What do mean “welded on”? Both the T7 and the coker handle have welds, but neither are welded on to the saddle. The T7 requires a rail type seat post and the coker clamps directly to the seatpost. It wouldn’t flex any more than the T7, since the coker handle mounts directly to the seatpost-unless you expect your seatpost to flex. 
Well on the T7, the critical point of flex would be the part where the front bar is welded to the rail-adapter, whereas with the coker handle, the critical point would be the clamp. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like there would be more handle movement where the handle attaches to the seatpost on the coker handle. Also, in a UPD, the handle might get wacked out of alignment, although I guess that could potentially happen with the T7 as well, but to me it seems more vulnerable with that design for some reason. Please feel free to criticize my opinions because I’m speaking from next to no experience with handlebars. 
Both setups-including home made versions-have their own inherent flaws and weaknesses, but in the big picture, it’s just a friggin handle! I’m not at all concerned with “flex” and have never noticed any at all on my T7, and don’t expect any on the coker bar either. Plus, I’m not planning on putting any significant stresses on it, other than an occasional push up to relieve some pressure on long rides; and that stress, if any, would be minimal.
I might have to buy one of them off you soon Bryce, my T7 is going to snap pretty soon.
I would rather have the handle become misaligned in a upd than have it bend or even worse have my seatpost or frame bend. Something has to give and if something moves without damage to other parts I am happy.
I find the exact opposite. the front plate of a T7 flexes when you put a lot of up or down pressure into the handle. THis is its biggest design flaw and I have told UDC as much in an e-mail along with some suggestions for how to fix the problem. A flat bar will bend and flex much more readily than a round tube (like the collar of a seat tube clamp).
The flexing in the front plate of mine resulted in a broken handle in less than 1000km of use and I have heard stories (and seen pictures) of other people having their T7 break in the exact same place.
I find my home made handle on a boom much stiffer than my old T7.
edit: were T7s break
my handle setup
This is the handlebar setup I acquired from Pete (unisk8er) on his (now my) Florian Green. It’s quite sturdy, no flex at all. Very adjustable. I can raise or lower it and change the angle of the bars. Pete even made an alternate set of bars which I played around with. But I haven’t been able to make them work as well as the original set.
For me, the most important time for handlebars is when I’m in high gear. It really helps to have something to hold me to the seat and to push against. When I’m in low gear I use the handles at high speed and I usually put one hand on when I’m turning. I don’t use the handle bars so much to modify the balance of the unicycle as I do to stabilize my body.
When I’m climbing hills I’d like to have handle bars that are a little closer to the seat. With handle bars that are that far in front, pulling up on them tends to push the seat back out from under me. I’ve got some ideas of mounting some extra handle bar ends that point back toward the seat. But I’ll have to find a welder to help me out with that.
But most of all, these handle bars are sooper dooper cool! They catch people’s eyes. Great conversation starter. I pretty much start blathering about my guni in excessive detail to anyone who so much as raises an eyebrow. I don’t think I’ve gotten a single “Hey! Where’s your other wheel?” since I got the Florian Green. People are too dumb struck to do more than “Huh? Whu?” No more “Where’s the circus?” They realize this is one slick road machine.
Florian Green.bmp (900 KB)
I’ve done over 10,000 road miles by now - at least 4000 on a viscount, 5000 on KH seats and a bit over 1000 on the T7. I’ve recently dumped the T7 and gone back to the stock KH seat.
I think that the T7 handle has two big advantages, firstly if you don’t ride distance that much, it can make it more comfy. Secondly, it looks way cooler holding the T7 than crotch grabbing on a normal unicycle seat.
The first one you can fix by riding more, so your arse gets used to the shape of the stock seat whatever it is*. The second one, you can fix by not caring too much about it.
In terms of riding position - I did some experimenting last year, and by riding in a slightly lower position, going into a bit of a headwind, we were going about 1mph faster for no obvious extra effort. However, I didn’t really find that the T7 handle helped that much, I think it is just as easy to ride in a low position with the KH handle. Maybe some of the other handles help with this (I know Sam Wakeling’s insane aerobars let him ride very low indeed), but I don’t think the T7 has a massive advantage here.
