freecoasters
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rhysrhysbaby
Eats Squid
I will just try and answer the questions presented and then maybe add a bit at the bottom
but.... im worried that the whole massive slack when cranking forward is going to really annoy me... is this just something that you get used to??
The gap isnt an issue if you know its there. at the most it will be a quarter of a turn and its very easy to get on your bike, take that quarter of a turn to make it engage then take off. there are times when you get on your bike and it may be engaged already from when you stopped pedalling before as you didnt pedal backwards to disengage. The gap itself is one thing i was a bit unsure of also, but i have ridden my friends bike with an odyssey freecoaster and got an understanding of how it all engages and disengages.
The only disadvantage with the gap, and probably with the whole freecoaster design is that due to the gap and that you disengage it all by pedalling backwards, is that you cant bitch crank to drop in. It really doesnt effect myself too much as I VERY rarely drop into anything, but for those that ride park a heap i think its going to be an issue, so keep that in mind.
Im running hte largest gap i can and i wouldnt have it any other way.
and the other thing, i know that none of you run a reverse, but how high is the maintenance?? im a bike mechanic, and i love doing work on my bike, but not the extent where im working on my hub for a few hours every fortnight...
I obviously cant talk about how the reverse is, but pulling the geisha apart is so so so so so easy. I printed the instructions off the net thinking i would be using them, but i had read through it a few times and had no issues. The hardest part i found was getting the driver off as instead of it spinning straight off like a normal threaded part would i had to spin it around a few times until the thread from the driver would come apart from the.....bit it screws into, i dont know what thats called. it wasnt even really an issue.
Reading things about the 3 piece axle, i thought taht would be a bit of a dodgy thing to work with, but its very very simple. It actually makes sense for it to be 3 pieces, it seems alot simpler to work with as you can seperate the parts so nothing is mixed up.
Greasing it up, i have only done this once and i dont think i put enough in there as its slightly noisy. Everything still works quite well, but yeah its a bit noisy and 'rough'. Other than greasing it up and making sure its clean. i dont see what other maintenance you can do to it. Make sure the shell is nice and buffed??@?!
THe time to pull it off your bike, take the hub apart to grease it and put it all back together is seriously no more than half an hour. When i got it i pulled it apart and adjusted the gap then put it all together whilst my girlfriend was in the shower. very simple. im probably repeating myself, but its very simple.
So in summary!
Dont just get a coaster because its hot or sick or you think itll get you the chicks. chances are girls wont even know you're running one.
There are definitely disadvantages to the coaster, but you need to work out if they are a disadvantage to the way you ride. i find it isnt as if i ride street 87.5656percent of the time and when i do go to a park i ride the ledges and banks. riding transition doesnt interest me.
I love mine and at this point in time wouldnt want to run anything else. its a well built hub, it does everything i want it to do and i figure maintenance on it really wont be that hard as long as i grease it regularly.
ok that should be about it. sorry if i repeated myself or stuff that other people said. this hasnt been proof read.
but.... im worried that the whole massive slack when cranking forward is going to really annoy me... is this just something that you get used to??
The gap isnt an issue if you know its there. at the most it will be a quarter of a turn and its very easy to get on your bike, take that quarter of a turn to make it engage then take off. there are times when you get on your bike and it may be engaged already from when you stopped pedalling before as you didnt pedal backwards to disengage. The gap itself is one thing i was a bit unsure of also, but i have ridden my friends bike with an odyssey freecoaster and got an understanding of how it all engages and disengages.
The only disadvantage with the gap, and probably with the whole freecoaster design is that due to the gap and that you disengage it all by pedalling backwards, is that you cant bitch crank to drop in. It really doesnt effect myself too much as I VERY rarely drop into anything, but for those that ride park a heap i think its going to be an issue, so keep that in mind.
Im running hte largest gap i can and i wouldnt have it any other way.
and the other thing, i know that none of you run a reverse, but how high is the maintenance?? im a bike mechanic, and i love doing work on my bike, but not the extent where im working on my hub for a few hours every fortnight...
