hey people,
i’m working on my selfmade unicycle-airseat at the time. but now i have one important question for this project: which tube size do you use for packing under the seat cover ? is 20" good, or maybe 12" is enough…i will be happy if you can help me.
greetings from germany
-felix
I use a 16" tube inside of an air pillowcase.
john_childs
on my trials uni i used a 12 in tube and some of the foam and it is quite nice. (that is with the origional cover) my friend used a gemcrest cover and the dogbone air pillow with a 20in tube if this all helps
Kyle
John,
Why did you chose the 16" tube? I have the stuff to put my airseat together, but I bought the stuff with a 20" tube. Haven’t built it yet.
Thanks.
Work the maze.
16" just happens to be the best size for the way I fold the tube and stuff it in the pillowcase. I’m using a single layer pillow - not the fold over dogbone style.
Now that I have a digicam, one of my projects is to take pics of how I assemble my muni air seats and post it on a web page. One of these days I’ll get around to it.
john_childs
Re: airseat - which tube ?
john_childs wrote
> Now that I have a digicam, one of my projects is to take pics of how I
> assemble my muni air seats and post it on a web page. One of these days
> I’ll get around to it.
<eagerly waiting>
I’ve just got back from home and this air-seat stuff sounds interesting,
because my arse hurts. I’ve been unicycling all over the place, because
people keep pointing and saying “woo, look, he’s on a unicycle!”.
I’ve still not seen another unicyclist though… the .sig stays true.
“Cattle Prods solve most of life’s little problems”
I use a 12" tube on top of a miyata seat in a Roach seat cover. It’s great for MUni but I’m still not sure about it for trials.
John,
Forgive my persistance. I was under the impression that all the air seats used the dogbone air pillow. What’s with this single layer air pillow? Did you make it yourself, or is it commercially available.
Dang, John always impresses me with what he knows, sheesh:D
Work the maze.
The pillowcase is something I made myself. I call it a hernia bag because it keeps the tube from bulging out like a hernia. It’s the first time I have used a sewing machine since I took 7th grade home economics. Needless to say, they didn’t come out too pretty, but they are functional.
I use a single layer air pillow and then foam on top. All that is held in place under a Roach cover.
I found the two layer dogbone style didn’t hold the shape of the seat well enough and it felt like I was sitting on a 70’s era waterbed. I need a seat that is a little firmer and holds its shape so I can control the uni better with my hips.
john_childs
Re: airseat - which tube ?
Although I used 12" tubes back when I was just stuffing them in Miyata
covers, with the Roach covers, I use a 20" tube, very lightly inflated -
seems to work best for me. I have these in 3 or 4 seats now.
—Nathan
“foxx” <foxx.5si9a@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:foxx.5si9a@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> hey people,
>
> i’m working on my selfmade unicycle-airseat at the time. but now i have
> one important question for this project: which tube size do you use for
> packing under the seat cover ? is 20" good, or maybe 12" is enough…i
> will be happy if you can help me.
>
> greetings from germany
> -felix
Re: Re: airseat - which tube ?
Very lightly inflated is the key. One of the more amusing moments from the muni weekend in Santa Cruz was David Poznanter pumping up his new air seat conversion. He was using a floor pump and took a big stroke on the pump like he was pumping up a big fat Gazz tire and ripped the seams of his Miyata seat cover. It only takes a little bit of air in the tube. It’s best to use a small pump and go very slowly. Just a little bit of air in an air seat goes a long ways.
john_childs
Re: airseat - which tube ?
Yeah that shocked the hell out of him! It was pretty funny. As I remember
though, he was talking to someone and got carried away and put something
like 5 or more pump strokes into it without looking until the big bang. I
put the air into mine by the quarter pump stroke and they are so lightly
inflated that when out of the seat stretched out, you’d swear they are flat.
But inside the seat, folded up nicely, they are just great - all day
comfort.
—Nathan
“john_childs” <john_childs.5svga@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
news:john_childs.5svga@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> Nathan Hoover wrote:
> > *Although I used 12" tubes back when I was just stuffing them in
> > Miyata covers, with the Roach covers, I use a 20" tube, very lightly
> > inflated - seems to work best for me. I have these in 3 or 4 seats
> > now.
> > *
> Very lightly inflated is the key. One of the more amusing moments from
> the muni weekend in Santa Cruz was David Poznanter pumping up his new
> air seat conversion. He was using a floor pump and took a big stroke on
> the pump like he was pumping up a big fat Gazz tire and ripped the seams
> of his Miyata seat cover. It only takes a little bit of air in the
> tube. It’s best to use a small pump and go very slowly. Just a little
> bit of air in an air seat goes a long ways.
>
> john_childs
thanks for the help
hi,
thanks you all for the good and fast help. i think i’ll choose the 20" tube for the first seat version.
go on trials (and muni 
greetings
-felix
RE: airseat - which tube ?
> John,
>
> Forgive my persistance. I was under the impression that all the air
> seats used the dogbone air pillow. What’s with this single layer air
> pillow? Did you make it yourself, or is it commercially available.
I think he’s talking to me. The dogbone pillow was not the first air pillow
design. It just happens to be the only one you can order online. I don’t
remember who did it first, but I think it was either Scott Bridgeman, David
Maxfield, or Chris Reeder. Someone was making very simple, roughly figure
“8” shaped pillows for a single 12" tube. Some riders stacked two of these
on top of each other for more “cush.” So far I’ve been fine with one, though
I admit to riding a lot less than guys like Scot Cooper (or most of you).
I don’t use a pillow, and so far I’ve never had a flat (knock knock). I just
stick an innertube in the seat where the foam used to be. I also keep the
thin sheet of foam that goes down the sides of the Miyata seat, otherwise
the sides would be too rough. I think the most important part about doing
this is how you arrange the tube in there. This is where the pillows help
out, eliminating a lot of guesswork. The main thing I do is try to keep a
gap in the center of the seat, where the soft-tissue part of your crotch is.
So far so good.
My original air seat used a 16" tube, which was all they had at Target that
day (and I had some big ride coming up the next day). It was a relatively
skinny tube, and even had anti-flat liquid in it (which made it heavier). I
arranged it in a pattern kind of like the letter W with an upside down W on
top of it. Take the two Ws, squeeze them at the point where they connect,
and it’s roughly unicycle seat-shaped. It worked great.
The first air seat I had seen belonged to Daniel Hopkins, I think. He ran
the valve out the back of the seat, just above the Miyata bumper. I did
similar, though mine was higher up on the seat. People made fun of me for
this, but the valve never bothered me, and the seat worked fine. That first
ride was a long, 16 miles or so at Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz. My crotch was
a lot less sore than the rest of me. That seat still sits on top of my Roger
Davies Mk 5 Carbon Muni, which unfortunately doesn’t see much action any
more because it only fits a skinny tire.
I’ve been sold on air seats ever since.
Stay on top,
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
jfoss@unicycling.com
Howard Stern: “How many wheels does a unicycle have?”
The beautiful but vacant, recently-crowned Miss Howard Stern:
“…Four?”