I am completely bummed out.
Last week I took the plunge and ordered my first Uni in 30 years (I was not bad as a teenager unicyclist, long, long ago). I ordered it through my local bike shop–they have an agreement with unicycle.com, and I thought it was better to go through a shop so they could check the spokes, etc…
I ordered a Nimbus 26inch MUni (with the 3inch tire)
After a S-L-O-W week of waiting, the shop called and said that my unicycle was ready. YEA!!!
I rushed over there, and they rolled it out–it looked so so beautiful I was ready to jump up and down like a kid on X-mas morning. Everyone in the shop was admiring it–many of them had never seen a MUni before, never mind one with a 26inch X 3 wheel. It was a magical moment.
I got up on it and noticed that the seat post was set a just bit too high, so I asked them if they could adjust it for me, and I could see how it was done by professionals–we thought that perhaps we might have to trim the bottom of the seatpost.
They brought it to the back–they took the clamp off, and the seatpost was JAMMED! They couldn’t move it! They couldn’t even get the thing to budge!
So, they put the unicycle into a vice and continued trying to un-jam the seatpost–then the frame twisted. It broke.
I was ready to cry, which would have been very silly considering that I am 44 years old. Still…
The bike mechanics were totally suprised–1st, that the seat post would be so jammed in there, 2nd, that a MUni frame would twist so easily. I would not be suprised if this happened to a Sun, but a Nimbus?
Anyway, they called the good folks at Unicycle Com, and now I am here, bummed out, waiting for a replacement to be sent.
Is this normal? Do seat posts get that jammed? Like I said, the clamp was off, and the darn thing was stuck like a Mammath in a prehistoric tar pit. No one was sure why, and someone mentioned that uni.com sent it like that, but I’m not sure.
Has this ever happened to anyone?
Would it be adviseable to contact Uni.com and ask them to rush the replacement order? (I was going to take it with me to europe, and my flight is in 2 weeks)
Man, what a beautiful uni–I am really bummed out…
–Steve
I recently received a Nimbus 24 Muni. The seat post in that slides in and out effortlessly when the allen screws are loose. Very strange that yours locked up like that.
Sounds like the seat post was bent and then it was jammed into the frame to the point where it got stuck permanently. I’ll bet if you took a KH unicycle, put it into a vice and started torqueing it, you’d be able to bend that frame too.
Next time instead of the bike mechanics using a bigger hammer, they should have tried a little finesse and trickery.
I feel for you in your disappointment. Hope you get a new one soon.
From what I can remember, the seat was seperate in the box and had to be installed by me after I took everything out of the box. So the shop should have realized that the seat post was tight and not forced it. Again finesse and trickery
Usually the seat + post are separate from the frame. Each one I got from unicycle.com came in a squareish box, Frame is separate from the wheel as well.
When my Yuni/Nimbus 24x3 arrived about a year ago, it also had the seat and post seperate from the frame (inside the box), so did my Torker, Sun and Coker. It sounds as though the guys at the shop somehow managed to get the seatpost stuck in the frame. I actually had a problem with my seatpost twisting in the frame until I installed a better quality seat post clamp. I would contact Unicycle.com and ask if they could rush your order. You’ve been through enough torture already:( 
Why would it twist and break? Isn’t it a muni? Aren’t those supposed to be damn near indestructible?
MY LIFE IS A LIE!
That’s what I thought. I think that’s what the B*ke mechanics also thought.
Sounds like you got a bad mUni…
I work at a bike shop, I’m suprised the mechanics did not spray a little anti-seaze around the seat post and let it sit a few minutes to see if it’d loosen up…but still, the frame should not have broken so effortlessly.
Re: Massive Nimbus Dissapointment
Dude, if I ever saw those jokers stick my uni into a vice I would yell WWWAAAAAIIIITTTTTTT!!!
That was a definete sign that these cats were far from the litter box.
A vice? What are they, crazy? I agree with “One on one” in fact, no unicycle should ever be placed in a vice, no way! Sounds to me like a little bit of anti-uni bicycle mechanic sabatogue!
Then again, maybe someone at uni-com messed up and placed a bent seat post into the package and the poor dumb biker who put your uni together just rammed the bent sucker in there, bent enough to ruin your uni, but not enough to see.
Next time, dogbowl, order direct from those sweet people down in georgia. But that also begs the question, how would YOU know if the seat post was bent. How would I? Or the ones who sent it? Or manufactured it? Maybe it fell down on the factory floor in Shanghai or Vietnam or Mexico or whereever the Hell seatposts are made these days, maybe the guy or girl who made the thing on the assembly line had no idea that your seatpost was bent because it fell off the assembly track at lunchtime. No one wants these things to happen (except for the bike sabateurs).
