What do I do? :
I was tightening the nuts attaching my KH seat onto the unicycle as it
was creaking a little bit. One of the nuts I was tightening felt weaker
and weaker until it twisted right off with the head of the bolt inside
it!
Now I only have three nuts holding the seat down, and the fourth is
impossible to attach a new nut because the bolt is too short and
doesn’t stick far enough out from the seat.
My unicycle functions seemingly okay with just three, but I don’t feel
as safe riding it… do I have to buy a new seat?
The bolts under the seat can be replaced. They’re carriage bolts that you can buy at well stocked hardware shops.
If you have a Fusion seat (the seat with a removable seat cover) you can get to the bolts very easily. If you have a regular KH seat (the seat cover is stapled to the base) then it will be a little bit more difficult.
There are pictures of a disassembled KH Fusion seat in my Airseat gallery. You can see the carriage bolts and how they fit into the square holes in the seat base. Carriage bolts have a square shoulder that keeps them from spinning in a square hole.
Put in a replacement carriage bolt, put the seat back together and you’re all good. If you have a standard KH seat rather than the Fusion seat then putting it back together will be a bit more difficult. No need to glue the seat cover back to the foam. But you may need to rubber cement or silicone type glue and staples to attach the underside flap of the seat cover back to the base.
Something to check on your seat is to make sure that the acorn nuts are not bottoming out on the bolts. The bolts on some seats can be a tad too long and cause the acorn nuts to bottom out. Replace with deeper acorn nuts or replace with open nuts or put a washer under the acorn nut.
I very recently did this to my KH Gel saddle, I tightened up the acorn bolts until the end of the bolt sheared off. I talked to Roger about it & he suggested some more bolts from B&Q (UK Hardware Store Chain). I disassembled the seat, replaced the bolts and glued the thing back together, and then replaced the acorn nuts with some nylocks + washers. Its been fine ever since, and its been nice & tight too, something I was worried about with the acorn nuts (sometimes the nuts will bottom out before tightening properly on the seatpost. The nut feels tight but actually its not).
I just did this to my modified Torker DX seat. I just took the cover off and modified the foam and put in some gel shoe inserts just in time for Moab MUniFest (leaving tomorrow). I went to put it on and… snap! Luckily I have a KH fusion street I can ride. But now I’m going to have to remove the cover again and go back in there? From what I remember when I was in there the first time, the foam is kind of in one piece with the plastic. Anybody have any experience with this situation on DX seats?
(I put glue along the bottom/side of the seat over the staples to make it more comfortable to grab, in case you were wondering)
I’d planned on using caulk. But I didn’t have any left so I used wood glue. I thought it was a sweet idea until I found out I’ll having to be taking it all off again. Those staples were a pain in the butt because they only went in about halfway and I had to hammer them in the rest of the way. Can’t wait to do it all over again!!
uhm
you could definitely ride with 3, but i wouldn’t go any less than that. I replaced mine with stainless hardware when they broke, but they use a different thread.
get stainless carriage bolts 1 1/2" (i think thats the length) x 1/4"
if you are very careful you can get the foam off. just be careful not to rip it TOOO much, a little rip in the foam is not a huge deal, but a big one is a pain in the but(haha hahahhaha hahahahahahahahhaah)
