Suddenly left crank wont stay tight

On the second day of our Huntsville AL MUni campout, deep into the MUni
ride, far from camp, all of the sudden my left crank was loose.

I carry that tool so I tightened the nut. 100 yards later...loose. I did
this every 100 yards or so for a while. I bashed it against a tree,
which seated the crank better and wedged some bark in there acting like
loc-tite.

But, alas, its loose again.

Could I have merely stripped the nut? My first step was going to be
replacing it. I assume the nut is softer metal than the screw coming out
of the hub, because it would be horrible to have to replace a hub, but
simple to replace a nut.

Prior to its being loose, I hadn't touched it in over a year.


--
Memphis Mud - Student of GrandMaster 2T

"winter in peanut butter comes turquoise" -Greg Harper
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the square hole of your crank is now ruined, and so is the crank.

it will never stay tight again


--
Brian MacKenzie - LAN Solo

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*120* reviews on *77* products, never make an uninformed purchase again!


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Thanks for the advice and link

Set of Cranks still trumps new hub (considering lacing labor adn lack of
expertise)


--
Memphis Mud - Student of GrandMaster 2T

"winter in peanut butter comes turquoise" -Greg Harper
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Memphis Mud wrote:
*Prior to its being loose, I hadn't touched it in over a year. *
yep, no more thought needed.


--
jagur - young gas bag

smoke me a kipper, i'll be back for breakfast.
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Was it a cotterless crank or other?


--
caw89 - Cody

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Sounds like it is indeed the old problem of riding on a crank when it is
a little loose and rounding out the square hole. It is very hard to
tell if a crank arm is "a little loose" when riding. Generally you only
notice a loose crank when it is a lot loose.

The best solution is to periodicly check your cranks for tightness,
especially after heavy riding (big drops etc). Also note that aluminium
cranks need to be tightened far more often than steel.

If you do round out a crank you can sometimes get a little more life out
of it by taking the crank off and mounting it at 90 or 180 degrees from
where it was (you'll need to move the other crank as well).

If you are very unfortunate and have been riding on a loose crank you
may have also damaged your axle as well. I have done this a few times
and it requires a complete wheel rebuild :-(

Hopefully buying new cranks will fix your problem.


--
peter.bier - Unicycle trasher

-Peter Bier

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I don't know if this is a good idea or not, but it worked for me...

On my first unicycle one of the cranks came loose (and I didn't notice
until it actually fell off, so I had to walk a long ways) I ended up
having to replace the bolt, but nothing else (it was lost). What ended
up working was putting a couple of thin layers of aluminium foil around
the hub before putting the crank on, and then tightening it down really
well, and with plenty of thread lock. It has held up for at least a
couple years now without a problem, under all sorts of riding
conditions. Hopefully you won't have to replace any expensive parts.


--
sevenasterisks - Mediocre Unicyclist
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Here is a post about puttin them in the oven to mold them to your axle.
Its in the post from Al Lieffring.



http://tinyurl.com/bvk5l


--
juggle508 - Extreme UNIcyclist

If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.
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You folks are great. Thanks


--
Memphis Mud - Student of GrandMaster 2T

"winter in peanut butter comes turquoise" -Greg Harper
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I really think you just need to find a tree with more sap. That ought
to do it. Oh and where is that video? That would be appropriate to
post in this thread.


--
bugman
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