Hi all. Thursday I’ll be 58 and will be getting my unicycle for my birthday. I’ve posted a couple times and have also been reading the forums, gaining loads of great information. Can’t wait to start learning Thursday morning.
My uni is mostly assembled but I need to put in my seat post and attach my pedals. If I was assembling a bicycle I would grease the pedals and also the seatpost but get the impression this is a no no for a unicycle.
Should the pedals and seatpost be greased?
Thanks, Bob
In my opinion I’d grease the pedals to decrease the wear on them but wouldn’t grease the seatpost… might cause it to slip down onto the tyre and damage it.
My girlfriend’s seatpost was loose and it slipped down causing her to fall off and it punctured her tyre when it pinched the inner tube.
However, i’m no pro at Unicycle assembling. 
-Cliff
Hi, greetings from another old guy. It’s probably best not to grease anything, though I personally do put a smidge of anti-seize grease on all my pedals 
(I don’t ride backwards!!). Good luck - you’re starting out on a fantastic jouney 
Keep us posted on your progress.
Hey One Speed ! !
Six weeks went by in a hurry!
Glad to see you can finally unwrap that birthday present!
Happy Birthday!
and Happy Unicycling!
I don’t know anything about the grease question.
I didn’t do anything to mine but put it together… and start in on the FUN !
Looking forward to visiting with you!
Hey, that makes Jojoxie 56, 57UniRider 57, and One Speed 58.
Jojoxie’s ahead of us on the riding One Speed, so we both better get to practicing!
Welcome to unicycling.
You don’t want any grease on the seat post. When you bail out, the seat usually hits the ground first. It’s hassle if the impact twists the seat a little bit, especially if you’re far from home and you didn’t bring a hex wrench. You might not even notice that it happened, and then you’ll be wondering why you’re suddenly having so much trouble turning in one direction. I know this from experience.
+1
Hey onespeed, welcome to the forum.
Keep us posted of your progress, yeah?
Well today I got my Uni. Thanks for all the help. In the end I didn’t grease anything. The seat post is knurled so it’s obvious that it shouldn’t be greased. And the pedals if I loosen them and retighten them periodically I hope I won’t need grease.
This morning I sat on the uni to get a feel of balancing on it. It seemed remarkably easy when not moving to keep side balance but when the wheel moves out from under you it seems to reach a point of no return quite quickly.
Tomorrow I’ll practice mounting and dismounting so I land on my feet for most of my UPD’s.
Thanks again.
Bob
Good call.
Make sure you got the pedals on the right way around.
With the slot in the seat post at the back, you can check the left and right on the stems of the pedals easily.
The idea of getting comfortable with stepping on and stepping off the uni is a good one.
Remember to check the seat-height.
If you’re sitting on the uni and holding onto something, put your heel on the pedal and slowly roll it until that foot is right at the bottom.
The leg should be straight but not locked.
That’s a good general indication of seat-height.
The heel-on-pedal is only to check the height, you’ll put your foot on the pedal “normally” when you start riding.
Thanks Gild, I always put pedals on by hand without tools. That way if I do get stupid I don’t have the force to strip the crank threads.
The seat height rule is the same for a bicycle. But I am finding it fiddly getting the seat quick release closed with the saddle straight. I’ll get there eventually.
Wise beyond your years.
Strange. Of course, overtightening is bad, but when pedals are not tight, you are more prone to stripping the threads than with the correct torque, IMHO.
Hint: close the quick release half so that there is some friction, then bump against the side of the seat to put it straight, then close the clamp fully.
Thanks Klaas Bil for your advice. What I neglected to say is that I put the pedals on wihout tools and thwn at the end do tighten the pedals with a wrench or allen key.
I managed to get the seat straight. I’d been turning it as I tightened the quick release.
And now for the male question. I keep crushing my B’s when mounting, but am OK when I get mounted. It could be my jeans that are the problem but any advice would be helpful.
Cycling-shorts.
They make it easier to get Frankie and the Twins all the way forward and out the way during the mount.
Of course. I must have been quite sleepy to misunderstand that.
When I mount and my balls end up “too low/backward”, I don’t put my full weight on the seat initially but kind of stand on the pedals while riding away. I set embarrassment aside, grab in my cycling shorts and pull my stuff up, then let my weight go. Somehow, however, my junk has all by itself learned how to behave during unicycle mounts. Ain’t that smart?
Jeans are not ideal indeed for unicycling. The biggest problem with them though is that they usually have thick seams in the wrong places.
Edit: discussions about unicycling (such as this) actually belong in the Rec.Sport.Unicycling forum. The forum where we are now is called Just Conversation and is intended for… guess what… just conversation about everything BUT unicycling.