Nice looking seat! That slight curve is about the same as what I have been riding on my newer style KH base with a cut down Freeride foam.
I ordered a Nimbus Slim, it should be here today, the plan is cut down the side and do a little heat gun remodelin to see if I can make the seat as narrow as Pete’s NNC.
I’m going for a totally flat base, so I’ll use a KH seat post base, block the ends, then over flatten the base after boiling. I’ll still use the KH external seat stiffener as I like how it reinforces the seat.
Totally agree, flat is where it’s at, I’ll never go back.
The flat base is a great platform for building a seat as it gives you the choice of being flat, convex, or concave. I’m not into the totally flat foam for muni, I feel like I need a little upturn in the nose to maintain fore-aft stability, though a little goes a long way.
I did my first kh seat with a negitive front angle and love it, then i did my second flat seat which is a slim and did a little less curve and it was way easier and almost felt as good
I also made my own NNC with an old plastic base, unfortunatly, my stiffener was cracked a little bit, now it’s broken. I do not have it completely flat, I still have a little curve (very little curve) and it feels awesome! I’m using the old (2007) KH Street Gel foam and cover.
I’ll be making a new stiffner with a 1/8" plate as soon as I can, and I’ll try it for Muni!
Had this seat base completely flat in the vise while it cooled but I still got a little bit of spring back. Still much flatter than the stock Nimbus Gel.
Bent internal stiffener plate to match the new curve and had to widen the holes in the base a little, to line up with the t-nuts, as mentioned by other posters.
No extra stiffener plate here, only the one that was already mounted inside (on top of the seat base). The way you bend this plate mostly defines the front angle of the seat, on Qu-Ax seats the holes lined up perfectly, nothing to modify to make the screws fit through.
I decided to get my KH Freeride seat al dente, but it seems it is stil raw I don’t have any vice or anything good to press it, so first I stood on it and then I put it under my washing mashine. When I took my feet out of it, it sprung back a bit and I thought it is almost not flattened, but the final effect shows that there is a difference between al dente and stock version. I’ll see if there is any change in the feel.
You really need a table clamp so you can use blocks to apply a negative/over flex to the seat base.
The front of the saddle is harder to flatten, but it’ll go down some, the real drop is behind the seat post mount.
Make sure you use a seat post or seat post base (KH) to prevent the seat post mounting area from flattening. I usually go through a couple boilings and adjustments until I get the base flattened the way I like it.
Maybe someone can flatten your base for you?
The KH base I flattened this week; refoamed with an unmodified KH pad, has ~0.25" of curve vs 1.25" curve on an unmodified seat. I added a 3/8" foam wedge at the stern, this is to raise the pad to level as the foam is thin at the stern and will “droop” without some additional support.
I did mine by standing on it, but then I used wooden blocks in order to get over flex when doing it that way, and I got decent flatness (not completely flat, but then I was happy with a little remaining curve, and recent discussion from those who know better than me suggests that’s better than totally flat). I presume your pictures are mocked up, but your water doesn’t look all that hot (at least in my mocked up photo there is some water vapor!) - it does really need to be boiling and you need to leave the base in for a while to heat through as the plastic doesn’t conduct heat all that well. You also need to keep the weight on until the base has cooled enough to hold the set - which takes a few minutes.
Has anybody ever redone the foam on the saddle? Or at that point did you just buy a new saddle? I have no idea what kind of unicycle I have, but the saddle has just your everyday couch cushion foam in it.
Has anybody used that new gel closed cell foam that is in all the new protective gear? The stuff that molds to your body shape when it warms up?
I’m wondering if flattening and redoing the foam will be enough for me. I can only practice so long before I’m bruised and don’t want to sit square anymore. I can’t adjust my lady bits for a better fit. Definitely want something with a channel to take the pressure off…
Hey Cloudz, people have been modifying seat foams for quite some time, it is only now that we (aracer) discovered this relatively easy way of modifying the base.
The cheep seats with the couch cushion foam are pretty awful. I would look for firmer foam rather than softer and then carve out the areas you want to minimize pressure. Before KH introduced the grooved foam for his freeride saddle I would cut out a teardrop shape to relieve pressure.
Don’t be scared to experiment, you can’t make that saddle much worse.
@aracer it was boiling later, the photo was taken quite early I think the temperature was OK, just probably I was standing too short on it. Next time I will get some clamp to press it harder.
Here was my attempt at making a fat boy seat, it failed to perform, but it was an educational experience. I started with a Nimbus flat seat (KH base and low profile foam) added minicell on the sides and top. It was certalnly wide and well padded, but I found that I was sitting more on the waist than the butt area, which led me to my next seat mod…which can be seen in the following thread. Compare and contrast is with an unmodified KH Freeride
Here’s the seat set up that I am riding on my 36er, it is a very simple seat, starting with a KH Freeride, I flattened the base, added a small wedge of 3/8" minicell foam at the back edge (to level the pad). Notice the last picture, see how flat the seat looks, that is a stock KH Freeride foam on a mostly flattened KH base. It is suuuuuuper comfy.
So then, because I had a free afternoon, things got fancy…
I flipped my handle mount upside down, drilling/dremmeling/cutting the seat base, seat stiffener, foam, and cover. It rides very nice, though the handle is about 1" shorter than the underseat mounted version, so I am working on a custom handle.
The brake appears to be a long reach, this is due to my brake losing the “adjustment” to bring it closer, so what you see is the lever at full reach. At a reduce reach it is just right.
And no, I did not have a problem hitting my nutz on the mount
Got some scrap hard foam for free (yay!) and hacked away at it until it looked good. My base is steel so I opted to carve the foam in a way that it would make a much flatter seat. Luckily the cover was able to just fit. The cover is a pretty heavy duty rubber and I didn’t really want to start cutting it.
I can see the next step up in saddles would be to have relatively hard leather seats, but where the cover is sewn and goes down into the grooves. So only your pants/shorts would be in the way of that relief. I can attest that a wool stuffed leather seat molds quite nicely to your body. I’ve been riding in the same horse saddle for 12 years and hate riding a horse in anything else.
Has anybody carved a saddle base out of a hard wood?
No pics? Well, i started growing a flat seat from nanotubes. You understand that i can’t post pics of this ultra-secret-high-tech-stuff here. 
there are sevral pictures on there.
I don’t have any vice or anything good to press it, so first I stood on it and then I put it under my washing mashine. When I took my feet out of it, it sprung back a bit and I thought it is almost not flattened, but the final effect shows that there is a difference between al dente and stock version. I’ll see if there is any change in the feel.
I think the temperature was OK, just probably I was standing too short on it. Next time I will get some clamp to press it harder.