How could anyone know that your bike post was a ticking frame-ruining timebomb, until it was too late?
Dr. Fleshflower
Someone goofed. A bicycle mechanic will know better than to force a seatpost into a frame. A bicycle mechanic would also put grease on the seatpost. The grease is there to keep the seatpost from oxidizing and seizing in the frame. The grease also serves to help make it easier to extract the post.
There are several possibilities why the seatpost got stuck.
The neck of that particular frame could have been undersized while that particular seatpost could have been oversized. Parts are never exactly the stated size. They are always manufactured with tolerances. So a seatpost that is supposed to be 22.2 mm will actually be 22.2 mm plus or minus a little bit. So maybe the neck of the frame was out of spec too small while the seatpost was out of spec too big. Bad and unfortunate combination.
Maybe the frame or the seatpost got ovalized and is no longer round. That could happen from being dropped, having something dropped on it, shipping damage, or other cause. But the bike mechanic should have noticed that the seatpost was too tight and should not have forced it.
But the bottom line is that whoever put the seatpost in goofed big time.
Some links on the web about stuck or slipping seatposts:
Sheldon Brown on how to unstick a seatpost
Surly on slipping seatposts
Whoever installed the seatpost must have violated rules I, II, and III on Sheldon Brown’s list of how not to install a seatpost.
yes,figure out who installed the post.most likely it was the shop.unicycles from uni.com most always come with the seat and seat-post out so the over all box is smaller makeing it cheaper to ship.
also,there is the chance that one of the employee’s (or all or them) tryed to ride it and it may have takin multiple hits on the floor before you ever showed up.
a picture would be nice here.
Re: Re: Massive Nimbus Dissapointment
The mechanic probably put it in a vice because he could not get it to fit snug in the bike stand, and he would need it to in order to twist the seat-post out. Still sounds like he might have been too forceful, but that being said you should not be able to snap a frame with manpower. The frame obviously had a defect.
Orderering a uni from your local bike shop that purchased the uni wholesale through uni.com is the same as buying it directly from uni.com but in most instances it is even better. I say this from experience as we sell uni.com stuff at the bike shop I work at. Here are the advantages of going through your local bike shop.
- You are supporting you Local Bike Shop by purchasing through them. LBS’s are a dying breed and we should do what we can to make sure they stay around.
- You are still supporting uni.com because the LBS is going to purchase the item wholesale from uni.com.
- If something is wrong you do not have to deal with contacting uni.com, shipping, picking up shipping expenses, etc. That is the responsibility of the LBS. All you have to do is take the item to them and let them handle the rest.
- Some unis/frames might actually be cheaper to purchase through your LBS because they might not follow the same mark-up margin that uni.com follows. For instance, I sell the KH-24 for about $50 cheaper than uni.com does.
I have heard of them being hard to get in and out b4 but, sounds like you got a bunk one.Well at least you got a replacement huh!
Ben
Re: Re: Re: Massive Nimbus Dissapointment
Hi Zod–I’m the one who started this thread and I totally agree with you. No matter what happened to my Nimbus, or whose fault it was, I would go back to the same bikeshop (LBS) in a second. They were totally cool–in a way, the only drag is the time it takes for the uni to get from Georgia to New York City. Maybe the frame was faulty, maybe someone screwed up in the shop, these things happen and none of it is the result of any bad intentions of parties involved. “Sh*t Happens”, as they say…
And it is true what you said–the price is the same (or cheaper) through a bike shop, and it is a whole lot safer for us unmechanically inclined (guys like me who would not have the first idea how to tighten spokes). I mean, I could see ordering direct if it was, like half price, but since it’s not, I have no regrets about going through my LBS despite what happened to my Nimbus.
I also think Bike shops are really cool places.
Steve (dogbowl)
Were there any tiny dings in the seat post tube? I once got a Sem XL frame that had a ding in the tube down near the crown. I inserted the seat post and it hit the area of the ding an stopped.
It wouldn’t go any farther.
I did too, and sent it back
Re: Massive Nimbus Dissapointment
On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 00:07:18 -0500, “john_childs” wrote:
>Whoever installed the seatpost must have violated rules I, II, and III
>on Sheldon Brown’s list of how not to install a seatpost.
Violated? On the contrary, I think he followed every rule of how NOT
to install a seatpost. 
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
be sure to remove the saddle and simply sit on the seat post. this is far more comfortable - tennisgh22 on the comfort of Savage unis
Re: Re: Re: Re: Massive Nimbus Dissapointment
rock on Steve, thanks for supporting your LBS