http://www.unicycle.com/Shopping/shopexd.asp?id=472
does anyone have this? it was recommended to me by fellow unicyclists and i’m wondering if people have had good experiences with it. also, i’m wondering if it will work with a KH seat, ?
MY friend has a reeder handle and i love it!!! It is the best feeling best angled handel i can imagen! Its a little heavy but its built tough!
Im not sure if you can put it on the HK but im sure if you take of its handle you can.
Yeah, I’m wanting one of these. The only thing holding me back is the weight…I have a Miyata airseat, and it seems like the only way to get the Reeder 3-hole pattern to match the Miyata 3-hole pattern is via the “GB Stiffener Plate”. I did this on my Coker to enable adding the GB handle, but it’s a heavy option. I don’t know if I’m ready to “double down” on adding all that weight to my already heavy muni.
Design suggestion: the Miyata is a pretty popular seat…it would be great if there was an option on these for a 3-hole pattern that fit.
I’ve heard that the Reeder handle can be used on a Viscount seat frame. Is that true? I’m thinking of rebuilding my Viscount as an airseat, and I’ve always wanted a Reeder handle. I really don’t care about the weight. This is going to be a road rider.
Handle bars
I must be James’ friend, since I have a Reeder handle. I have only started using it recently, having just put together my CF airseat. I think it is very good as far as handles go, but the weight is a big drawback. I don’t think it would work well on KH seats, unless you reinforce the seat with a steel plate, or get a 2004 model. It doesn’t look ideal with the plastic ridges and the 4 hole pattern. I think for a KH seat the KH handle works really well, and provides plenty of ambidextrous pulling and pushing opportunities (enough to snap the seat). The Reeder handle is less ambidextrous, and you choose a left or right orientation depending on which hand you use most for grabbing the seat. You can still use your left hand for holding a right handed handle, but it feels less ergonomic and not as comfortable as using the right hand. I think the Reeder handle is best suited to the carbon fibre seats, having never tried it with anything else. Tomorrow I plan to chop half an inch or so from the end of it where it sticks out a bit far. I would love to get an aluminium handle similar to the reeder, because at the moment it feels like it weighs more than the CF seat. I have an aluminium frame (Wilder) and an aluminium seatpost (Thomson) and I am jealous of George Barnes’ aluminium handle. I think Chris Reeder should ditch the Chromoly and manufacture aluminium handles if they can take the abuse. George, how is your one holding up?
i had a Reeder handle (made by GB) i used it for over a year,but one day i decided to go back to the Miyata style and i liked it better.
for me,the Reeder helped in the beginning of my uni riding because of being less balanced.now almost 2 years later i dont need to yank on the handle so hard to stay upright.i like the bumpers better now but in the beginning that handle made up for lots of bad technic.
the weight does suck and i had a permanate bruise on my inner thigh from it pokeing me durring UPD’s
i’m mainly looking for a better grip for seat-out jumping. just holding the seat on it’s side starts to hurt my fingers really fast because i’m not holding it with my whole hand. i’ve never even seen the reeder handle on a unicycle let alone actually used it but it was recommended to me so i thought i’d ask here.
looking at that link rowan provided i don’t think the reeder handle would help whatsoever with seat-out jumping. for regular jumping i think the regular KH handle would be fine, but i’d still like to try the reeder. especially if i got another seat for the comfort value. on that note, would anyone recommend any really comfortable seat in combination with the possibility for a reeder handle that would fit on a KH20 frame? also, suggestions on seat-out jumping possibilities would help too. the way it’s going now i can only do it for a short while before my fingers start to hurt.
Yes, it’s true. I’ve been using a Reeder on my Viscount for a year now. There is no flex in this setup. This is my prefered muni/trials seat. The Viscount is the best seat I’ve used for seat out stuff too.
Mojoe
Re: Handle bars
George’s aluminum handle was starting to deform a little after being dropped a bunch. I think he quit using it after that. I seen it, and it didn’t look that bad to me. One thing is for sure… it was really light.
Mojoe
You bad boys could always have a handle made out of Titanium, expensive, but strong and light! --chirokid–
I’ll try to address the questions that have been brought up in this tread.
First off, I make the “Reeder” handles available at Unicycle.com. Chris Reeder pioneered a similar design, but was not interested in production and later quit unicycling.
About weights:
Chromoly steel Reeder handles weigh about 234 grams.
The 6061 aluminum handle I made was less than half of this, at about 95 grams. It lasted for a while, but repeated “nose dives” on concrete deformed it a bit. This aluminum handle was not heat treated after welding as it should have been. I was aware of this but the handle was just a prototype and the heat treaters I spoke with wanted around $100 to do 3 parts.
