an
edited picture of my old muni to show roughly what it will look
like...isn't it beautiful? - http://tinyurl.com/65x66
QUESTIONS
Seatpost size
- I'm very much undecided about this. What is standard on most quality
munis? 25.4mm? Thomson bike seatposts are available in 25.4 which is a
consideration I had for the future. For now though, I don't want an
adjustable seat angle.
Wheel size
- For now, I think I plan to stick to a 3" Gazz on an Alex DX-32.
Running a 24" Large Marge would mean having to mount the brake bosses
wider apart than usual which I don't like, and I think a Gazz on a DX-32
offers me enough folding prevention. I also want a reasonably light
wheel, and the LM with that future 4" tyre (or 3" Gazz for that matter)
would not be light. What do you think? Should I allow that extra bit
mroe clearance in case I want to eventually run a 4" tyre? I think as
it is it would just squeaze in there, but I've been riding a muni with a
just-squeezed-in-there wheel for two years and I hate it!
Any corrections or suggestions for my current frame design?
3D MODEL
As you can see, it closely resembles my original custom frame...I loved
that frame.
Frame specs - http://tinyurl.com/7y627
Isometric, shaded, view of back of frame - http://tinyurl.com/5bzj2
Front view, shaded, no wheel - http://tinyurl.com/67of3
Front view, shaded, with wheel - http://tinyurl.com/4xq8h
Isometric, shaded, with wheel - http://tinyurl.com/4tw4z
Isometric, wireframe - http://tinyurl.com/6matk
Isometric, shaded, wheel slided - http://tinyurl.com/5zs9r
-Please let me know what you think. Your suggestions really helped me
when designing my original frame.-
I'm very excited.
Cheers,
Andrew
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andrew_carter - Learning to unicycle...
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http://www.unicycles.com.au
unicycling tips and tutorials - http://www.unicycle.2ya.com
*'my big movie (51mb, divx)' (http://tinyurl.com/4bxdl)*
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