This has been my handle history with my miyata CF base…
Reeder…good handle but crap for flatland because it hurts when it hits me.
Kinport #1…body varial down from stand up ww, I clipped the handle on the way down. snap.
KH handle… had to bend a lot to fit on the base so it flexed a lot and got smashed down easily.
Kinport# 2…I got a brand new kinport and I was trying a Xavier style flatland trick that involved putting a lot of weight on the front of the seat and it bent down and kind of got pushed out on the bottom part where my old one snapped and it started to flex.
So I kind of ran out of handle options so I decided to try to reinforce my kinport so it can’t bend anymore in that one spot where my first one snapped. I drillled it and put 2 bolts through it near the bottom in a good place where it won’t mess up how the handle fits on the base and it won’t poke my fingers from the inside.
I tried to drill my handle last night but I went outside and stepped on a bee so it got postponed:o
I am not too sure how well this will actually work but hopefully it will be better off than before.
I’ve been snapping handles in the same location… both Kinport and KH handles. I should probably upgrade to a CF handle, but I’m holding out for an ambidextrous version… if that’s ever coming out
Yeah, the choice of handles is way too limited. The miyata/lx handle is small and weak, the kh doesn’t fit my base well, the kinport snaps, the reeder hurts…
A CF kinport style handle would be nice. Possibly even a kinport style handle machined out of a chunk of light metal…
Some have failed up around the bolts. It’s a vulnerable area. It doesn’t hurt to reinforce it there with fender washers.
One problem with comparing the failure modes of different Kinport handles is that not all of them were made the same. They went through several revisions. Some were thicker with more material where the bolts are because the early ones were failing there. You may have the more recent ones so now the failure point has moved to the next weakest spot.
Well, my solution helped for a while but I might have tightened the bolts too much or something. This time it cracked right next to the bolt. I think I am going to ditch the carbon fiber seat and just use a kh street seat…that way I can use the kh handle and have less problems except for flexy base. If I do that then I will put the reeder back on my CF seat and just use it for my muni.
This is the crack…my isight camera isn’t good in low light.
Have you tried the Death Grip handle?
I don’t know much about it, but I think they’re custom made by Scott Wallis and they’re supposed to be really strong.
Evan has one of those and I have tried it. He has a lefty one though and I use my right hand. I want a symmetrical handle I think…mostly I just don’t want to spend $65 on a handle.
I might go the Shaun way and use a viscount without a handle, less parts there to break.
haha thats what I learned to jump w/
really good for SIF too
but anyways
i have a Velo seat on my DX and I got rid of the flexing 100% completely, the weakest link on my uni is now my seatpost … and not the weld either, the plate that the seat bolts to, but anyways I took the reinforcement plate that comes in it, welded 2 somewhat closely shaped plates to it, drilled them out, got stainless bolts that are too long and bolted it on. It is a dream, i love it…except now I have a bruise on my hand because its so stiff, and the handle is universal, i couldn’t use your kinport for that reason.
what if you get a reeder (if it is what I am thinking of) handle welded so that it has a curve added to the other end for safety reasons?
I first decided that I could run it without a handle and have nothing to worry about (other than potientially smashing my base and ripping my cover because I didn’t have a front bumper). I tried it without a handle and I didnt like it at all, my hand was all smushed in there and way too close to me.
So I put another KH handle back on. This time I used a cool cutout one that Evan made me. It feels really cool, it fits my hand well and looks cool. Last time I tightened it down all the way so the handle touched my base where it bolts on and since they aren’t meant to fit together there was a pretty big gap so the handle was warped to fit in there. This time I shimmed it up a little bit more using all the washers I had (it turned out I only had 12 so there are 3 under each bolt). I am hoping that with it shimmed up it won’t die like last time.
