Well, some of you have seen the thread titled “wnted carbin fiber seatbase”. As a reslt of that thread, I now have a carbon fiber seatbase to replace my aging miyata. Well, I decided to use this as an excuse to do a rather major parts/equipment overhaul. I didn’t do anyhting to the cranks or hub, as those I usually overhaul only about every 3-6 months, and I overhauled it about 3 weeks ago. But, I finally decided to deal with that stupid, crappy Onza crown. It a bashes the sides of my knees at least once every ride, so I’ve decided to replace it with my old 20" united frame. This logic goes against all common wisdom, and were I to ask beforehand, I’m sure everyone and their brother would tell me a 20" united frame on a 19" trials uni just won’t work. Well, about 10 mintes of indiscriminate hammering later, I was close to agreeing with them. One side fo the frame had about 1/4" clearance, and the other side had basically none. So, 9 soda-can shims later, I have a united trials frame on my trials uni. Is this a first? I chose to do this for 4 reasons. First, the crown is lower profile, second the united is lighter than the Onza (not that it really matters), third the frame looks cooler than the onza, and fourth, there’s some nostalgia in there, as this frame comes from my first unicycle ever.
As for my project to improve my saddle, this started with a b*ke ride down to the post office (I know, it’s horrible, but I didn’t have a uni seat, and my bike was slightly faster on the downhills. Alright, about 2.5-3x as fast [at one point I found myself going down a hill and I had to be going at least 25mph]). There I picked up the cf base and then got a new 12" innertube for padding at an lbs. Then, I spent about half the afternoon shredding my old seat, playing with my trials frames, and building the seat. I now have a seat with a KH seatcover, miyata bumper, seatpost, and handle, and some ducttape to hold the thing together. It looks cool, but I would’ve prefered to avoid ducttape outside of the seatcover. Alas, I can’t, but it’s truly now a great seat and looks and rides well too.
Some may wonder why I posted this. One of those people is me. Basically, I’m super happy to have a cf base and also I thoght it’d be nice to dispell the old myth that a 20" united won’t fit a 19" trials uni. Trust me, with a bit of hammering and some shims, it will.
Edit: I also thought I may as well put this out there. I have an extra onza (Yuni style, but black paint with a crapload of scratches and missing it’s bearing caps: I’m sure I can find them if you really want) 20" trials frame (first gen). I’d be fine selling this for maybe $25 american, or if there’s a more reasonable (read: cheaper) price someone wants to offer, I’d be up for listening. I can give it to you at CMW if you want. PM me or e-mail me at onewheeler(at)gmail(dot)com .
Cheers