New Fusion Zero ultra low curvature unicycle saddle

@MilanMuni

Is five miles not enough for an real review? I also said I would post up additional comments after my first Muni ride with it. And yeah my first comments on it if you knew I made a while back with only like 2 minutes on the thing at muni-fest. :sunglasses:

After 5 miles ride I also feel very comfortable on Zero but after 60 km I felt a big soreness. I use profi bike shorts (Craft elite attack). Maybe the problem was wrong angle of the saddle (0 pivotal ridge visible) or too much kilometres on the second ride with this saddle. I don´t know. I believe that it will be better because Kris wrote he is satisfied with Zero saddle. I also tried setting with 1 pivotal ridge visible (40 km) on my first ride and it was a little bit less soreness. Today I set the angle totally horizontally and I´m going to try it on friday (probably 50km). It must be better, because any other angles are useless for me.

I have another problem: I´m sitting on this place (I mean the biggest pressure) (see attached picture) on Zero but on b*ke saddle I´m sitting on the place where I have a gel padded cushion (see another attached picture). Can you help me with this problem, Kris? Am I doing somethin wrong?

With the right saddle angle, the main pressure on the saddle should be closer to the photo you show for the bike.

Think about the components of force. On a bike, force is down-and-back, even with a horizontal saddle, because you push back with handlebars.
If the force is more vertical (on a unicycle), you can achieve the same down-and-back force by angling the saddle.

If you feel like you’re falling forward in the saddle, or that your sit bones are shifted too far forward, that suggests to me that the saddle angle needs to be higher.

When I first started riding on a nearly curveless saddle, I needed a really steep saddle angle. Now that I’m used to it, I’ve lessened that angle somewhat.
Others, such as Ken Looi, appear to be able to ride with a nearly horizontal saddle. Personally that doesn’t work at all for me. So it will likely depend on the person.
I have to say, though, that I’m not surprised you have soreness doing a 60km ride before you’re used to a very new saddle configuration.

Kris

Great diagrams M.M.

It seems to me that your handle bars might be set too high (maybe you could post a photo of your set up) in which case you could try lowering your handle bars.

I notice when I’m on my road racing bike that when I adopt the lower position by gripping the lower dropped section of the handlebar that it pushes my butt out more and my pelvis rotates so that my sit bones move further back on the saddle.

The same principle should apply to dropping your handle bars on your uni.

Hope this helps

Thank you for your answer Kris.
I tried tilt the saddle back but this angle caused bigger pressure in front of my pelvis and less pressure on the bones which are marked on my second picture. Therefore I´m going to try horizontal angle.

Thanks unibokk. I´ll try to change the angle of T-bar too.

Hey Kris, I’ve just had an idea since my last post. Dropped uni handle bars for road unicycling. This would offer the option of two cycling positions for those long road journeys. I know on my bicycle, I change position constantly as I cycle so that I don’t feel sore.

Just an idea…

[QUOTE=MilanMUni

Thanks unibokk. I´ll try to change the angle of T-bar too.[/QUOTE]

Ok, M.M.

My “Zero setup” is on the 8. page in this thread.

Just checked your set up and I think your bars are too high for the Zero. I would suggest that you lower them so that they are set lower than the saddle.

Use that as a starting point and negotiate from there and experiment with the reach (T bar length) as well.

I reckon that this will make a big improvement for your comfort.

@MilanMuni I have my saddle set at zero on my 36er and I find it the most benificial like this. I also am running areobars and my weight is distributed 70% saddle 30% on the bars. It strangely felt a lot like a road b*ke stance and was very comfy.

NOTE: THE FUSION ZERO IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE SHADOW BASE.

Very cool. I see your note re Shadow Handle compatibility, but I also see a Shadow base in the photo. What modifications did you make?

After all these positive and negative comments I’m even more eager to try the Zero. When I changed from KH Freeride to ghetto flat KH Street and I really liked it being much harder and much bike-like. But it needs a few rides to adapt your butt to harder foam.
On the other hand, not every biker uses the hard saddles. Basically the ones riding longer have harder saddles and recreational bikers have softer ones with more cushion. Maybe we will have the same on unis in a time.

