Hi folks! newbie here. Recently scored my first uni - a like new 24" torker LX with stand for $60.
I promptly started the process of falling off of it over and over again for about an hour. The next day I was so unbelievably sore that I couldn’t even sit in a normal chair without pain. it’s now been 3 days and i’m still too sore to try the uni again.
Should I blow $90 on a new KH FR seat and post or should I just hang in there and toughen up? I’ve done a lot of reading and most people tend to say that the LX saddle is not great. I just don’t want to spend more on a KH saddle than the whole unicycle cost me if it won’t do much good for me.
Also wondered if anyone had any opinion/review on the new 2015 model KH freeride saddle. I’ve read the KH FR saddle seems to be one of the most comfortable ones to go with, but am wondering if the new version is any better.
New kh free ride saddles have a different seat cover, that’s it.
As to whether or not you should get one, I’d hold off. Once you learn to ride you’ll likely want a new uni anyway, and at this stage of learning, any saddle is probably going to be uncomfortable.
No matter how good of a saddle you have, there is pressure and chaffing occurring in an area of your body that isn’t used yet to work.
I don’t know how bad the LX saddle is. However, you can get some bike padded short for cheap and they will prove useful even when you will get more skilled and align miles
I can’t comment on the torker as I’ve never ridden one. I started learning on a ‘uni-bopper’ that my wife got me as a joke Christmas present, but upgraded as soon as I could ride maybe 5m. Basically, I got to the point of thinking hey, I might actually be able to ride this thing, and bought a Nimbus 24" muni. Looking at that first uni now I wonder how I ever managed to get on it!
I’d say it depends where and why you are sore. From my experience over that first couple of weeks I couldn’t actually stay on it long enough for saddle soreness to be a problem. Is your pain from the seat, from the frequent upd’s, or something else?
If you’re certain it’s the seat causing problems and you have the money I’d say go for it. After all, you can move the seat to another uni if you find one you’re happy with.
Alternatively, stick with what you have until you’re confident you won’t give up on unicycling and get a full uni later - maybe a different wheel size, or a specific style (road, muni, trials, etc). Again, you can swap the seat on to the torker if it’s more comfortable for practicing, learning tricks or whatever.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge and experience will be able to advise better than me!
good point, not a bad idea, thanks a lot. I used to bicycle years ago and now I remember the first ride of the season was the same way - i’d be super sore for a few days. I haven’t ridden a bicycle in years so now i have no muscle there any more I suppose.
thanks for chiming in. I’d say the soreness is just from the initial contact in that area where it doesnt get used, so I can’t say for sure that the seat it as fault because any seat would probably do it, as least initially.
I think I’m going to hold off for a bit and see how it goes because I don’t know how committed I’m going to be to this just yet. I also need to lose a considerable amount of weight, which i’m sure doesn’t help things. ha ha.
Thank you kindly for your posts, and so quickly. Looking forward to staying active on the forums…
It’s definitely worth keeping at it, but if you’re not sure you will then holding off is probably a good idea. The other thing worth checking is the saddle height. I’m sure most beginner’s have it too low. I certainly did, my saddle has got higher in 10mm steps til now, took me about 2 months to build my confidence in getting it to the right height!
That is a really good point, I’m sure my saddle is probably too low. I think as a beginner it tends to be a lot easier to get on when it’s down lower. I will be sure to mess around with the height, thanks for the tip.
I have read that the CX saddle is bad. I started with an LX, and it seems like a reasonable seat to me. I’m assuming you’re too polite to go into details about what kind of pain you’re experiencing, but I’ll assume that it’s that kind of pain. Sorry, I used italics, because HTML doesn’t support falsetto-script. Hee hee. Buy some padded bike shorts. That is my recommendation. Hope you feel better.
As I learned, the ‘saddle’ was a 20mm banana-like bend steel bar that was wrapped with a 2cm layer of very firm felt and a layer of hard leather. So don’t complain about the LX seat. You’ll get used to it …
Yo can experiment wit hpadded shorts, different saddles and saddle positions (try to bring the nose up!), but the best thing is saddle time. The more you ride, the more you’ll get used to it.
I remember a post where a Torker saddle was described as “an upholstered brick”. It seemed a bit extreme until I bought a second hand Torker LX.
However I suspect the saddle supplied with the uni had been downgraded to the original owner’s worst. It’s bolt pattern was not standard either so check that if you do buy a saddle. You may need a new post too.
The rest of the uni was great and I bought an unused Nimbus gel seat and aluminium post for a very good price on ebay.
well unfortunately i gave up on the uni the same summer I got it a few years ago. i had no where very good to learn to ride it near home and the wife got tired of me leaving tire marks on the side of the house lol.
Over 2 years later in the meantime the wife popped out our first and only child! so I’ve been very busy.
Fast forward and i’m back. I thought, what cooler thing to learn than how to Unicycle wth the kid learning to bicycle! Of course now I regret selling off that 24" Torker LX 3 years ago. However recently I found on CL a 20" CX for $35 in super condition! just needed a tube. I realized for the past two years I had the perfect learning area - inside of a parking garage at work! always flat, always dry, plenty of space, plenty of walls! so for the last couple weeks I’ve been secretly learning again about 30 minutes a few days a week. it isn’t much time, but I’m not in too much of a hurry but I do have family visiting and I’d like to impress/entertain/embarass them in July.
Two awesome things -
For some strange reason this CX saddle has given me absolutely zero pain/soreness, it’s been great!
The coolest thing - today just one time I rode approx 200 feet before bailing! I went twice as far as usual. I’m progressing a little faster than I thought I would considering my little practice time, very excited. Can’t wait to get good enough that I never fall, it WILL be so fun.
Already eyeballing the Nimbus 2 online but at $320 total i’m wondering if i should instead grab up a local 24" Torker DX listed for $170. The only thing I have against the DX is it’s got red cranks and a red rim and seat, looks a little sporty for my taste…I’d prefer an all black one like the LX was, even the Nimbus is chrome which I can live with but would prefer black. I’ve read that the Nimbus is better than any torker, but for double the price?
So to stay on subject with the saddle issue, pretty sure it’s the stock CX saddle I have, so why it’s been fine whereas the LX saddle was brutal 3 years ago is a mystery to me. I would have thought the LX saddle would have been better, being the next model up.
Bike shorts and rest breaks will help alleviate your suffering. If you got a KH saddle you could just take it off your current uni and put on a your new one when you get one. Stick with it. It only gets better from here!
You’ll get used to it …