I know this isn’t entirely necessary, but I’d like to keep my brand-spankin’-new Fusion seat looking that way. I put duct tape on the front and back of my old seat to prevent it from getting chewed up in falls, but I think it’s especially important now that I have a handle, if the handle gets chewed up it could hurt my hand when I try to grab it. What do you guys do to protect your seat from falling and damaging it?
Go naked. You can always knock down the rough spots with a heavy grit sand paper.
Putting duct tape on your handle to keep it “looking new” is like putting plastic covers on your sofa; I’d rather have something become ugly through use than start out ugly.
Let the seat take its knocks. The plastic handle can take it. It’s not going to get chewed up so much that it will hurt your hand. Replacement KH handles are only $9 anyways.
It’s the people who do seat drags outside on pavement or concrete that have to worry about grinding away their front or rear bumpers. The rest of us don’t worry about it at all.
I’ve got black hockey tape on my muni handle and bumper, but that’s only to cover up the ugly Miyata green rather than to offer any protection.
Re: Best Way to Protect Seat?
Fall? Why fall? Just stay up.
My Muni looks like someone lashed it with chains, especially the seat-- visual proof of my countless wrecks and encounters with rocks.
Unicycling is an action sport. Allow your rig to proudly bear the scars of your glory. And buy a 10 buck front bumper every 6 months or so if need be.
JL
Back in the days, we used to shore up our old-style Schwinn seats with duct tape. Eventually you had a sticky mass of gray/black tape that still had a gaping hole in it.
Once the tape is chewed through, the seat will still get wear & tear on it. Take the tape of ASAP to prevent the sticky mess. Then just file or sand the scratches if they bother your hands.
Otherwise it’s like trying to keep the bottoms of your car’s tires clean. Unicycles have one tire on the ground, but are guaranteed to have both ends of the seat, and the ends of the pedals whack the ground from time to time. It’s normal. We can either ride them, or hang them on the wall to look at. I have no problem with wall unicycles either, as long as you have one you ride!
If you have to tape your seat, use electric tape. If you do a realy nice job of it, you can hardly tell it’s there.
I have a KH saddle and I do seat drags on rough cement all the time. My bumpers are worn down a lot, and the edge on the front one is a little sharp, but it’s not too much of a problem, and I think they still have a long ways to drag before they need changing. I did crack the back bumper, because I had been trying to ride normally, then punch the front bumper and go directly into seat drag in back, but that’s another matter.
I am constantly amazed at how many rough falls my seat has gone through without any damage. Unicycle saddles are very tough.