@danger_uni could not modify it even to make it work the shadow base is about an 1/8" longer than the set bolt holes in the Zero base . I am currently riding it with he two front bolts screwed into the base. Figured for distance it was okay like this as long as I don’t take any hard drops.

That 36 looks yummy.

Thank you for your help guys.
This is my new setup. I will try it tomorow. I´ll write a little review after ride. :wink:

Hello M.M. I look forward to your review. Remember to bring your Allen key so that you can make some adjustments during your trip.

second ride

Hi all,

Here is my review after two 1.5 hour rides.
It put the zero on my 26" Guni. I have a narrowed T-bar in a low position, close to the saddle.

The first ride I tested the saddles comfort by riding a lot of tarmac, in high gear. I switched the seat angle between all the way up and 1 notch visible and back several times, but couldn’t get a good riding position. After one hour I had a lot of paint on my sitting bones.
That being said, I like a two bolt system for the saddle angle. The 6 degree increments is way too big and leaves only two feaseble saddle angles. One notch visible or no notch visible.
Someone talked about a 3 degree offset in the notches on the seatpost, that sounds like a great idea.

I have to mention that I normally ride a flattened freeride saddle, and I mix technical riding with casual riding. I have to get off every ten minutes to keep comfortable, so I am a bit of a problem sitter so to say. Even on bikes I get pain after about two hours.

Today I had my second ride, and I rode more like I normally do: mixed technical riding and easy forrest road in high gear. Now I have a better comparison to the flattened freeride. The zero is a bit better. I still have to get used to the hard foam, but I felt way better than after the first ride.
The seat inclination today was nose all the way up, so you slide to the back of the saddle. This works the best for now.

Control issues: none, no problems.

Seat flex: yes, I noticed it immediately after mounting the T-bar in close position. Is it noticeble while riding: no, not really. In the fully extended position I think flex is a problem. There should be a stiffener plate.

Conclusion: best uni saddle so far, but I cannot sit on it for 1 hour without pauses. Hope I will get used to the saddle more the next rides.

Greatings,

Tom

I tested the zero on my KH24 for technical riding and KH26 schlumpf for xc.

On on the KH24 I had it all the way back with no pivots showing. I found it more comfortable to have the handle raised higher which made rolling hops nicer.

On the KH26 with a touring bar I had one pivot showing. It felt very similar to my mountain bike seat. When standing up for hill climbing, the seat tends to fall back with the front of the seat rubbing between your thighs. This is where the zero really impressed me as it felt a lot less invasive than the previous fusion saddle.

My Father’s Day gift came in the mail today!

The packaging from UDC Canada was absolutely awful. They placed the saddle in a plastic bag. Then, they placed the saddle and the unwrapped seat post in this flimsy shipping box. The bolt from the bottom of the saddle had punctured the box. I wasn’t very happy when i noticed that the threads of the bolt had been slightly marred. When you spend over $30 in shipping alone, you expect whatever you are ordering to be well-packaged and arrive in perfect condition! Totally unacceptable.

Installation: I measured the distance of my current seat post setup before cutting the new seat post. Bad idea!!! I didn’t take into account the difference in height of the two saddles. No big deal, I didn’t cut off that much…maybe an inch. This could have been a problem.

I ride with aero bars, so I quickly realized that I wouldn’t be happy until I took off the handle so that I could raise the T-bar to the proper angle. Now I just have to adjust my hand position when mounting. No big deal.

I put the saddle in the position where zero grooves can be seen in the rear. I definitely prefer this position the best. I went on a small 3 mile ride. Like others have stated, this saddle is going to take some time to adjust to, but I already know that I’m going to like it better than my old saddle (KH Fusion Street). My favorite feature of this saddle is the more natural Q factor. My knees noticed the difference after this ride. Below are some pictures that I hope will help someone.

Awww man! Mine was delivered today from UDC Canada but I’m out of town. I hope mine isn’t packaged poorly too.