So, I’m a moron who doesn’t know how to tighten things properly. I was putting on a new seat post, but as I was attaching it to my Nimbus Gel seat, I must have overtightened the nuts. One of the seat bolts broke in half. As I was cursing at myself, I tried to remove the seat post from the broken seat. I got one of the three remaining nuts off, but as I loosened the other two, they just kept spinning and spinning. I think I’ve stripped the plate that holds the seat bolts in place.
I want to get some opinions on where to go from here. Obviously the first thing to do is remove the seat post. But what should I do with the seat?
Is it worth the trouble to take it apart, replace broken parts, and put it back together again? I’ve never taken apart and reassembled a seat before, so I don’t know what this procedure involves. If the plate that holds the seat bolts in place is stripped, can I get a replacement?
Alternatively, should I just buy a new seat? Maybe I should fork over the $100 for a carbon fibre seat base? If I were to get the CF base on unicycle.com, would it fit my Nimbus seat, or would I have to buy a KH seat?
Thank you for your patience with me, your cretinous, uninformed, and unhandy friend.
I’d guess that most likely you didn’t break the plate, you’ve just pushed the carriage bolts up too far so they aren’t sitting in the square holes properly (or did you really have a piece of a bolt come off?!?). First thing to try is to push down through the foam and/or pull down from below, as you slowly turn the bolts, to try to get the bolts to sit properly in their holes. If that doesn’t work, you’ve got nothing to lose in taking the saddle apart to check it out. Putting the saddle back together is no big deal, but you’ll need a staple gun and short staples to get the cover back on. Note that you’d have to do this to install a CF seat base anyway. Also, if you really did snap one of the bolts, you can take apart the saddle, remove one of the other bolts, take it to the hardware store to match it for a new one, then put it back together. Just tape down the heads of the bolts well to prevent them from un-setting again.
Thanks for your reply. I did actually break a bolt in two; the tip of it is trapped helplessly inside the nut. I ended up taking the seat apart, since I would need to take it apart to replace the broken bolt. And like you said, if I’m going to get a CF base, I’ll need to take the seat apart anyway. Once I got the seat apart, though, I saw that the metal plate was also broken.
The plate is broken in half right where it holds the two front bolts in place. That seems to be why those two bolts just keep spinning and spinning when I try to loosen the nuts. They won’t really stay put in the square plastic holes of the seat base - maybe the plastic holes have been rounded off?
I’m still having trouble getting those bolts free. I can’t really get a good grip on them to keep them still while I loosen the nuts. Any suggestions? At this rate, I’m starting to think about hacking the plastic seat base apart just to salvage the seat post.
So, what are my options? Is it possible to buy a new metal plate for the seat? Is it possible to buy a new plastic base if I hack mine apart? I haven’t seen either of them for sale.
If I can’t get a new metal plate or a new plastic base, I’ll have to get a whole new seat or a CF base, right? If I get a CF base, I’ll also have to buy a seat cover with a drawstring, like the KH cover, right? I don’t think I can use the Nimbus cover that I have now, because it requires staples.
To me it seems that if my choices are between buying a new seat and getting a CF base, I might as well get the CF base and the KH cover and salvage the foam, handle, and rear bumper from my Nimbus seat. Is my thinking sound, or am I overlooking something?
Wow, major bummer.
You might try contacting UDC and seeing if they’ll replace the metal plate, or the whole seat, as a warranty-type issue. Probably depends on how long you’ve had the seat.
I agree you’d need a drawstring cover with a CF base. Edit: Note that in addition to KH covers, you could get a Nimbus cover, like those cow-skin looking ones they sell.
I’m thinking just buying a new seat might be your best bet.