I obviously cant talk about how the reverse is, but pulling the geisha apart is so so so so so easy. I printed the instructions off the net thinking i would be using them, but i had read through it a few times and had no issues. The hardest part i found was getting the driver off as instead of it spinning straight off like a normal threaded part would i had to spin it around a few times until the thread from the driver would come apart from the.....bit it screws into, i dont know what thats called. it wasnt even really an issue.
Reading things about the 3 piece axle, i thought taht would be a bit of a dodgy thing to work with, but its very very simple. It actually makes sense for it to be 3 pieces, it seems alot simpler to work with as you can seperate the parts so nothing is mixed up.
Greasing it up, i have only done this once and i dont think i put enough in there as its slightly noisy. Everything still works quite well, but yeah its a bit noisy and 'rough'. Other than greasing it up and making sure its clean. i dont see what other maintenance you can do to it. Make sure the shell is nice and buffed??@?!
THe time to pull it off your bike, take the hub apart to grease it and put it all back together is seriously no more than half an hour. When i got it i pulled it apart and adjusted the gap then put it all together whilst my girlfriend was in the shower. very simple. im probably repeating myself, but its very simple.
So in summary!
Dont just get a coaster because its hot or sick or you think itll get you the chicks. chances are girls wont even know you're running one.
There are definitely disadvantages to the coaster, but you need to work out if they are a disadvantage to the way you ride. i find it isnt as if i ride street 87.5656percent of the time and when i do go to a park i ride the ledges and banks. riding transition doesnt interest me.
I love mine and at this point in time wouldnt want to run anything else. its a well built hub, it does everything i want it to do and i figure maintenance on it really wont be that hard as long as i grease it regularly.
ok that should be about it. sorry if i repeated myself or stuff that other people said. this hasnt been proof read.
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proud_2_ride
Likes Dirt
Ok i know i am going to sound like an idiot if i ask but i don't know so i am going to ask. Why do they have the gap? And why would you want the gap? I have rode bike with a geisha they are nice and smooth but i nearly died as I didn't even know what a coaster was. And then he was like fakie down the road and i fell in love. I would have to say if you ride stree best invetion ever!! If not a cassete hub is awsome
thanks heaps man, this answers half my question..the other half is if i actually need one, yeah, i ride park, and i think i will continue to do so, but i find that at the moment i don't ride it like a park, ive been trying all this fakie stuff, which has been rad fun, i ride street, do 180 drops and gaps ect, but obviously as i don't have a freecoaster, i havn't really explored this to it potential i want to... I will still do normal tricks like airs and spins ect at a skate park, but i want to try get into more fakie tricks and start linking them into other stuff....
if any of that made any sense at all, i will be astounded.
so basically, i want to know if i can still ride park if i want to, if it really is going to make that difference that is going to root up riding park....but i want to start getting into a whole different range of tricks when i get back on the bike in 8 weeks, and this seems to be one way about it, i dont know if its just because i want one, or if i truely need one, or what, but at the moment im really stuck.
rhysrhysbaby
Eats Squid
You're probably thinking about it too much. get back on your bike and riding again, then assess the situation. by that time youll probably have the reverse, geisha and also the federal to choose from, they should all be well tested by that stage by the general public so you can make a more educated choice on the hub to run....if you still even want to run one at all.
Or you might decide that you dont really need one.
Just hold out until you're actually back on your bike!
Or you might decide that you dont really need one.
Just hold out until you're actually back on your bike!
Tristan23
Farkin guerilla
I had a go of Alan's the other day - wow! I didn't know there was a gap at first and so pretty much threw myself into the bars when trying to fakie-pivot out or whatever it's called, but then got used to it and am now ordering myself one for the MTB. I'm getting the Geisha Street MTB, and am really looking forward to it. I didn't even ride long enough to get used to it, but i know it certainly has a lot of potential.
It's also an easy way out for me, seeing as i can rarely fakie for very long at all.
