Kris, have you considered making unis for smaller riders? Like the seats, even though I’m female, I find them too wide! Makes tricks like SIF are very difficult when you have to do the splits to get the seat out lol. My hips are just not that wide and my legs arent long. I also would like to get a big wheel uni one day but I dont know how to cut the seat tube. I havent gotten any feedback on how to do that. I’m going to get a 24 muni, and that will probably be OK, but think I’ll have to cut down the 29" or 36" which I want to get one day for cruising.
Hey, I don’t think Kris will have to change his products for smaller people. Shortening seat posts and even frames is pretty straight forward. You could use a hack saw for both, although for the seat post I prefer tube cutters. But you have to clean it up with a file afterwards, in order to remove the cutting edge.
As far as saddles are concerned, are you talking about the 09 or the older model KH, freeride or street? Have you tried them all? In case they’re all too wide for you you could mess around with a banana seat for children, the ones that come with the really cheap unis. Maybe remove the cover of one of those and replace the foam with some trimmed off KH foam? And then put the fusion cover over that… Maybe you could get good results like that. I hope that helped.
Well considering the whole world is getting bigger, there is very little to fit the few of us smaller folks. I was just hoping since there are a decent number of kids in this sport, they might consider a smaller saddle option. I have the street and its not the new saddle. I trimmed the sides to the plastic. My first uni was a great saddle size, torker 16", but uncomfortable and no real handle. I heard the Nimbus’ run narrower so might consider that. Hope I run into someone one day who has one I can look at. My next uni I think will come with the freeride and since I wont be doing SIF with that, hopefully it will be OK. If these seats get WIDER, thats really not good news for me.
As far as cutting the frame, I think you have to do more then cut the tube for the seat post clamp? If its just using a pipe cutter and making a clean cut around the tube, I can do that.
Its too bad I am not wanting to be a jockey, marathon runner or gymnast as those are the only sports where tiny is good.
One question. What I dont get is that since these are geared towards men in general, why so wide as men have sit bones that are very close together? Just look at most bike seats. They are now 3" wide. Thats the other extreme. I found a dirt jumping saddle for my bike that works for me but its too short and flat for a uni.
The angle of force is so different between a bike and uni saddle that it’s hard to compare. Long touring handles are changing this, but in general our force is much more vertically downwards so the width through the middle section of a uni saddle is perhaps more worth comparing to the width of the wide back end of a bike saddle.
In terms of fit, I am a not super short but I’m a pretty skinny guy (5’10", 145 lbs) and the width of the new saddle is perfect for me. That said, the foam width on this first production run is actually very slightly (couple of mm) wider than I had asked for. So if you want a narrower saddle it may be worth taking off the cover and trimming the foam width to the width of the plastic.
Kris
Hey, I was wondering about this before, but now that we’re talking about it: What is the best method of cutting the foam? Because I once tried it with a plain kitchen knife with pretty lumpy results. It didn’t cut the foam well at all. Any suggestions?
Personally I’ve had the best results with a knife with slight serrations, like a very sharp bread knife. A new exacto knife can work but I think the main thing is to apply only very gentle pressure with each pull, so you don’t chunk the foam.
Thanks for the tip, I 'll try it on my 2005 KH freeride soon. Last time I tried I chunked the foam a lot, so I’ll try to clean that up a bit.
If you have one available, an electric carving knife is essentially the long flat serrated style of blade that Kris describes, but two mounted flat-to-flat and sawing counter to one another to get a “scissor” effect at each serration. A good pick-up at your local thrift store, if you plan to do much foam trimming and/or can find one cheap.
billnye
John M
Morgan has a small enough build that we had to cut down the seat tube on her (steel) 24" muni. All we used was a hacksaw to remove about an inch of frame height, and the results were totally usable - the cut wasn’t even that straight, but it didn’t matter. Three years later, the clamp (double-bolt) still doesn’t slip at all. If you shave off too much of the tube notch, you might have to extend the notch a little further to get the clamp to work well - but try it first.
If necessary, I would probably just use a reciprocating saw with a hacksaw-style blade and extend the notch with a V-shaped cut. Not pretty, but functional.
I just modified my Freeride saddle which gave me injured during last Induni tour. Compared to the Nimbus gel from my 24", KH Freeride is about 3 mm larger. Thanks to a grater for wood, I succeeded to get a narrower shape, close to the Nimbus, to be tested in the near future on a long ride.
It is a bit more complicated but not much more.
I have shortened a couple of frames, first time I used a pipe cutter on the frame and got a workshop to drill and cut a new seat tube slot. Sadly the 24" unicycle with the cut down frame got stolen from school. The next time I used a hacksaw to cut a 12", drilled a new hole and hacksawed the slot- it works fine. Just imitate the existing slot. I haven’t tried cutting a KH frame as the one I have is very short to begin with, but I imagine it would be even easier with aluminium but you would just have to be careful with your hacksaw since it is so soft.
If you are not cutting much off the frame then perhaps you don’t need a new slot if there is enough of the old one left, or you could extend it.
I wasnt talking about cutting the seat post. That is easy. I work in a bike shop. I was talking about cutting the frame post so I can cut the seat tube down even more. I dont think you can just cut it off? I have access to a pipe cutter so thats not an issue.
But the widest part of me is my shoulders. From end to end is 12". So I’m narrow. So think a 10-12 year old kid and thats me. :o I cut my seat down to the plastic and its still too wide. Oh well, I’ll learn anyways.
I think entropy was talking about cutting down the frame (or seat tube). Using a drill should ensure a fairly professional looking finish to your slot, but as entropy has mentioned a V shaped slot works also. No slot does not work, as the metal will not bend enough to grip the seatpost without one.
Yes - that’s what I meant. We used a hacksaw on the frame.
I like the drill idea.
Think I understand. Is it possible to see a picture of this done? I am very bad with words, very much a hands on/visual learner. So basically for the slot I take a wood drill or do I need a metal drill and drill a hole to create a V down the top of the tube?
Kris, i have a question, the 2009 fusion/street saddle have higher profile than 2008 saddles?
cool Kris, I’m hoping to be out riding the 29 Freeride later this week once the wheel is built. I don’t have a Stout tire here, but a couple of 2.35-2.40 tires to try it out with. Looking forward to it!
Speaking of big light things, I saw one of these huge oversized hubs in the flesh the other day in a bike store. Awesome things. How about a oversized KH hub in 2010?!
What good does a larger hub do? Wouldn’t it just weight more, and require different spokes?
They aren’t any heavier, since the are hollow and use thin walls. The benefit is the large flanges, which make a stronger wheel.