Which is better to have on a street uni, a alen one or a quick release one??
Allen, definitaly. A quick release just doesn’t cut it, unless you have a really good one. And you probably arn’t going to move your seat a lot anyway. You shouldn’t anyway.
Keep in mind that a QR seatpost clamp has a lever that hangs out. No matter how well it is designed, it will find a way to snag your clothing / fingers / etc.
i suggest a primo double bolt clamp. rock solid.
some onje should make like a ten bolt seat clamp. id buy it. not cause it made sense but thad just be pimp
I like quick releases wayyy more. I am always changing my seat hight so it is much easier to pull the lever than get out an allen wrench and do it that way. It doesn’t hold it as well so if you land hard your seat can get tweaked but its not hard to fix. If you are doing muni or something like that then get a bolt. If you want something that will hold it well get an allen bolt, if you want it easily adjustable get a quick release.
On a related note. . .
When I started learning a month ago, I cut off some of the seat tube so that I could lower the seat. I quickly learned that I’d lowered it too much, so I raised it back up some. As I improved little by little, I raised the seat up more a quarter-inch or a half-inch or so at a time. I’ve got a quick-release clamp.
Now it’s back up to when I got it, maybe a little higher. And there are lots of dimples in it at the different heights, because many UPDs have knocked it off-center, so I’ve cranked the quick-release pretty tight. Questions:
- Is the integrity of the seatpost compromised by the little dimples?
- How much of the seatpost should be in the frame for it to be safe (I know there was a “don’t raise the seat up past this point” line, but now the seatpost is a few inches shorter than when it was new)?
- Is there a seatpost you can buy that won’t get pinched/dimpled by the quick-release?
Rich
i had a quick release on my old 20" and it drove me up the wall, because if i wanted to ride real quickly it found a way to catch my shorts of pants!!
In the middle of hopping up something sif, i slipped back and the quick release clamp caught behind my knee cap and gauged a hole, hurt for ages and i now have a scar!!
I now have a alen key clamp and works devine, doesnt get in the way at all, and holds the post better!!
I can’t say anything good about quick release. They just arent much good under high stresses, and the handle sucks. I once gouged my leg on one after a bad seatwrap on someone else’s uni.
Double bolt clamps are the only ones I use now. You can tighten one bolt against the other to really get it tight. Plus, how often do you really adjust seat height? Once you get it right your only going to adjust it once in a while. Even then it only takes an allen key.
Rob
If you get a good quick release clamp, they’re low profile, and clamp well, so don’t usually have either of these problems. The really massive ones that sometimes come with unicycles aren’t very good, but a good QR clamps pretty much the same as a bolted clamp, and really doesn’t get in the way.
QRs are useful if you take your unicycle apart much, like for going on public transport or putting it in a car, or if you let other people have a go often.
The biggest downside of quick releases is that other people will have a go on your unicycle, adjust the height without telling you and not change it back. It’s really annoying, cos you get on and suddenly you can’t ride any more and you have to get off and change the height back.
Joe
Fair enough. I do find they start to losen up and twist with serious seat out hopping or unispins etc which really stresses that join if the clamp isnt tight.
That said i suppose there’s no reason a good quick release couldn’t work. They’re certainley fine for comuting.
For street riding I’d still recommend double bolt, since your seat twisting in the middle of a big move can be not only annoying but downright dangerous.
Rob
If you want the best of both worlds drop $25 on a salsa fliplock. Awesome quick release clamp. Your post will not move, and it is low profile. Plus you have the bonus of adjusting your seat on the fly.
That’s a good point. I’ve had a frame failure leading to seat twist during a muni downhill and that wasn’t a healthy thing to happen then, and I hate to think what would have happened. I think a decent clamp should be okay, but I don’t do big seat out tricks or uni-spins.
Joe