With the short crank hole, your knee is only bent when the crank is pointing straight down. When the cranks are horizontal (arguably where it’s most important to optimise for) the saddle-pedal distance will be the same. At the top of the stroke your knee is actually less bent!
I too set my unicycle saddle height based on what I use on a bike - but I suspect that’s not really optimal since the unicycle cranks are much shorter, so the only part of the stroke which matches is the 6 o’clock position, where there’s no power. Having a high saddle is certainly comfortable for the knees though 
.
2 Likes
My aim is to understand why someone use high or highest possible PSI (and I guess they use a low saddle) vs ones using medium PSI (and maybe an high saddle).
So when speaking about PSI we should also express if we ride with almost fully extended leg (at downstrokes) or with a low saddle, so anyone can better understand why such different behaviour.
I am however going to test a lower saddle and an higher PSI to feel possible pros and cons of the different setups in specific situation. I already tought about it when comparing a friend’s 27.5"x2.6 with low saddle, 137mm and high PSI vs mine 29"x2.8 with high saddle, 137mm and low PSI… it was a muddy mtb track, but there were big differences from the 2 uni: every slow 180 turn was a pain to restart riding with mine vs a very nimble uni that require more precision on a 180 muddy turn, but which can accelerate better (at the cost of a bit of knee sore)
Depending on the type of practice, the ideal position is certainly not the same. I find that on the road, a higher saddle position while sitting on the saddle almost all the time is the best.
I am less experienced off-road, but I prefer a lower saddle position, even if it means standing on the pedals at times (but I put less pressure off-road (20-30 PSI) than on the road (40-50 PSI)).
For those who prefer a short video to a photo album and because I wanted to do it, here is a 2min35 video clip from the photos and videos I had collected after my record.
17 Likes
Wow that looks incredibly fast
1 Like
