I think that for learning to ride, and for freestyle, the seat height
advice is such that the leg extends fully without being overstretched
when the heel is placed on the pedal in its lowest position. For MUni
(and trials) the seat should be lower. But how much lower?
Scott ‘muniac’ Bridgman in his excellent tips and techniques section
advises to lower the seat gradually for MUni and see what suits you
best. That is fine, but not very definite.
So, what do people find is the best seat height for MUni?
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
Polar bears can smell/detect humans 32km away. That is about from here to Kakabeka Falls.
I have my seat as low as it will go; the bottom of the seatpost is level (actually just below) the bottom of the frame. This leaves the seat about half way down my inside leg.
I tried the Velo on it briefly when my seatpost was being attacked. It was a bit too high; it was okay for normal riding, but when going over bumpy stuff you could either reach the pedals at the bottom properly or be above the seat enough to absorb the shocks, but not both…
There no definite rule for muni seat height, at least that I’m aware of. It really is personal preference and depends on your riding style and the terrain that you’re riding.
I have my seat low enough so I can still get some hop in the legs and keep from getting bounced off the saddle, and high enough that I can still climb comfortably.
If I’m doing a long fire road (logging road, or forest service road) climb I may raise the seat up a bit to make the climb easier. Once at the top I’ll lower it. But I don’t bother with raising and lowering the seat every time.
You’ll learn what your comfortable seat height is by riding. If you feel like you’re climbing with only your quads then your seat may be too low for efficient climbing. Raising the seat a bit will get more muscle groups involved and improve the climbing efficiency.
If you’re getting bounced out of the seat when hitting bumps then your seat may be too high for trail riding. If you’re not able to get enough leg into hops and jumps then the seat might be too high.
If you’re going to compete in an XC race then a slightly higher seat height would be better. If you’re going to be doing freeride type stuff then a slightly lower seat height would be better.
Muni seat height is a compromise between pedaling efficiency and being able to jump, hop, ride over bumps, do drops, and do other fun muni stuff. The seat height you choose depends on where you decide to make the compromises.
I find that for trials, i like my seat so that i can touch the ground but still be directly over my unicycle (tip of my feet) but if i didn’t do EVERYTHING seat-out-front i think it would be lower. I run my MUni seat quite low. I’m not usually on flat, Climbing, or descending, so always standing up. I find that this is pretty good, definatly could be more efficient on the flats, but for the climbs and descents (all quite steep) i find low is good.
Hope that helps
My main problem in setting up my seat post height was hitting the tip of the seat when climbing while standing on the pedals. It would knock me off balance.
So, I witheld some of the innertube in the front of the airseat and pulled the cover down more and that gave me more clearance there, but also allowed me to keep my seat at a comfortable height. I ride with the seat tilted upwards a tad.
As John, stated, there reall isn’t any clear rule of thumb other than trying it out.
>
> So, what do people find is the best seat height for MUni?
I have my saddle kind of low for MUni. Not so low that it’s difficult to
ride, but low enough that I can absorb the shock of the terrain
primarilly with my legs. Here’s a snippet from a post I wrote back in
September on the subject.
<ker-snip!>
What I noticed was that I tend to stand up on my pedals and off the
saddle when going over very rough terrain. I link to the saddle with my
hand when I do this. It allows my knees, ankles and arm to absorb the
shock of the terrain rather than bucking me up and down in the saddle
which causes a UPD. I don’t completely stand up, just a little bit.
It’s easy to work out a seat height for the riding over things bits of muni.
First find some of the more bumpy difficult terrain you’ll be riding over.
Now put the seat up to full on freestyle height as you described. Ride over it. You’ll fall off lots because you’re being bounced of the seat.
Now just slowly reduce the seat height by 1/2 inch or so at a time until you don’t get bounced off. That’s the right height for riding over stuff.
If you want to hop or drop seat in, you often want a little bit more space so bung the seat down. If you’re only doing that stuff seat out, then keep the seat at the right riding height as you’ll find hills much easier with a highish seat.
It’s often useful to adjust the seat height on a ride, especially if you’ve got a quick blast home over easy terrain after lots of difficult stuff, or if you’ve got a well technical downhill ride followed by a big uphill. I can recommend finding a rock and bashing your seatpost on it to make a dent somewhere about 2 inches above your preferred normal height. This allows you to set the same height consistently down to 2 extra inches of clearance. Some people prefer to scratch the post or mark it in some other way (don’t try a marker pen, it’ll wear off straight away), mine just happened to hit a handy rock.
I was sans miyata seatpost for a while as Joe Rowing was putting one of his muni handles on it. Most useful it is too… a huge improvement over the small weak plastic handle.
Thanks all for the tips and pointers, much appreciated. I’ll continue
experimenting, good I still have the quick release clamp that Roger
shipped as the double bolt clamp was temporarily unavailable when I
bought Het Beest.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“Roses are red, violets are blue, I am schizophrenic, and so am I.”
… 
