I am very intrigued. Saddle comfort is always an issue for long rides, and a road-appropriate saddle with sit-bone support will be a great advance. Can’t wait to try one, and I will be tempted to order. I just recently acquired a new KH 36" frame with disc bracket, which I’ve been tweaking to disc-ize my Schlumpf 36". Unfortunately the color is wrong :), but the new saddle would go better with the blue frame then the red rest of it!
“Ultra low curvature” is marketing-speak. It’s just what people want to hear, who want a saddle with less curve. “Shallow” is a boring person with no personality. Of course there’s a place for shorter and more succinct names, but not necessarily in the world of marketing.
Then again, “U Games” is a much better name for a unicycle convention/championships than “NAUCC”, but that’s a topic for another thread.
Funny, until the term “shallow” came up, my main beef was with the term “flat” saddle. It’s not a completely flat slab of foam and a lot of thinking went into the foam shape, although it’s subtle. Ultra low curvature seemed more descriptive.
With bolt access through the top of the saddle, it takes literally less than a minute to install a seatpost. If you’re travelling, it’s really easy to leave the post in the frame and just take the saddle off the post.
I don’t have a closeup of the bolt hole but the attached shows the basic concept.
Love it. I heard today Peter at Municycle.com has 10 on the way, Kris had emailed them to advise.
I wont comment too much but i think the structure and material is ideal specially if its cost is less that carbon considerably im hoping.
I like the pivotal post ideal and the curvature. My Alloy saddle bases and completely flat. I think this design i wont feel the need to tip the nose up as much.
I realise the quality of KH saddle covers but i must query the external seams at the top edges of the cover… They will grip and eventually wear through the seam thread over time and if i can not remove the saddle cover its a little weird.
If i could put my Fusion cover on which had the drawstring, vinyl sides and breathable top material this would be absolutely a gem.
Why the seams on the outside of the cover i cant begin to understand.
Not the less full support here! Get out to the way i want first dibs of Aussie stock. Sorry only 9 available now.
Hope to see the locals (and Jamie!?) at ‘The Highland Fling’ NSW 8th - 9th Nov.
That looks like a really really great saddle. Great work Kris! Can’t await to test it.
Woul’d be great to have a version with red lines to match my muni’s coulour scheme
I had long conversation about this with a saddle engineer at Velo, who manufactures the saddle. I wanted the saddle to have a relatively flat top profile, which is the current thinking for most enduro bike saddles. I wanted vertical sides to minimize chafing, and because a unicycle saddle has to “hide” a lot more saddle structure than a bike saddle.
I also wanted the most durable saddle cover material they could provide, which necessarily is not as stretchy (cannot be deformed) as much as some materials. Over-stretching a saddle cover to fit one-piece is non-ideal as the material is over-thinned and can split.
At the same time, I’ve never had a durability issue with the side seams coming apart, nor with warranty returns, in the 10+ years that KH saddle covers have had that general pattern.
So considering all of the above competing priorities, our decision was to keep a side seam in the cover, but be careful with its location and make sure it is well stitched.
As for removable covers - the non-removable is cleaner with the type of cutaway design I used, and the hole through the cover for the Pivotal bolt. Of course a separate cover could be made available; I have a sample of one already. Due to minimum quantity requirements it may not be made but we’ll see about that after a few months of the saddle being out there.
From the (rare) photos of that saddle, it seems that people like to adjust it with less of an angle (front pointing up).
Can any of the lucky riders comment on that? Is there already a general preference with regards to saddle angle? (I know it’s down to personal taste, but I’m sure there is a sort of consensus for the angle).
I almost bought one, the price seemed reasonable (60 euros, $82 US), but the shipping was 50 euros ($68 US). I decided to wait for a domestic supplier to get them in.
I emailed UDC about them last week, btw, and they said they would let me know what they had them in, but nothing so far. Interesting that this German distributor would be the first (apparently) to get them. Has anyone seen them show up anywhere else yet?
Per the standard Pivotal interface, the saddle provides 6 angle adjustments in 6 degree increments. It’s actually quite OK, for fineness of adjustment.
Note that it’s hard to translate these degree adjustments to an absolute saddle angle “degree” because there isn’t a good, absolute standard reference angle. For example, a “12 degree” angle will be something slightly other than 12 degrees to horizontal, depending on where on the saddle you use as a reference.
Re saddle angle: bike saddles are comfortable because the force trajectory is down and back, into the saddle wedge. On a bike, this force trajectory is achieved by leaning on the handlebars, which shifts force down and back.
On a unicycle we don’t have the same down-and-back force from handlebars, not even with extended touring bars. But saddle angle can achieve the same effect: angle the saddle downwards towards the back and you achieve a similar force trajectory.
I expect there to be a wide variation in preferences, here.
Personally I prefer the saddle angled fairly strongly downwards towards the back - my saddle is adjusted in the 2nd to highest angle position.
For anyone used to a curved saddle, a completely horizontal saddle will probably make you feel like you are falling forwards off the saddle, and I bet it won’t feel comfortable. It doesn’t for me, anyway.
I also think that most riders without a touring handle will want a more angled saddle.
For that reason I recommend starting with the saddle angled downwards towards the back, and then moving towards a more horizontal saddle position (if desired) once you get used to the feel of the new saddle.
When ordering the zero fusion saddle, don’t forget that you might need a pivotal seat post which is compatible with your unicycle frame i.e. 27.2mm or 25.4mm.
I just looked at local offer of pivotal seatposts and most are 150mm (25.4) or 200mm (27.2), which is quite short for my uni, so be careful when looking for bike seat post and take long enough one. The one I found that is available in 27.2/400mm is Dartmoor Fusion L.
Kris, what’s the length of your pivotal seat post? The Ajata shop has some, but description is from some 22.2 post.
Thank you Kris for the comments, I share them with you, I’m already riding a NNC Flatfish saddle from Peter so I understand your explanations.
Just one thing about the angle, I had a great knees pain at last autumn after only 40 km ride with stronger downwards towards the back than usually, I don’t know if this was the reason but I came back to a flatter position now
