I have a 20 inch Indy. It seems OK but every time it hits the deck, the seat twists round. I sometimes twist it just by mounting awkwardly. When I’m sitting on it I can easily twist it just by thigh pressure (and before you ask, I don’t have especially muscular thighs!). There’s no slippage up and down, just rotation. I have it tightened up as far as I can get it and still operate the quick release. Is it normal to have nothing to keep the seat aligned properly? Would some kind of rubber round the post work?
Secondly, I think the most difficult thing for me to crack is going to be going at sufficient speed to get stability. Is the speed required for this independent of wheel size? (Obviously I get that bigger wheels mean you go faster, what I’m asking, is the minimum seed to balance the same regardless of the wheel that is under you?)
Twisting seats are annoying. There are a few remedies worth trying:
Lube your quick release. A drop of oil on all of the surfaces that rub against each other, and some grease on the threads. I frequently see QR mechanisms that aren’t tight, and a little lube allows you to make them significantly tighter.
If your seat post isn’t snug in the seat tube you can try shimming it with a piece of aluminum from a soda can. The post shouldn’t be hard to insert, but it should need some help. If it goes in very easily this could help.
Use Carbon Assembly Paste to lube the post before inserting it into the frame. This is a friction compound that makes it easier to secure the post with much less force. Not cheap; however, if you have a good relationship with your local bike shop they may just dab a little on there for you. The little tub I have on my bench is a life time supply, and I’ve never charged extra because I had to use it on customer bikes.
A new seat post clamp. Double bolt clamps are popular around here, and they aren’t expensive. There’s a new double QR, but unless you need the ability to change your seat position frequently I would go with a standard bolt type.
Stability:
In my experience the wheel gets more stable as it gets bigger. To be honest I don’t really get that feeling until the wheel is at least a 29er, and it’s better on my 32, and even better with a 36. The 36 doesn’t even need to go very fast before I start feeling the stability.
On the other hand big wheels don’t allow for quite as precise balance correction. It takes much less effort to move a small, light wheel. On any uni they feel more stabile as the rider learns to relax, but small wheels never achieve the kind of “secondary stability” that a big wheel can.
Regarding stability: As a beginner, the only way I could get my first 50 feet was to ride faster than what was comfortable. It really felt like my speed was out of control. One of the kids in my neighborhood can ride 50 feet, and that’s the case with him…fast and out of control. Later on, we learn to ride more slowly. But, as beginners, the speed thing is awkward. I don’t know if there’s any way around this. I suggest adding wrist guards to your protective gear. Good luck!
Thanks, lots of good ideas there to try. I’m quite short - I’d like to try a bigger wheel to see what it feels like, but looking at the specs a lot of them would be too long a reach for my 27" inside leg.
Not sure what an “Indy” is, but when it comes to non-tight seatposts, I recall back to the days of chrome-on-chrome unicycles. Less friction, and much harder to make tight. Even a quality quick-release might not be sufficient to do the job. So if the oil/grease thing doesn’t work, your best bet is to replace the quick-release with a quality double-bolt clamp. Just keep a wrench handy and it’s not that bad to deal with.
Stability does not come from the wheel rotating, especially with a smaller wheel like 20". Unicycles inherently want to wobble from side to side, due to the off-centeredness of the cranks on each side. The stability has to be supplied by the rider. It is normal for beginning riders to seek equipment changes to find that elusive “solution” to not having it mastered yet. But really, it’s just a matter of sticking with it, and giving your body time to get used to the idea of controlling a single wheel around your balance point. Don’t give up!
Thanks, guys. I’m reasonably sure that it’s the seat post twisting, because tightening things improved it, but I will get a sharpie and mark it so I can check. There’s no risk of me giving up - I’m seeing small improvements every day and I don’t mind it taking me a while to get there. If I’m still glued to the fence in a month I might start to worry, but I’m getting a few more turns without it than I was a couple of days ago. I have no serious plans to buy a second uni until I’ve ‘cracked it’, though if I was sure my next uni was going to be a better 20" I might be just a bit tempted so I could keep one in my car boot.
Just dredging this up to say thank - I got some of the carbon assembly paste and it helped a lot (though now when it does go out of true I can’t just knock it back in with my legs!). Indy seems to be a common cheap make here - stocked by juggling shops etc. I didn’t come across UDC until I found this forum, by which time I had already bought it. To be honest, I’m not sorry - if I hadn’t given in to that moment of impulse on Amazon late at night, I would probably have been too ‘sensible’ to buy a unicycle at all!
I started about 8 weeks ago and I made most gains on a slight up hill slope.
I bought a 26" muni after 2 weeks as I was in the alps and the only place to practice was on rough ground. I had the muni delivered to the french campsite then spent the next week falling off it - much the the amusement of the other campers… As a beginner I would definately say master one before moving on to another. I only bought another as it wasn’t suitable for learning on grass and gravel tracks.