Broken Schlumpf Crank

I may feel like I have to post about every ride I do, but, honestly, I
only post when something interesting happens. This morning I got some
'good karma' (http://tinyurl.com/yoayad). So, to make up for it, and
to balance the world out, on the way home this evening, I got some bad
karma.

Heading down Clerkenwell Road, I was approaching some traffic lights
that were about to change, so I had to speed up a bit to get through.
Just as I got to the other side I noticed my right foot felt a bit
wobbly. If you've ever had a loose crank, bent pedal spindle or pedal
bearing loss then you'll know exactly the kind of feeling I mean.

So I stopped ASAP and took a look. I waggled the pedals but the felt
ok. Wiggled the crank and there was a bit of movement. Was that it?
Ah, no, it's a Schlumpf, so there's always a bit of play. Tried
wiggling the crank in relation to the opposite one and it was solid.
With the uni upside down I 'rode' it with my hands but couldn't feel
anything out of the ordinary. Maybe I'd just imagined it. I'll jump
on and carry on home.

Strait away I notice that something really wasn't right at all. So I
hopped off and took another look. This is what I saw;

25065

25066

25067

Now, I don't do trials. I don't hop, and, apart from the odd kerb I
drop down, the thing almost never leaves the floor. At 13 stone I'm
not exactly a real heavy weight. So, I long ago resigned myself to
never being able to tick the box on the unicycle quiz to say that I'd
broken a crank. But there it is.

I know that when I'm in high gear it does feel like I'm pushing very
hard on the cranks, and particularly when I change up it can be a push.
But I really didn't expect it to go like that.

So, all you non-splined Schlumpf owners out there, are there any
particular brands of crank that you recommend? I'd guess ones with
very low Q factor, but I'm just wondering what works well for you.

STM - gutted to be losing almost a week of RTL training


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I wonder if hard knocks from UPDs caused the initial crack rather than
just regular hard pedaling. Then once the crack was started regular
hard pedaling could have made it bigger till it became noticeable. The
anodized coating could have covered up the crack (or manufacturing
defect) during the initial stages so that it wouldn't have been
noticeable by casual visual inspection till it got to the point where
the crack expanded and became very obviously noticeable.

You ought to see if Florian wants you to send in the crank so he can
see if there was possibly some sort of manufacturing defect (a void in
the metal or something).


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john_childs wrote:
I wonder if hard knocks from UPDs caused the initial crack rather than
just regular hard pedaling. Then once the crack was started regular
hard pedaling could have made it bigger till it became noticeable. The
anodized coating could have covered up the crack (or manufacturing
defect) during the initial stages so that it wouldn't have been
noticeable by casual visual inspection till it got to the point where
the crack expanded and became very obviously noticeable.

You ought to see if Florian wants you to send in the crank so he can
see if there was possibly some sort of manufacturing defect (a void in
the metal or something).



It could have been there for a while I suppose. I'll admit that I've
never really inspected the cranks for things like that - but then
again, I've never felt the need to. Although I've had several UPDs, I
can't remember any that would have been particulaly harsh on the
pedals, although I'm normally paying more attention to how I land than
what the unicycle is doint!

I'll send Florian an email anyway as I expect he'll be interested to at
least see photos of it, and possibly post them if he wants.

Oh, and siafirede, don't worry. I'm not going to miss the week of RTL
training after all. I commuted in on my 24" Hookwormed Blizzard. It
didn't take as long as I expected, but it's a whole new experience
riding something that size for 5 miles in London. I think that has now
become my 2nd favorite commuting uni!

STM


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Mine did exactly the same when I was in NZ. I think it may be a warranty
thing, but you have to wait for the part to come.

http://tinyurl.com/2nladm

I have a pair of 150s at mine, but I guess you're in London at the mo.
They are prowheel cranks, and seem to work okay.

I bunged an old pair of steel cranks on mine for a couple of days when
I broke mine, does the blizzard not have square taper?

Joe


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joemarshall wrote:
Mine did exactly the same when I was in NZ. I think it may be a warranty
thing, but you have to wait for the part to come.

http://tinyurl.com/2nladm




Yup, that does look like exactly the same thing!


joemarshall wrote:

I have a pair of 150s at mine, but I guess you're in London at the mo.
They are prowheel cranks, and seem to work okay.




Yeah, I'm in London, but also with a lack of tools. I've got a crank
extractor, the special metal sleve required, and even some random
cranks sitting back in Nottingham. But that's 150 miles away


joemarshall wrote:

I bunged an old pair of steel cranks on mine for a couple of days when
I broke mine, does the blizzard not have square taper?
Joe



The Blizzard has some 127 Qu-Ax cranks on, but they've got pretty high
Q factor. So, combined with the lack of tools, it's not really an
option. But the Blizzard was fun this morning, so I'll ride that for
the rest of the week. I'm sure there must be some kind of multiplier
that I'm allowed to use if training on a 24" wheel. Maybe I could
count it as muni?

STM


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I've had hairline cracks develop in cranks over a long time (most
recently a pair of prowheel 150s on my muni) but never actually had one
snap completely. Perhaps I'm just paranoid - I always inspect them and
change them if any cracks start appearing because I had one snap on a
bike once (mountain bike with cheap cranks that had been dropped a lot)
and it took a big chunk out of my calf.

Glad you didn't crash.

Rob


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semach.the.monkey wrote:


STM - gutted to be losing almost a week of RTL training



Don't worry...I am 100% confident in the Goonies finishing RTL as the
#1 team!

...even with a week less of training.


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