I’ve seen MuniVision’s handle in a prev thread and I’d love to do that if only for how it seems the easiest option. However, I haven’t a carbon fiber base nor access to it so thats not possible.
saskatchewanian: That’s a HUGE handle - doesn’t leaning your weight on it throw you off balance? Also, I’m kinda worried about stress breaks.
An idea I had while looking at bike parts was to have a regular bike stem and a set of bar ends with a plastic pipe acting as what would be the handlebar in a regular bike setup. I’m talking about those pipes that bring water to homes and toilets. Would that sort of plastic be strong enough to hold up to the weight/
You’re worried about stress, then you think about using plastic?
That’s a bit of a contradiction there.
Assuming the welds are decent, all the handlebar setups you see in this thread should easily tolerate a ~100 lb load… so you could forego the seat and ride on the handlebars you see here. There should be no worries about breaking, unless you throw the uni off a cliff and it happens to land on the handlebar.
Plastic piping, on the other hand, isn’t designed to bear loads. I’d be willing to bet a pair of plastic handlebars wouldn’t withstand anything more than a few UPDs before it starts to deform.
If you’re worried about weight, you can use some thin-walled tubing to achieve weight comparable to that of plastic… of course, then, you may lose some durability.
If you’re worried about cost, think that you’ll be spending more time and money replacing broken handlebars than if you spent the extra few dollars to do it right the first time.
good points.yea plastic sounds dumb in retrospect.
Another question for those with custom handles - Do they weigh down your uni or alter the balance? As in if you’ve long handles, do they pull you forward?
Not really, you might notice a bit getting on because you are holding onto a part of the uni that is farther infront than your old handle, but if you leave on the KH handle then you can just use that to mount and you shouldn’t have any problems.
It is really nice to get in a tucked position and basically ride it like a bike once you are up to speed but when going slow you need to be more upright. When not using the handle the handling is definitely a little slower than if the handle was not there, and changing your riding position really changes the saddle angle. My saddle is not angled up at all on my 36er.
I use either the saddle handle or the middle handle (where my brake is) when mounting.
On top of the purchase price it cost me shipping ( $24.00 ) + Canadian Customs ($40.00) + Rail Seat post ($20.00) + handlebar grips ($7.00) + Bumper pads for rear ($4.00) + reflective tape ($4.00)
So an extra $99.00
Cost of extra confidence going uphill and tucked position to go fast …
Probably your best bet for building a handle cheep would be finding an old road bike at a garage sale (like $10) or even better at a garbage dump (free if you can sneak it out, depends on what the rules are).
Try to find one with a quill stem and a seatpost that is as close to your seatpost size as possible. Chop it up and use the top-tube and part of the seat-tube for the boom, stick the quill in the end of the top tube, cut the handlebars short and add some mountain bike bar ends.
That is how I made my first handle and it worked great. Heavier but more solid than a T7. It is also fully adjustable and a whole lot cheaper.
I would be glad to email you more photos and dimensions on my handle, with the carbon base it is actually lighter than the stock seat/handle and does not alter balance at all. If you can get a broken or bent handle bar from a bike shop, I paid only $16 for the bar ends and $20 to have it welded. Since it is aluminum, I could not do it myself. The mounting plate was some free scrap.
I really like the way it works and would not want to ride with out a handle.
I’ll be building a set today and i’ll take photos as i go so you can get some idea of how i did it. It will cost a grand total of about 50c in welding sticks but I already have the scrap metal. Even if you dont it wont cost in excess of $10, less if you use the forks off and old bike… It’ll make sense when I finish it, have photos and explain.
I just made a handlebar for my 36 after much research and analysis I came up with a sort of hybrid design using a bit of T7/coker/corbins homemades and saskatchewanian’s.I used electric arc welding and leftover bits of bike,total cost $0.It works fine but I’ll have to put in a few more rides to form an opinion on the merits or otherwise of the geometry chosen.Halfway through the first ride I stopped and removed the water bottle and holder as my legs were rubbing on it.I really liked having the brake, speedo and bike bell.
Here’s my handlebar concoction. Made from standard bicycle parts. No welding or machining necessary. Modular and flexible in setup. I have since shortened the boom. Originally I thought it would be handy to have a water bottle on the boom, but that turned out to be a bad idea (the weight of the full water bottle affected the handing of the unicycle).
