I’ve now come to the conclusion that my 2nd generation Air Saddle Covers are basically useless. The reason is because when pressure is applied to the rear section of the saddle cover, it basically bottoms out and all the air is transferred to the front of the air saddle cover. I want the air saddle cover to be providing air cushioning where my tail bones are sitting on the seat and it doesn’t seem like this is possible with the current air saddle covers. Rather, the pressure of sitting on the saddle forces the air forward. I assume the same thing happens with the Air Saddle, but maybe to a lesser extent since it has foam around it. Let me know your thoughts if you have an Air Saddle, especially if you’ve also ridden with an Air Saddle Cover so you’re able to compare the two. If you look at the attached photo, the area behind the red line (to the left of it) bottoms out with pressure and the area in the front of the saddle (to the right of the red line) becomes inflated. At least with the 1st generation air saddle that uses a folded up bicycle tube, I was able to inflate it to a high enough PSI where it provided a decent amount of air cushioning. With the 2nd generation (current) air saddle cover, you don’t inflate them so you have no control over the amount of cushioning AND when utilized (sat on) the air immediately moves to the wrong place, in my humble opinion. I would much prefer an air saddle that has an air bladder that is limited to the rear section of the saddle and has regular foam (with a cut-out in the middle) for the front part of the saddle (to the right of the red line). If it’s just an air saddle cover, then a smaller bladder for just the rear section of the saddle would be best and whatever cushioning the saddle has should be fine for the front part of the saddle, so foam probably wouldn’t be needed for the front of an air saddle cover. Ideally, I would also like to have control over the amount of air in the bladder. If anyone on the forum is looking for a side gig and has a sewing machine and some skills and would make the type of air seat or air seat cover I am describing, I would surely buy one or two of them. I bet others would, too. I think the unicycling community is ready for a 3rd generation air saddle or air saddle cover.
I think I just found the key to constructing my own DIY air seat cover. Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T34QMPX/
I’ll keep searching for the best size, but I don’t see why I couldn’t make my own air seat cover using a bladder similar to the one I linked above.
This might be of some interest to you from Ed Pratt’s visit to the US UDC when he was crossing the US. There is some discussion of the air saddle prototypes and some of his experimentation – the air saddle stuff starts around 6:50.
That sounds like a good idea. The problem with most air saddles is that they put the same pressure on the sit bones as more sensitive body parts. My noseless air saddle solved that problem and is very likely the most comfortable saddle possible. I have did 26+ non stop miles on it with absolutely no saddle discomfort. However the noseless saddle does limit how high the saddle can be adjusted and that puts more strain in the legs.
I watched the whole episode and thought it was an interesting video, especially UDC’s history of having an air saddle bladder prototype with separately inflated cells and one with interconnected cells. Apparently, they opted for the interconnected cells for some reason. I would have preferred the separate cells.
Are you familiar with making your own air saddle by placing a folded tire tube into the standard uni saddle? I made one when I started unicycling about 15 years ago, and it helped majorly. I took a long pause from unicycling but resumed about a year ago, and I seem to have misplaced the homebrew air saddle. I will be making another one soon. The site with the instructions I followed back then is no longer directly available via the web, but the instructions are indeed present on archive.org at https://web.archive.org/web/20070622211131/http://www.unicycling.org/airseat/ if you’re interested in them. I definitely performed the “optional” step of adding gel padding. I will be following those same instructions when I make another one in the next month or two. I’m optimistic that it will help me as much now as it did then. If you make one, I hope it works well for you.
I like the air cover. In fact I have them on most of my unicycles including one that I bought used from someone that must not have liked it. I can only speak to time in the saddle for longer rides and not for riding where there is an impact to the saddle from doing tricks… I also can not speak to someone being in the saddle for more than 10 miles. For me it works and as I have said in many other posts " the air cover will make any saddle more comfortable"
As a side note I also liked the nimbus gel saddle and road it on my 26er for many years where a lot of riders did not like it . I think what it boils down to is that unicycling is such an unnatural act that finding that perfect combination of shape, padding and position may never be truly accomplished especially for a broad spectrum of body types, weights and riding styles.
@CrockPotGuy I remember there being a post about making your own air saddle, but I wasn’t able to find that post, so I figured it was no longer online. Thanks for the link to the archived post. That’s a big help! I don’t have a Miyata saddle, but I assume the same process will work with other saddles, as well. I might do it the old way with a bicycle tube or I may still go with an air shim bag like the one I linked earlier in this thread. In the meantime, I think I will probably try tightening a strap around the front of my air saddle cover in order to keep the air in the rear part of the seat. I’m curious to see how that works.
I think that’s going to work for you. Fingers crossed.
Thanks! I put two straps around my air saddle cover today and then went for a ride. As you can see from the attached photo, I just wrapped the excess straps around the frame stem and then put a Velcro strap around it to keep them in place. The straps improved the comfort of the saddle for sure. I rode for about 40 minutes, mostly along the East River path. On my way to the bike path, I passed a kid doing a wheelie on a BMX bike with his friend right behind him filming him. Shortly after I rode passed them, they did a U-turn to come back and film me riding my Coker. I did a little bit of maneuvering for the camera, lol. It wasn’t anything impressive, but they said 'Wow!" and then complimented me on my riding. Then on my way back home I practiced a few swooping turns. I normally prefer to do these types of turns on a heavier 36er, but since I haven’t built my High Inertia 36er yet, I figured practicing on a less stable wheel couldn’t hurt. I did what I consider a very moderate sweeping turn at a red light to avoid some pedestrians crossing the street and they got a real kick out of it. I think I got props from the kids on the BMX bikes only because they were into doing wheelies, and if I had to guess, only from the girls at the crosswalk (one of whom who also filmed me with her phone camera) because they were probably tourists. Anyway, if someone happens to see a video pop up on TikTok (or anywhere else) of a guy wearing glasses and a blue t-shirt while riding a Coker in NYC, please let me know. It would be weird to see myself in someone’s NYC video, but I’m sure the chances of that are slim to none.
What a great idea. I’m not sure if that would improve my experience but I’m willing to try it. I believe you can get some straps from REI that would have less excess.
Thanks! I’d be interested in hearing what you think about it after you give it a try. I wasn’t worried about the strap length for my first time trying them out because I wasn’t sure if they would work well enough to warrant keeping them on. I already have lots of these types of straps so I just used what I had. If I decide to keep them on my seat, then I’ll just cut these straps down to size. Or, alternatively, I may see if I can find wider straps, and if they’re cheap enough, I might order the wider ones which I think could work even better than the narrow ones that I’m currently using.
…or just use hockey tape.