It's also an easy way out for me, seeing as i can rarely fakie for very long at all.
argh i hate you belle hahaha, that looks sooo awsome...
well i'll see, currently going through the whole paint my bike bit, then i'll go through the buy stuff for my bike bit, that wtp hub looks awsome, but wtp arn't really that good with selling parts for their hubs like khe are.... or am i wrong?
well i'll see, currently going through the whole paint my bike bit, then i'll go through the buy stuff for my bike bit, that wtp hub looks awsome, but wtp arn't really that good with selling parts for their hubs like khe are.... or am i wrong?
monkeyonabike
Likes Dirt
theres not much point getting a reverse as the axle from them can be retrofitted into a geisha, the 'gap' is how long it takes for the clutch to recatch so you can pedal forward. depending how many spacers are in the hub relates to how much gap there is.
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viv
Likes Dirt
hey guys, I'll be borrowing a wheel with a geisha from a mate today, and its set to the smallest amount of slack, and I want to make the "gap" bigger, n i was wondering what type spacers i need to do this and where i can get the spacers from, also, Ive never seen the internals from a free coaster, so yea, thought I'd add that, cheers, viv
viv
Likes Dirt
hey, back again! well I got that wheel with the geisha and when I picked it up it was running rough as guts, like when you actually spin the wheel it spins only maybe 1 full turn so took the whole thing apart, removed a spacer to increase the slack, (which worked fine), everything in the hub was clean and there was no sign of any wear or anything, so put it all back together, and it still spins like crap, and sometimes when I hold it in my hands and spin it backwards, the driver engages by itself, then will disengage, then engage again, all without me touching it...? I checked all the bearings and they run perfectly with nothing clamped on them, so I don't know what the problem is, has this happened to anyone, if so, how did you fix it? thanks
rhysrhysbaby
Eats Squid
Viv,
How much grease was in it when you pulled it apart? Pull it apart again and grease EVERYTHING thats inside the hub. the more the merrier.
When you are putting it back together, you may be overtightening the axle as well. i was doing that the first time i pulled it apart, so i tightened it enough to be secure but not enough to put excess side pressure on the bearings.
How much grease was in it when you pulled it apart? Pull it apart again and grease EVERYTHING thats inside the hub. the more the merrier.
When you are putting it back together, you may be overtightening the axle as well. i was doing that the first time i pulled it apart, so i tightened it enough to be secure but not enough to put excess side pressure on the bearings.
Belle
Eats Squid
hi guys, i still have this problem of movement in the hub, the hub makes no noise because of it but was just wondering if any of you guys get the same problem.
if i grip the back wheel with my knees, hold the handle bars and move from side to side i feel very small movement. have you guys tried this? and what method do you guys use to tighten your freecoaster hubs studs?
any help would be much appreciated.
thanks.
if i grip the back wheel with my knees, hold the handle bars and move from side to side i feel very small movement. have you guys tried this? and what method do you guys use to tighten your freecoaster hubs studs?
any help would be much appreciated.
thanks.
rhysrhysbaby
Eats Squid
Sounds like the studs are loose.
When i have the hub apart and im about to put the axle back in i screw in the LEFT axle stud with an allen key, then on the other sid eof the axle there is a flat edge that you can get a spanner onto. i tighten that up nice and firm (make sure you have grease on the thread of the axle stud).
i then put the axle in to the hub, driver on, that little washer, then the RIGHT axle stud. i dont do this up real tight, just tight enough thats its secure, but not tight enough that there is excess pressure on the bearings.
When i have the hub apart and im about to put the axle back in i screw in the LEFT axle stud with an allen key, then on the other sid eof the axle there is a flat edge that you can get a spanner onto. i tighten that up nice and firm (make sure you have grease on the thread of the axle stud).
i then put the axle in to the hub, driver on, that little washer, then the RIGHT axle stud. i dont do this up real tight, just tight enough thats its secure, but not tight enough that there is excess pressure on the bearings.
Trailst4r
Likes Dirt
3 options: Studs are not tight / are worn out / the bearings are moshed.