Unicycle Maintenance

Take care of your unicycle and it will last for years.

We recommend that all new unicycles have a ten-hour checkup. Components settle in once the normal stresses of riding are applied. After ten hours of riding, check the following:

• Hub nuts / bolts are tight. Get these as tight as you can.
• Pedals are tight. Note that left and right cranks have opposite threads. Take care not to over-tighten.
• Frame bearing clamps are tight.
• Saddle nuts are tight. Take care not to over-tighten or you will strip the mounting hole inside the saddle.
• For trials / street unicycles: check the spoke tension.

Your unicycle should run smoothly and silently. If you feel any kind of clunking or wobbling then stop riding straight away and work through the checklist below.

Creaking / loose / wobbly cranks

Stop riding immediately and tighten! If these are left unchecked they will destroy the cranks and hub. The creak comes with downward pressure of the pedal and is often confused with loose spokes. Remove the dust-caps from the end of the cranks and tighten with a 14mm socket spanner or a crank puller.

Creaking / loose spokes

After some time spokes stretch and slacken. This effect is most noticable on a new wheel. Creaking or loose spokes not normally terminal for the wheel but does weaken the wheel. Tightening a wheel is a job that is normally considered to be a job for an expert, but if approached carefully it is not difficult for the lay person. If the spokes are just loose, but the wheel is still true, tighten each spoke by 1/4 of a turn using a spoke key. Work your way around wheel being careful not to miss any spokes. Give the spokes another 1/4 turn and repeat until the spokes are tight.

Loose pedals

Stop riding immediately! Check that with the seat facing forward you have the right pedal on the right hand side. (The right pedal and right crank will both have an 'R' stamped on them.) If your pedals come loose very quickly it is almost certain that you have the right pedal on the left and visa-versa. If left untightened for any length of time then the crank and pedal will be destroyed. Tighten with a 15mm spanner or crank tool. If you have damaged your pedals and cranks we do sell replacements. To remove the cranks you need to use a crank puller.

Loose seat nuts

When learning the unicycle is often dropped repeatedly. This sometimes causes the nuts that hold the seat on the seatpost to come loose. Check and tighten these regularly. Use an 11mm or 10mm socket spanner to tighten.

Broken bumpers

Simply unscrew the seat nuts holding the bumper in place and remove the old bumper. Put a new bumper in its place, screw up the nuts, taking care not to overtighten them, and you're away!

Bearing housing bolts

It not very common to find these bolts coming loose. If they do then they should be tightened immediately. It is very common to find them over tightened! If the wheel does not rotate freely then the bolts should be loosened by about a quarter or half turn. If the bearings are left over tightened for too long the bearings will wear out prematurely and will require replacing. Unicycle.co.nz sells high quality replacement bearings and replacement bearing housing sets.

Under inflated tyre

A flat or an under inflated tyre can make riding harder. Because all of your weight is on a single tyre you need to have the pressure higher than you would on a bike. In general, freestyle and distance riders prefer higher pressures (40-60psi) to reduce rolling resistance, muni and trials riders prefer lower pressures (15-30psi) to soak up the bumps.

Rotating tyres

When a unicycle has been ridden for a bit you will notice that there are one or possibly two areas of the tyre that are getting considerably more wear than any other. This is due to idling and turning. This can be remedied letting the air out of the tyre and then rotating the tyre through 90 degrees.