Most plastic handles weigh somewhere around 80-100 grams, so yes, you are paying about a 134 gram weight penalty if you go to the Reeder handle. This is less than the weight of the shirt on your back.
It is worth noting that you can change all the hardware on your saddle to aluminum and shave about 82 grams. I have been using aluminum fasteners (bolts, washers, nuts) for almost a year now with no problems. Aluminum fasteners are available at McMaster Carr in bulk quantities. If there was sufficient interest, I would be willing to put together hardware kits with just the amount of bolts you need.
The GB4 Stiffner plate for Miyata saddles weighs 272 grams. This is hefty, but was intended to be an economical alternative to the CF base.
Other questions:
A properly mounted handle will not bruise your legs. If it does, you can try a few things.
- your handle may be too long, shorten the tube with a hacksaw
- your handle may be mounted at an odd angle or location, slot the holes in your seat base and move it around a bit.
- tilt your entire saddle up by placing washers on the front mounting bolts between the seat post and the seat base.
The handle is designed for mountain unicycling, not freestyle. If it gets in the way during freestyle, use a freestyle seat.
As of now, Reeder handles work on all saddles but the new KHs. I have made a bolt on, direct replacement handle for the KHs but I will not make it available until Velo stiffens up their saddles.
GB,when i road with the R-handle i liked it very much,and i was one of the “gotta get one everybody” people,but like i said the buise was there.it wasnt mounted at any weird angle and i hacked about 2 inches off of it.i also put in a big rubber bar-end plug at the end.
durring a serious UPD,when you go flying forward and the uni twists it would jab me in the thigh.it was never enough to cause any worries just a bruise.
i rode with a reeder handle on a viscount seat for ages, and to be honest i don`t think you can get a better setup for trials.
a strong seat with a good lift handle and good for seat in front too.
eventualy though i stopped using it because i got a kh seat which was so much more comfortable to ride on. even though the lift handle sn`t as good and the seat is a bit too fat for seat in front.
for pure trials its perfect, but in the real world you need to ride to the skate park.
i still harbour a desire to get a cf base miyata to put my reeder handle on.
that viscount setup looks good, especially for seat-out, but is their a more comfortable seat with the same features? i have ridden long distances on my KH and it’s alright but it starts bugging me after awhile, and evilewan said the KH is more comfortable then the viscount. well, end result is i only have one unicycle for both muni and trials and that’s my KH20. so obviously i could interchange seats for different riding for now.
I rode a Viscount for years, and when I finally switched over to a KH Velo, I thought I was in heaven. Having never tried a good airseat, I can’t say much about them, but I’ve read a number of posts saying you can rebuild a Viscount as an airseat, so you should be able to keep the Viscount and make it more comfy.
I’m wondering if anyone’s ever made a truly trials specific saddle like the ones BMXers use. One that is basically a handle with bar sticking out the back for “seat out”. You could ride a nice saddle to the skate park and then slap your trials one on for the hard stuff. Or you could just have a handle, so that you’re basically always riding seat out. That’d also make an interesting trainer for people learning to go seat out normally. I know Onza makes BMX trials rigs without seats, or even seat tubes. Mabey if I ever get to seriously do some aluminum TIG welding I’ll try.
does anyone know what seat comes regularly with a semcycle XL? my old crappy one in the shed has an airseat on it that’s vaguely reminiscent of a viscount. maybe i could just use that and get a reeder handle, if 1. it will work on my KH and 2. if the reeder handle will work on it.
I’ve developed a bruise on my miyata handle holding hand from doing lots of hopping. Its on the fleshy part of my palm below my pinkie. It doesn’t seem to heal very well as it doesn’t get much time to heal before I go and do more hopping on it! Does anyone else suffer from this problem? Would installing a Reeder handle improve the ergonomics of gripping the saddle handle?
Zach - Semcycles come with Semcycle saddles, curiously enough! If a Reeder handle can be used with a Viscount, then its very likely you’ll be able to use one with a Semcycle saddle. Sem saddles be easily converted into air-seats by taking off the cover, replacing the foam with an inner tube and poking the valve thru a hole you’ve drilled in the base. Easy’n’comfy!
A Reeder handle is excellent for the hand-uni interface. Chris Reeder realized that a tubular interface would be much more comfortable and effective, and he was right. The handle could be reworked a little for slightly better ergonomics, though.
I wear a hole in my Harbingers at the crook of the handle. This may be due partly to the splints in the gloves.
A combination of good gloves and a Reeder will help immensely.
The newer Kinports are excellent too, with a little hockey tape wrap.