I finally got around to putting up some pictures of my air seat. I had been meaning to put up pictures since NAUCC/UNICON last year and finally got around to it more than a year later.
My style of air seat uses an air pillow with foam on top. It makes a very nice air seat for muni and an OK air seat for Cokering. Still room for modifications and improvements. The shape and softness of the foam makes a big difference in the seat. Experiment with different types of foam to find what works best for you.
That’s great, John. I did something similar, but not as sophisticated, on my MUni. I had some ripped-up Miyata foam, just the back half, and put it on top of the inner tube/dog bone. It is much more stable and comfortable. I don’t have any pics of that step, though. I concur with John and highly recommend this for new air seats.
John, this is a great and very educational gallery. When I disassembled my airseat to add the GB stiffener plate, I didn’t–but should have–gone the extra steps to disect the innertube part. Next time… Even with the air, it’s not as comfortable as I’d like, and I think you’ve found a good solution.
I like your gallery so much, I’m stealing a quote for my sig line. Lots of good quotes in there. Kind of a bummer about your junior high school though…at the school I went to, Home Ec wasn’t a required course for boys.
Thanks for posting those photos of your airseat set-up, John. I emulated your set-up on my own airseat after seeing yours at UNICON. My airseat is very comfy and doesn’t suffer from the side to side wobbles of conventional airseats.
On my seat I didn’t shave the original Miyata foam into a wedge shape. I don’t think this is so important if you’re using a standard seatpost rather than a bicycle seatpost which you can adjust the angle of. Also I found that a 12" inner tube is way easier to position within the pillowcase than a 16". 12" is adequate for air-cushioning.
I’m currently revving myself up to assemble a second airseat. This time I’m going to adapt one of the dogbone pillowcases from unicycle.com. I’ll modify it by sewing it shut across the middle and just using one half as a single air layer and putting the original trimmed down foam back on top.
I now have 2 Crbon Fibre bases. One in my trials, and one in my MUNI. I tilted the saddle on my Muni (using a hammer) and i am getting an snti twist seat post welded up with a miyata bolt pattern on it, at an angle, so it will be lightly tilted (thanks Woger!)
I also use the same set up as John (pillow and foam). Works great.
The air seat that I showed at UNICON did not have the wedge shape cut in the foam. It was the regular thickness Miyata foam. It was only about 4 to 6 months ago that I started experimenting with cutting the wedge shape out of the front section of the foam. It gives more room on the seat which is nice. It also makes the seat softer because the tube and air pillow have more room to expand when you sit down.
I also experimented with cutting a a trough in the middle of the foam to try to take some pressure off the nerve and soft tissues down there. That didn’t work well. It actually made the seat less comfortable for me. There is still room for experimentation in this area, but I haven’t hit on the right design that’s comfortable for me yet.
That should work. I haven’t tried a dogbone air pillow sewn in half. It should work. It’s certainly easier than sewing your own air pillow from scratch. Making my own air pillows was a lot of work. If I had any skill at sewing it would have been easier.
Yes, that’s precisely the reason why I’m going to adapt the dogbone. Sewing the last pillowcase involved much gnashing of teeth and cursing the recalcitrant sewing machine! I hope this method will be easier. Plus if it works then I can get two airseats out of one dogbone. Heh, heh.
