I’ve recently got a new unicycle from unicycles.com.au and
well, it’s farkin cool fun.
The seat is so uber comfy it makes me weep like I’m the widowed
blonde in a Humphry Bogart film.
Only problem I’ve had this this seat so far is the handle trying to assassinate my fingers.
Nailside of the main knuckles, especially in my middle, ring and index fingers were very sore from hopping and seat linking.
I trundled off to the LBS and bought some full fingered gloves.
I call them my ‘extreme gloves’ and pull them on and run around the house screaming EXXTTREEEEEMMEEE… nevermind that though.
This helped a little, but not as much as I’d hoped, and as much as I was lead to believe by some certain communist sympathisers in #unicyclists on dal.net. (they weren’t really commies, they just thought Mao was a nice guy).
I went at my handle with some kitchen paper towel and some masking tape.
AH-HA! I folded several pieces of this kitchen paper towel (spot who raided the kitchen McGyver style looking for stuff to use) and folded it around, and under the handle. Building up the rather uncomfortably thin edge. I taped this down with the masking tape.
This helped quite a bit, until I bought some thick ass gaffer tape and went to that baby like a stain to an oval office dress.
I made it all clean looking (I even matched the colour tape with the seat colour) and it’s perfect.
My finger pain has all but gone, the handle is thicker and much nicer to hold onto when hopping over pathetically small things, and in general, all is well.
Enjoy wondering what I’m talking about.
Sam Murray
Perth, Western Australia.
speaking of customising the kh seat, and threadjacking in general
did anybody try removing some of the foam to make the seat better for freestyle.
i’ve been finding the kh seat a bit too big to grip for freestyle, and rather that spend even more monney on an ugly miyata seat or use a crappy old viscount i’ve been thinking of opening up the kh and cutting half the foam out.
does anybody have some pics of this or any advice?
seems that lots of people tape up the handle though, but i don’t find it at all uncomfortable on my trials unicycle.
well the problem is that the cover is stapled to the frame (as you probably know) so I wouldnt risk it. the saples probably wouldnt come out that easy and if you get them out then good for you, but getting staples back on there would be preatty hard. My advise is to just not worry about it.
Sam,
Once you get used to riding more extreme (and less running around the house), you will relax more and keep a less tight grip on the handle. Of course, riding down a flight of stairs is extreme for me, but when I first started, I would pull on the seat as hard as I could. Now I have a relaxed grip when I ride down stairs and it causes less finger pain.
Sam, I’m with you on the finger pain thing. I felt like my fingers were gonna die at some points. I then got a different saddle with a reeder handle on it and everything was better. I know that doesnt help you much but i just wanted to let you know that you aren’t strange as dubmuni said.
How is the paper towel holding up when you drop the uni and it hits ground on the handle side? -erik
I’m not holding the seat real hard, it’s impossible to hop very well without pulling on the seat at all. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a handle.
Maybe you’ve got chipolata fingers and it dosen’t hurt them
The kitchen towel holds up fine as it’s under a thick layer of masking tape, which is double layered under thick gaffer tape.
Pretty much bomb proof unless you dip it in parrafin.
A short little piece of vinyl tubing, slit open, will also work to round off or bulk up the edges under the handle. If the vinyl tubing isn’t enough you could use an old piece of garden hose. The vinyl tubing is the stuff that’s used for feeding the refrigerator ice maker and similar applications.
Put the tubing on the edge that you want rounded off and then tape it in place with hockey tape, duct tape, or whatever.
