I have been trying to improve unicycle seat comfort recently, and I have an idea that I’d like to get your feedback on.
It seems like the main obstacle to comfort is that your weight is concentrated on the soft part of your crotch because your weight has to be centered over the axle to keep balanced. Take a look at a side view picture of a unicycle to see what I mean.
So, I’m wondering what would happen if the seat was moved forward by an inch or two. This could be accomplished by bending the seatpost twice (one bend forward, another bend above it to make it vertical) or by making an adapter.
I think the result would be that you would have to concentrate your weight on the back of the seat to stay balanced, which seems like it would be more comfortable. Pressure would be removed from your crotch and concentrated on your butt instead.
Has anybody tried this? If you have, did it work? If you haven’t tried it, do you think it will work?
Unicycles are interesting animals. What you are wanting to do is accomplished by tiliting the seat down in the back, then raising the post a little to compensate. The frame will tilt forward and you will be sitting on the rear of the saddle.
Fexnix is absolutely right. Some of the guys that i ride with use the same idea. They have it so that your arse is supported more, and your chode is supported less. Personally, i hate their setup because, either your jewels are being squished by the nose of the saddle sticking up so high or your legs can’t move around as well due to you sitting over the fat part of the saddle. I ride street (seat in), though, and they ride trials (seat out). That’s the difference: They don’t actually ride around on their saddle much, so they don’t need the leg freedom. I do.
The saddle is designed the way it is because it simulates a standing position, where everything is centered around your chode. Unless you have some crazy ghetto booty, your idea would ask the rider to sort of lean back when he rides, in order to center and balance things about his rear end.
I agree though, the saddle isn’t a great design, because it centers all of the weight about your chode, which has a small amount of surface area, meaning that there is more pressure on it (PSI). It would be nicer to have all of your body weight spread across your arse, because that means that there is less pressure (PSI) on it, but that just isn’t suitable for unicycling posture. Thus the current saddle is an optimization.
It all depends on your preference though. Try out a rail adapter. Maybe subtle forward adjustments would be better for you. I’m just trying to explain why, generally, saddles are designed and configured the way that they are.
When you scoot back on your seat, you are actually staying in the same place and your unicycle is rotating forward on its axle. As a result, you are sitting on a saddle that is now tipped forward, putting you on a more forward sloped surface than before, and also sitting higher than before. It feels good to relieve the crotch pressure, but for the most part it is not a sustainable position because you are sliding forward, or rather the unicycle is trying to rotate back. Tilting the seat down in the back allows you to sit farther back and is generally more comfortable, but the crotch pressure is greater than when you were holding yourself on the back of the tilted saddle.
An offset post, or rails, etc would only serve to adjust the angle of the frame while you are riding, which is really irrelevant unless you have a knee/ frame interference problem.
Keith,
I have a kh 24 and like you didnt really like the seat angle.
My problem was the slots in the seatpost wouldnt allow enough forward movement of the seat.
Here,s what i did.
i cut a wedge out of the seat post just under the weld.This wedge was about 3-4 mm at the back of the seat post going to nothing “near”(dont cut all the way through)the front of the post.
Close up the gap and weld the seat post.If you do the preparatory work it is a 5 minute job for a good welder.
Try a search as this info comes off the forum from an earlier post.It has worked well for me.
Good luck.
