I heard someone mention that they have a Kris Holm seat with a nylon cover (instead of the leather-like cover that I have).
Is the “new” Kris Holm seat available now?
At MOAB, Kris mentioned that future seats would have the ability to easily remove and change the seat cover. Do the “new” nylon seats have this ability, or is that feature going to be added to a future seat?
Even though it only lasted 90 days (300 miles), I liked my original KH seat. I opened it up last night to find that I had completely severed the metal plate inside, the ront bolts spin freely, cracked the plastic frame, and I am not enthusiastic about being able to put it back together nicely.
I am going to guess that the new seat would fix the design flaws (spinning bolts, seat cover that quickly tears along the bottom edge).
P.S.
Another question I have is “what’s with the Miata seats?”
Is it possible to make them as comfortable as a KH seat WITHOUT inserting an innertube in the seat? I am slightly interested in the Miata seat becasue it looks easier to hold seat out, pull it out front and back, and it also seems lighter. Is it more durable?
After intense investigation, and here’s what I found:
The “new” Kris Holm seat will not be available until the end of the year.
The Torker LX and Miata seats have interchangeable parts.
It is possible to have the spinning bolt problem with the carbon fiber frame.
The GB4 frame stiffener can prevent the spinning bolt problem.
The Torker LX comes in black
The Torker LX can be upgraded to an air seat the same as Miata.
My attempt here is to create the future Kris Holm seat:
Solve the maintainence problem (easier taking apart and putting together).
Solve the spinning bolt problem
Solve the cracking aluminum plate problem
Solve the unreplaceable seat cover problem
Solve the availability problem (that Miata and KH seats have)
Solve the bulk and weight problem
Conclusion:
I ordered a Torker LX saddle ($40) with a GB4 frame stiffener ($10), and GB4 seat post ($22) (which will work with the future Kris Holm saddle).
Just add my $0.02 worth.
I agree with all your points above- and I’ve tried advocating it on many occasions. I don’t think it would be a big deal of work to make the KH seat perfect.
Only other thing I’d like to add is that I think the bolts need to screw in with an Allen Key style bolt- it would make life so much simpler. An allen key takes up much less space in your toolkit compared with a heavy socket wrench, and can be used for your seat clamp bolt as well if it’s the same size. And there’d be no rounding of the nuts, or difficulty accessing the bolts when the seat is too low.
I’d really like to see CF bases as standard as I have got through 3 or 4 KH seats (by snapping parts of them) and I’m not a rough rider. I guess it would up the price a fair bit though.
Yes, my new one has a nylon-like cover. I don’t know what it’s really made of, but so far so good. I’m pretty sure the cover is still glued and stapled on at this point, though.
Possibly, by putting in the same foam. But what’s wrong with an air seat? Those are generally considered to be the most comfortable of all, and they don’t weight appreciably more than foam. I like my air seats, and my KH seats. I have a stock Miyata seat on my Freestyle uni, but if I were riding it all the time, I wouldn’t be able to stand it. I’d been putting extra foam in my “regular” Miyata seats for about 10 years before people came up with the air design.
My opinion is that currently the best seat for trials, muni, or Cokering is a carbon fiber base air seat combo. It can be either a high volume air seat (like in my air seat gallery), or a low volume air seat that is half the thickness of the high volume seat. Whatever is comfortable for the user. For now the carbon fiber combo is the way to go.
The carbon fiber base is strong and stiff. It won’t flex. Bolts will not spin (if you drill the holes correctly). You can mount a handle on the front of the seat (like the Kinport handle or Reeder handle) and the seat will not flex or break. It’s a seat that can take the abuse of aggressive riding.
With the air seat conversion the carbon fiber base makes for a very comfortable seat. You can customize the air seat to suit your needs. It takes some work to get it tweaked to make it as comfortable as possible. Once you get it dialed in, it’s a very nice seat.
The carbon fiber base does make for an expensive seat. Unfortunately, for now that is the best option. Eventually the KH seat will get to be stronger. The flex will be gone. The spinning bolts will be gone. The broken stiffener plates will be gone. The seat will have a removable cover so the insides can be worked on easily. It will all be perfect. But we aren’t there yet. So, for now, the carbon fiber seat is it.
Something that might be interesting for the people with broken KH seats. It might make for a comfortable seat to take the foam from the broken KH seat, put it on a carbon fiber base, and then put a Roach/KH seat cover over it. That could make for a strong and comfortable non air seat.
I have a KH CF seat base with the original foam and handles and a leather unicycle.com replacement KH cover and Kinport rail bracket on my muni and it’s really comfy! And no noticeable flex at all, whereas I feel a tiny bit of twist in the Miyata CF base.
Quick Q, no jacking intended: will GB4 coker handles fit a KH CF base?
Oh yeah, Those of you in the UK have special carbon fiber bases for the KH seats. We don’t have those yet here in the USA. We’ve got the Miyata shaped CF seat bases, but not the KH shaped CF seat bases.
The CF bases are the best thing to happen to unicycle seats.
I would assume that you can fit a GB4 Coker handle on the KH CF seat base. You just drill holes where needed. Washers or other spacers will make sure the handle fits flush even though the base of the seat is curved. It’s the same deal with the Miyata shaped CF seat base.