A little while ago someone was talking about the 16" unicycle in the Wireless
catalog, it was $79 plus change, and then someone mentioned seeing one in the J.
C. Penny catalog on line. I took a look and the jcpenny.com 16" uni looks to be
the same unicycle. But JC Penny only wants $39.xx, both would be plus shipping
of course.
I ordered the JC Penny uni and it arrived 3 days later by UPS. It has a red
plastic wheel, red painted steel frame and a nice looking seat. I’ve never seen
a Mayata seat in person but from seeing them in videos and pictures on the web
it looks very similar. Red plastic bumpers that bolt on, no places under the
seat to cut your fingers on. It has the cheaper type of bearing cap type clamps.
It’s workable. I got it for my great grand son, he has a 19" inseam so even that
one is too tall for him. I cut the seat post and the top of the frame tube off
about two inches and a quarter. He hasn’t seen it yet but from my measurements
from the lower pedal to the center of the seat I get 18 1/2 " so I think it will
fit him. The clamp has two little welded spots to hold it to the frame tube and
I had to saw through the welds to be able to re-use the clamp. I sawed through
the frame tube vertically so as to be able to clamp on to the seat post, but I’m
going to have to open up that slot some, it hits before clamping on the seat
post enough to stop it from turning. No problem. For kids slightly larger it can
be used as is.
I measured from the center of the axle to the center of the pedal threads and
got 100 mm. I guess that’s OK for a 16" wheel. The tire is 16" x 1.75".
Recommended tire pressure is 35 PSI which should be plenty for a small child.
Looks to be cotterless cranks. It has the usual black plastic pedals with the
little bumps for none slip. All together not a bad buy for a first unicycle for
a young rider.
They charged $15 shipping by UPS plus local sales tax, as they have stores in
our area, but the stores do not stock the uni.
Lowell yoda@socket.net