In terms of control, hills etc. I think the T7 decreases control, decreases the ability to ride up hills, sucks for off road, and doesn’t have a massive advantage in speed terms. It does kind of feel nice and hardcore holding onto the handles though. I found my skill level jumped the moment I swapped back from the T7 to the KH seat, even after I’d not used the stock handle for 1000 miles.
I also think that braking on a T7 is nowhere near as precise as when you have the brake under the KH handle, although I’m not really sure why that is.
I am pissed off that I can’t find a decent place to mount a bell on my stock KH though. Bells are so handy for commuting.
Joe
*I’ve done 80 mile rides on a hard viscount seat, which weren’t a massive problem as I was commuting on that seat too. Wouldn’t recommend viscounts generally, but only because they have no handle at all.
I experienced an improvement in many aspects of my riding when I put the T7 on my ride. I won’t give an exhaustive list since they’ve been covered. In addition to simple comfort, the different leverage it allows while riding immediately improved my energy economy. If you’re concerned about weight you can cut off the back of the T7 - I see no compelling use for it. I’ve had my bottle cage there since I’ve blocked the bottle cage braze ons up front with an attachment to mount a light, but I seem to arrive at my destination without my bottle often that way ???
Hey Brycer1968 - whatcha call that thing???
A judgement made on assuming similar materials, workmanship and scale of components. The flexy part on the T7 appears to be the rails themselves, though breakage seems to have happened at the welds. But is this breakage a result of impacts (dismounts), or being flexed through riding? Probably both. Handles need to be built to handle both in any case.
The borrowed T7 handle I’m using has chewed-up grips on the end, the only evidence of what has probably been many dismounts as the owner was learning how to ride with the Schlumpf hub. Whatever’s on the end of your handle is guaranteed to take a beating on dismounts. No sign of bending or other issues on my T7. With the Coker handle, it looks like off-axis dismounts may be more likely to knock it crooked, just like a seat that’s not tight enough can go crooked. Fortunately this is easy to straighten out. But as we learned with the original Cokers in the early years, judging a product by looking at pictures of it gets you nowhere. We’ve got to get out and ride with them to see how they hold up.
As for flex, a little bit of flex might be a good thing. On a long handle, what I’m looking for is a place to take the weight off my crotch. This means I’m putting weight on my hands/wrists. A little bit of “give” in a handlebar system is probably a good thing in those terms, as long as you have something stiffer you can grab hold of for hard cranking.
I can ride up hills that aren’t steep while staying in my “tuck” position. If the going gets steeper I sit more upright and hold the T handle. but when I hit the really steep spots, generally on trails or at the top of Mt. Diablo for instance, then I hold the handle on the front of my seat.
Naturequack, please stop flaunting your beautiful green machine in front of us. Me jealous! “Green” with envy! I knew I was going to regret not bidding on that work of art… 
Boy, everyone seems to have an opinion on the Handle bar for a 36! Mine conflicts with a few other people’s opinions, so it may end up being “whatever works for you”, and you’ll have to try out things yourself.
Regarding your question on weight – you could cut off the curly part of a road bike’s handlebar to save weight, but no one does this. That’s because it is a more comfortable and faster position to ride in. In essence, it is essential.
My opinion:
A handlebar on a 36" wheel is essential for any distance riding. A design that incorporates high torque abilities (for steep hills) and forward leaning abilities (for going fast) seems essential.
I like my design of the UniBar - http://picasaweb.google.com/corbin.dunn/UnicyclesAndParts and http://picasaweb.google.com/corbin.dunn/UnicyclesAndParts/photo#5167244969778501186 for a case. Look at the picture, as I’m going to reference things on it.
Reasoning:
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Having both hands on the handlebar can make you go faster. Louise (my girlfriend) finally realized this, and also believes it to be true (I had been telling her this for ages). Having one hand (or both hands) off to the side waving in the air can make your wheel twist side to side, and prevent you from going fast. In addition, that uses more energy and makes you more tired. This is true with any handle.
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A forward leaning position cuts down on wind drag, and it seems easier to do this with a T7 or my UniBar. Granted, you don’t need a handle for that, but it helps.
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For going up steep hills, your hands are used to apply counter torque on the pedals. Heck, George Peck realized this and mentions it in his “Rough Terrain” unicycling video. To get good torque, you want your hands close to the seat, so the power is more directly inline with where your legs are applying a force to the pedals. A KH handle works well for this, but it isn’t large enough for both hands to fit on at the same time. I solved this in my UniBar by having “power grips” that I can grab with both hands. I use these for cranking up really (really) steep hills. I can alternate the force from right to left hand depending on which foot is applying the downward pressure (sort of like on a bike).
