This doesn’t look like it would work that great, but I was wondering if anyone had ever seen this seat post before…
Link
Yeah, there are a lot of similar posts out there (mostly bike-type posts, but usable with a rail adapter). People use them quite a bit on hard-tail mountain bikes.
I’m not sure how I feel about them for unicycles though, I feel like you might get bounced off the uni.
For MUNI it probably would make you feel uncomfortable and hopping would be odd on that thing, but really I think one would have to try it first
I would love to get something like that for just cruising around. I feel like it would confuse me a little when riding off road though…how do you think it would effect hopping and balance?
I’ve never tried a shock absorber, but my conjecture is that it would add significant slop to the twisting motion when you try to steer. This would probably worsen considerably as it wears out. More play in the parts, things get loosey goosey, steering suffers.
Any real life experiences out there?
This was true of the two telescoping suspension seat posts I have tried on bikes. However the Miyata design appears to contains a stabilizing bar to specifically combat this.
Pivoting suspension designs like lobbybopster’s and Cane Creek’s Thud Buster probably have less torsional play. These designs also reduce or eliminate the change in leg extension by tilting, which may improve on the stability during use.
I have a Thudbuster Uni-Pivot (great name) on my old carbon MUni. Also I had a low-priced suspension post on my main MUni for a couple of years until it wore out.
You get limited benefit from a suspension post, and most designs require you to be tall enough for the mechanism to work. Depending on the design, that is. Many have shafts running down the inside of the post so you can’t cut them down to size. The Thudbuster ones don’t have this problem, but can be a little tall at the top.
Riding-wise, I think the most useful place for a suspension post is for road riding. But then you’re back to the post length problem, which affects most people on 36" wheels. On a MUni, you can’t rely on the suspension for bumps, because the right (read wrong) combination of bump plus pedal position can bounce you right off the seat! To avoid this you have to lower the seat height, and basically you’re about where you were before you added the suspension.
However it does take the edge off; the small bumps you roll over when riding seated. Yes, suspension posts can improve the ride.
I’ve only seen that Miyata one in the photo on the MYS site; I’d be curious to see how it functions and holds up in real use. The inexpensive ($25?) post I used to have did not have a twisting problem.