So I got my UDC shipment today with my two coker tubes, kh rail seat post and T7 handle for my coker. One word: amazing. It adds a whole new dimension to riding the coker. It almost feels as if you are piloting a helicopter. (I can only imagine because I’ve never actually piloted one)
When you push down on it the whole unicycle and your body dive forward allowing you to quickly accelerate or climb a hill and pulling back allows you to quickly slow or descend hills.
I have to admit, when I first opened the box I said to myself, “I paid $65 for this?!” I felt a bit ripped off but once I got it on the uni, WOW. It is just amazing and opens up all kinds of options for adjustability. (as would a rail adapter)
I took it out for a two mile spin and I made it up a hill I’ve never been able to do on my coker, its great. Another great plus is that if you start to get sore from the saddle you sit right on the back end of the saddle and put your weight on the handle and the jewels are able to hang freely and comfortably.
Here are some picture of it on my uni. Note in the second picture that even if you are holding on with just one hand if you hold in the middle it behaves just like a normal saddle handle but gives more control as its further away and allows you to still put your weight on it. Also, despite what it may look like in the second picture due to the wide angle perspective I actually do have a wrist haha. the T7 handle cost me half of what I spent on the unicycle itself thanks to my awesome deal from Chrashing.
Another update: As someone who hasn’t been cokering for very long I couldn’t readily feel the weight difference between the 29er tube and the coker tube. Maybe to an already experienced cokeur it would be a significant difference but to me it doesn’t seem nearly as dramatic as many would have you believe.
I just ordered the Nimbus 36 Deluxe with the T7; it looks like it could help a lot. Just can’t wait to get it now! All the conversations on here about the 36er’s, I couldn’t resist.
I’ve been riding a 36 a few weeks. It’s flat around here, and I’m not very good, so I think I won’t get a handle for a while. I appreciate the reviews. Do you see any advantage for a flat lander ?
What I really want to know, why the rod in back of the seat ? Hang luggage ?
It looks like it wants to poke me !
I considered cutting the back off my t7, but it makes a great kickstand. It keeps the seat off the ground if I have to lean it up somewhere. I flatlands the T7 can assist in turns and help shift your weight around on rides.
I can’t imagine riding any kind of long distance without my handle anymore. If you have a crotch, you can benefit from a good handle. It not only allows you to take some of your weight off the jewels (or female equivalent) and allow better circulation down there, it also changes the angle of your pelvis on the seat to something more like what you get on a bike. Presumably a better position for hours of pedaling.
I don’t know what your butt looks like; it shouldn’t poke you.
I think one of its purposes is as a kickstand. If there’s no crosswind you can stand the unicycle on the rear bar (if it’s like mine). Also I have strapped a backpack with a change of clothes and other stuff to mine. Also it’s protection. What you don’t want is a single piece of tubing sticking out where it can hit the ground. I made that mistake yesterday, when I headed onto rocky dirt without folding back the bar-ends that make up the front part of my handle. One dismount and instant chewed-up plastic end caps!
Really useful for pushing the uni, and gives room for another bottle cage, and yes you can balance the uni by it on the ground. It never pokes.
Brian you need some grips on that thing, they’ll protect the ends and make it much more comfortable to use. I also hold it somtimes like a normal handle, but on the tpoints of the handle, the cross bar on mine has the computer and bell on it.
I don’t know about adding grips to the side or anything to the center cross bar, I actually really like holding there in the middle. Maybe if I could find a way to wrap road bike grips around both the sides and the middle I think that would be ideal.
However yes, even if you are just riding this on flat ground the T7 is excellent, gives you great stability and allows you to take weight off the saddle. As for the part in the back, its absolutely awesome for when you get off and need to push the uni. I plan to mount some sort of storage on the back end with it. The T7 does not get in the way of mounting or dismounting.
Behind the camera. Haha, actually I meant the third picture of course.
The grips are to protect the paint from being chipped off if it hits the floor. I also have grips on both of the back ‘tubes’ and ‘elbow pads’ on the elbows. (I drop it quiet often when I’m doing my freemounting practice).
I don’t have a T7 handle. Consider mine one of many prototypes that may have helped inspire it. Mine is a Wygonowski handle, to which I added some mountain bike bar ends to the front bumper. I can loosen the bolts and fold them down and around to protect them when I ride trails.
In that picture you can see how the brake lever and water bottle fit in. When I lower the seat for trail riding, the bottle doesn’t fit though. More recently I “won” a bike bell at Moab, and then stuck on my computer around where the top of the bottle is. Now I can only use short bottles, which is okay because I use my Camelbak for any long rides. My back bumper is low enough below the seat to allow that bungee strap to help hold a backpack or other bag back there.
For you trivia fans, I have reason to believe my Coker is the exact same one pictured here. Some of you may have ridden it as the Unicycle.com “demonstrator Coker” at Unicon 11 in Washington. Since it did not get sold at the convention, I ended up taking it home with me! It’s now titled as the Radial 36" Deluxe but the photo is a little older, and shows the Coker tire that I just finally replaced last week. IF it’s the same one.
very sensible, my rear handle has a few scratches on it and the sharp corners of the handles are quite scratched from me dropping it on the side during dismout. I have standard slide on rubber grips on, they soak up a lot of the energy when i throw the handle down as i dismount to avoid getting caught in it.
I was discussing this with fellow Cokeurs and the point was raised that the “tail bit” balances out the front / back weight distribution of the handle.
Dunno how big a difference it’d make, but hanging a chunk of metal in front of the seat is going to affect the balance.
I’d be interested to hear about any effects you notice from your hack… go for it! You can always weld it back on if you don’t like it…
I ordered mine today.
I can’t wait to get it.
I have ridden a long ride without a handle, and must say, I really hope the handle helps because without it riding isn’t always easy.
I just went for a 10 mile ride, did it in under an hour cranking almost full speed on 150s and the handle was excellent. Helped me power up and down hills, weave through traffic and hang on during the really rough bumpy parts. I would never choose to ride a coker without such a handle.