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A handlebar lets you take pressure out of the seat. That makes long distance riding more comfortable.
20 miles used to be painful for me, and now I have no pain after a 20 mile ride.
I use my handlebar for all kinds of 36’er riding. Fast, street riding, and fast single track riding (generally, in the 1:1 gear for that). It works well for all kinds of riding, and hasn’t gotten in the way when doing coker muni.
Side note: when I hit 26 mph I was slightly tucked forward with both hands firmly on my far away grips.
corbin
No no…that isn’t the best setup. You can easily create a bracket out of 1/8" steel that fits underneath the seat at attaches to the front seat bolts. This avoids the rail adapter, and works perfect for short riders (like myself and my 5’2" girlfriend).
Very stiff, and won’t break your plastic seat base.
http://picasaweb.google.com/corbin.dunn/UnicyclesAndParts/photo#5137709936398541154
EDIT: I should mention why I think this. I think so because it allows you to still use the KH handle. IE, see:
Do you feel your handlebar works better than the t7? Are you willing to build one and sell it?
The double headed black cock, a handfull of mayo or just right??
Boisei: I’d be happy to lend my bit of intellectual musings to this conversation . . . . . .
The Unicycle Bastards aren’t the most sophistocated bunch, and they have accused me of having a black cock fetish so I guess this makes this a “double headed offset 11.5” black cock". It’s clearly the king of the other black cocks as you can see from the attached photo of the pack of them trying to escape from my basement soon after they were . . . whelped.
Thanks for askng Boisei
Huzzah! Black cocks FTW!
I think so; I think the main advantage is my grips instead of a standard KH handle.
I have two problems with building the handles:
- I make them out of old bike handlebars, and I’m out
- It takes a long time – mainly to grind things to the right shape/angles. The welding itself doesn’t take that long at all.
I can solve #1 by buying steel handlebar stock, and a pipe bender. I’m not sure how much a useable pipe bender would cost, and I haven’t priced handlebar stock (really, just steel tubing of the right size would work).
I can solve #2 by figuring out how to properly cut circle shapes in steel tubing. It probably involves some special tool which I don’t have.
I need to investigate these items before I really consider producing any quantity of the handles. If anyone who has metal fabrication and welding experience knows the answers, please let me know!
corbin
The problem with building custom things for other people is that it’s hard to come up with a price that justifies the time spent on it and that people are willing to pay.
So either you “rip people off” OR you work for something close to free.
…but if you ever get into producing “Corbin Handles”, sign me up for one
That’s a very neat setup. Looks like it won’t weigh a ton? No annoying rail adaptor / rail post needed, and the front bit is close enough to the seat to be useful for offroad. On the T7 you just have to use the KH handle on anything hard, and at least to me it seemed like the KH handle didn’t feel nice to use when you have the T7 coming off under it, this looks like a more integrated design.
I wonder if there’s some way you could make a design almost like yours, but using straight tubing and some more welds - it does look like the bending is going to be hard to make.
On a completely unrelated note, it seems like there are a lot of very fast riders out there who are quite short, Ken Looi and Roger Davies being obvious ones, and I think Sam Wakeling is quite short too, although it may be that I just think that because he’s quiet and quiet people often seem short. I wonder if there’s some inherent advantage for unicyclists, like low wind resistance / high strength to weight ratio or something.
Joe
Yeah, that’s true! It takes me a ton of time to make one handlebar, and I’d have to charge way too much if I really tried to make them with the equipment I have.
I’ll put you first on the list for one :). Well, you’ll be right behind Michelle Hastings; she wants one (and is short, so the T7 doesn’t work out for her).
corbin
Yeah, it isn’t too heavy; definitely lighter than a T7 since it uses less steel. But, in the end, it is steel. An aluminum, or some lighter-yet-strong-alloy would be ideal. However, I am limited with what I can weld with an oxy-acet torch setup.
I think straight tubes w/more welds would work; I may end up making some of those kinds too at some point. I really just need to figure out where I can purchase handlebar stock for fairly cheap (ideally local). So far, all my steel has been free, from old bikes that were given to me.
corbin