After munging up two $AUD20 seats on my unicycle, last year I splurged on a more
expensive “Semcycle” seat, which I mail-ordered from another state.
I am now wondering whether I have bought myself a Semcycle seat or a
Semcycle XL seat.
Can someone please explain whether there is a difference in the seats?
My seat consists of a black pliable plastic cover over some form of padding and
a black metal base. The seat post is bolted directly to the metal base. It is
not reversible - i.e. symmetric front and back, and it has no handles.
Thanks
Julian
– Julian Orbach (julian@cs.uq.oz.au) – University of Queensland,
Brisbane, Australia
>I am now wondering whether I have bought myself a Semcycle seat >or a
Semcycle XL seat.
That’s a Semcycle seat. The XL seat has a plastic base, and plastic bumpers. the
Semcycle seat is the same (same factory & parts) as the seats on the old style
(1983 and earlier) Schwinn unicycles. It’s good and strong, but the metal base
tends to cut through the seat cover eventually.
In a message to the Unicycling List, John Foss wrote:
> That’s a Semcycle seat.
[snip] > It’s good and strong, but the metal base tends to cut through the seat cover > eventually. > > May your crotch be happy with your new purchase!
Thanks for the blessing! Actually, the seat isn’t that new - I bought it
around November last year. It did take quite a bit of getting used to - my
crotch didn’t like it much at first. However, it has lasted much, much better
than the previous 2 seats - and the damage it has taken, in general, has been
not easily visible.
In an other message to the Unicycling List, Paul Halter wrote:
> That’s a perfect description of my seat, which I got on my XL, but I paid a > little extra as recommended (by Tom Miller of “the Unicycle Factory” where I > bought it) to get the “old style Schwinn” seat. He also pointed out the fact > that the seat tends to cut through the cover, from the inside out. He > suggested taking the cover off and taping around the edges of the metal base > to help prevent that. I did so before using mine (this is my first uni so it’s > getting more drops than it should.) You may want to do that too, using duct > tape or something like that.
A quick inspection revealed that the metal base is starting to cut into the
seat, and the general area is getting fairly thin. I will take your advice.
Thank you both. A couple of us are considering (read: vainly dreaming about)
mail-ordering a Semcycle, so it is nice to have a reasonable idea of what we
would be getting (if we could afford it).
Regards
– Julian Orbach (julian@cs.uq.oz.au) – University of Queensland,
Brisbane, Australia
>That’s a Semcycle seat. The XL seat has a plastic base, and plastic bumpers. >the Semcycle seat is the same (same factory & parts) as the seats on the old >style (1983 and earlier) Schwinn unicycles. It’s good and strong, but the metal >base tends to cut through the seat cover eventually.
Take off the cover and foam. Tape thick foam around the edges of the metal
plate. Before doing that, you can also file the sharp edges down to a smooth
curve. The foam cushions the seat cover from the seat when the unicycle falls.
This can add years of life to the seat cover, depending on how often and on what
type of surface the seat falls on. I’ve modified several old Schwinn seats like
this; it really works.
>A quick inspection revealed that the metal base is starting to cut into the >seat, and the general area is getting fairly thin. I will take your advice.
Even if the metal base cuts through the seat cover, the cover can be repaired by
sewing stitches with a needle and thread. A curved needle like those used to
stitch human skin may be best. Use a thick needle and be very careful as the
seat cover is rather though to get a needle through. A pliers to hold the needle
may be required.
Once the stitching is done, a rubber or plastic cement can be used to coat the
stitches on the outside (or even inside) of the cover to protect the stitches
from hitting the ground.
The cement can be protected by a seat cover force field. 8)