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.
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
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!
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.
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).
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.
Yeah, I can pretty easily find places online that sell the steel. It is more of a question of what kind of steel to use (what thickness), and to get something that is cheap. If I bought it there…it would cost like $50 just for materials.
