I purchased the GB “Y” shaped handle to add to my Coker, which has a Miyata airseat setup. Naively thinking it would work out of the box, I was surprised to find that the three holes in the handles mounting plate and the three bolts under the front of the Miyata don’t match up. As far as I can tell from a visual exploration, two of the holes do match up, but the third is totally opposite, i.e. the third on the seat is to the front, and the third on the handle is to the back.
Any experience on this? I was thinking I’d settle for a two bolt mounting, and just use some bolt shears to get the third one out of the way. That doesn’t seem very elegant…
I would take the cover I off and drill a 3rd hole in the seat. Better yet, get the GB4 stiffener plate for $10. It really helps out and all the holes are already in it and they are broached for carrage bolts.
I have one of those crescent shaped stiffener plates, but I’m not sure I follow the connection. I’d still need to drill a new hole, correct? Is it just a matter of taking the roach cover off, or do I need to do deeper dis-assembly of the seat first? I’m having trouble picturing how I get the bolt in place under the seat…maybe it will become clear to me when I get the cover off…right now, all I see is the three bolts coming out of the bottom of the cover.
Yeah Jag’s right. Those crescent-shaped plates are essentially useless, since they don’t address the problem. The Yoopers fix does; see this thread.
As you can see from the pics in the FAQ, splits in the base of the handle don’t matter. So the crescent stiffener doesn’t really do anything.
Oh and sorry about the bolt thing; I didn’t look closely enough. I’d also drill another hole where you need to. That will be worth the stability and strength for sure.
For unis where weight isn’t a big issue, but handle strength is, the stiffener plate is very useful.
Thanks for the pointers here…looks like I’ll be reassembling until I can get one of those plates. In the meantime, I’ll admire my GB handle and new Schwinn computer from afar. They look good on the shelf.
The Yoopers thread talks about replacing the standard Miyata post with the GB4 post. If the GB post is used, is the stiffener plate also required? Is there a signifcant strength advantage to using the GB post versus just adding the stiffener plate to my stock Miyata post/saddle setup?
The GB4 post isn’t necessary. You can use the standard Miyata post instead. The advantage to the GB4 post is that it’s stronger and longer than the Miyata post. But you don’t need the strength and the length on the Coker so I don’t see any reason to go with the GB4 post.
You’ll need to drill a hole in the plastic Miyata seat base to use the GB “Y” handle. The metal stiffener that Jagur posted a picture of already has a hole in the right place (George thinks of everything).
John is correct that the GB4 doesn’t add strength to the handle-to-uni connection.
It is, however, a better seatpost and eliminates the deformation that the Miyata seatposts show over time. When I put a GB4 seatpost on my freestyle, I essentially eliminated the seat twisting that occurs upon impact. 99.999% of the time I just pick the uni up and try again. Even though I ended up cutting off a good deal of the post because I have a long-tube frame, I still like the GB4.
The other thing that the GB4 seatpost does is tip the nose of the saddle up about 15 degrees. If you’ve been wishing your seat was angled up more, the GB4 is a lot easier way to do it than buying rails and a fancy seatpost.
My comments on the crescent thingie were intended as a side comment, but may not have come across that way.
Well I finally got around to installing the GB stiffener plate and “Y” handle on the Miyata seat for my Coker today. George, your directions worked great! I did a quick test ride and I think the new handle will be a big help on the longer rides. Now as soon as I can get my computer installed, I’ll go take one of those…
I did encounter a couple steps in the process that might be worth considering for incorporation into the directions. In regard to the carriage bolt size, at least at my local Home Depot, the only choices were 1" or 1.5"…they had no 1.25s. I used the 1" for the four points of attachment to the seat post, and the 1.5-ers for the three points front section where I was attaching the GB Handle.
The directions also call for installing the stiffener plate first, then using this as the template for drilling the 9/32 hole. Once I had the plate installed, however, the 9/32 drill bit I had would not fit cleanly through the square carraige hole in the stiffener plate. It locked. I ended up just using a 1/4 inch bit, which fit and worked fine.
I also have the Roach Air Pillow option on my Miyata, which introduces two additional processes to the “GB Coker handle instructions”. The first process–and thanks to John_Childs for pointing this out to me–is to remember to cover the whole plate with duct tape after installing the carraige bolts but before putting the cover back on. This helps hold the bolts in place when you flip the seat upside down to install the nuts, and it also protects the air pillow unit from the edges on the plate. The second process is that with the roach cover, you need to put the cover back over the seat before installing the GB handle. The directions for the standard saddle foam and cover call for installing the handle first.
Thanks to George, John, and everyone else that added their suggestions.
You need to go to Tacoma Screw for your oddball fastener needs. They have the stuff and even have metric sizes. I have made many trips to Tacoma Screw for all sorts of fasteners for my unicycles. They even have 1.25" long carriage bolts.
It really sucks that hardware stores around here have pretty much stopped stocking metric hardware. It’s a real PITA when you need metric fasteners for the unicycle. Tacoma Screw is the only local place I have found that has a large variety of metric fasteners and will sell to the public.
Tacoma Screw has several locations in the Seattle area. There is one in Kirkland on the way to St. Edward State Park.
That’s pretty much true here too. After you call around and visit half-a dozen places, you find which have the best metric, stainless, and metric+stainless options. As for lengths, it’s pretty easy to cut a longer bolt to a custom size using a hacksaw.
