I just recently received an air seat conversion from unicycle.com, a John and Amy Drummond company that cannot possibly receive enough praise from our community. I added a small amount of air to it (enough to begin to deform the seat cover) and stuck it on my Coker. When I ride the Big Boy, I hit some resonance with my pedal cadence where I begin bouncing up and down on the seat. Have I added too much air? Is there not enough air?
I ask this because it is EXTREMELY comfortable (all my other saddles feel remarkably like steel plates now) and the bouncing is only moderately bothersome. A previous thread mentioned lopsidedness. Mine is only slightly lopsided and, with some kneading and massaging, seems to be coming around front and center.
Depending on fatigue level and how warmed up I am, I experience the same effect- a cadence resonance that starts a rythmic bobbing. I can’t say as this has changed with the additon of the air seat. Slow down or speed up and I lose it. I susspect it can be avoided with practice, as it sometimes does not manifest itself.
Try letting out a little air.
I have the Gemcrest on my 28" Pashley and also found the bouncing distracting, particularly going over curbs. So I let out some air and haven’t bounced since. It’s still really comfy for longish (10mi) rides. Lower pressure also remedies lopsidedness. It’s also really easy to remove the cover with needlenose pliers and rearrange or strategically tape down parts of the tube so it stays where you want it.
Removing a bit of air dampens the oscillation alot. The pedal cadence resonance is still there as Christopher LeFay says it is but thanks to your tip it’s not as noticeable.
did you lower your seat?i did,but it took me a couple days to think about the extra hight of all the stuffing in there…even though it was only a half an inch,this made things bounce less
Thanks, jagur…I’ll try varying the seat height next. I have it adjusted the way I think it should be with my leg fully extended with my heel on the pedal. That way my knee is slightly bent at the bottom of the stroke but maybe lower will end up being a good compromise.
Yes, the seat lowered about 3/4" helps also. The disadvantage here is that my legs do not fully extend so that my knees are doing a bit more work than they would like to. The seat goes back up to save the half-century knees.