I considered a saddle upgrade for my $10 no-brand learner (once I started actually sitting) but soon realised it was better economy to buy a whole unicycle.
I did eventually upgrade the saddle when a girl up the road gave me her rusty old uni “for parts”.
Also note that there are at least two different bolt patterns for saddles. Upgrading a Torker saddle often means a new post too.
BTW Why do unicycles have saddles and seat posts?
And be sure that the right crank arm is at the right and the left at the left.
To true!!
Best regards,
Sanne
Wow thanks for all the replies!
I believe they sold me a unicycle under a false name. The unicycle i bought says “LX” on the seat post and has a handle on the seat. I do believe that makes it an LX? Correct me if i’m wrong.
After two days of riding, i’ve come to realize that unicycling is exhausting. I spent about an hour practicing the day i got it, and was able to ride a couple feet along a wall by the end. Yesterday i got a chance to practice again, and spent about two hours in my garage. I can ride about 10-15 feet unassisted now. I’m not exactly sure where to go from here. I live in Canada, and it’s winter, meaning there is some snow to worry about. I think i will just spend the winter in the garage learning to free mount and idle.
Maybe I’ll post some pictures later, but thanks for all the great advice!
I’ll stick with what i’ve got now, but i have a feeling i’ll get hooked and upgrade the whole unicycle in a year or two.
I don’t think i mentioned it before, but it’s a 20"
Also, does anyone have any tips on turning? Since i have limited space in my garage (two car) i’m trying to go around now that i can go across, but i’m having trouble turning sharply enough to keep from running into the walls 
The LX is a better quality model than the CX.
Exactly why I’m okay with it! 
Tilt the uni with your hips while you remain more or less upright. Otherwise it is very difficult to get back upright, particularly if you slow down in the turn.
Once you get this happening, try leaning your body into the turn and accelerate.
I have a somewhat entertaining story today.
So a few days ago i was goofing around in my garage with my unicycle. And i can rid across the whole garage so i think “why not try a free mount?” Well i tried, and i made it! I was so excited 
I made it a few more times that day, and i felt great! Progress!
The next day i figured i would try it again. I pulled out my unicycle, and hopped on. And promptly fell off after idling for about 5 seconds and being unable to move forward. I tried everything. I practiced a hundred and twenty times (yes i kept track) and probably made it maybe 5 times. I was crushed. What was i doing wrong? After i scoured the internet (this forum) for answers, i still couldn’t figure it out. A day or two later i went back out to practice with similar luck, or lack thereof.
I go to sit down after almost throwing my uni at the wall, i was incessantly getting stuck in an idle. My pedals would be horizontal (3 and 9 o’clock) so i knew i wasn’t just in a bad peddle position.
And as i sat, i exasperatedly thought to myself, “why can’t i go forward?? I have all of my weight pushing on the front pedal and it still won’t move!” And that my friends, is when i realized my mistake. My weight wasn’t even supposed to be one the pedals! It was supposed to be one the SEAT. I got back up, tried a couple times being careful to put my weight on the seat so i wouldn’t get stuck in that idle. And i made it almost every time!
So i guess what i’m saying is that if i hadn’t verbalized what i was doing, i may have never figured out what i was doing wrong!
-A happy unicyclist who can freemount
Torker lx saddle
I gave my 11 yo son a new 20 inch Torker LX for his 11th birthday a couple months ago. It is his first unicycle. For the most part it has worked out great. He is still learning to free mount and idle, but is doing very good. We went out for a ride today (me on two wheels, him on one). We ended up going about 4 miles, about 1.5 miles in the saddle started bothering him. By the end of the ride he was using the handle to try to hold himself up off the saddle.
I would definitely welcome any suggestions to improve his situation. What saddle might be good for him? He is about 5’3" and 90lbs.
thanks
7894: sounds like you are doing great. If you don’t mind me asking, what part of Canada are you in? I ended up learning on a frozen lake with a homemade studded tire since it was the only flat area I could find. Having a larger learning area to learn in might help with turning etc. As you have found out learning to ride can be exhausting and it takes a while before saddle soreness becomes a limiting factor in how long you can ride.
wfv: The LX uses an old style seat post that is only used for LX and Miyata saddles. If you want to get a new saddle you would either need to get a new post or modify your existing one something like this
If you want to make the existing saddle more comfortable I have had success taking the cover off other saddles and re-shaping the foam. I shave a little bit off the outer edge to reduce chaffing and cut a “relief channel” down the middle like a KH Fusion Freeride to reduce pressure on sensitive areas. When you are done you can re-staple or lace up the cover.
wfv, I have found a pair of padded b*ke shorts very useful while unicycling. Also a thought. =)
Your practice time will be spent more efficiently if you do four half-hour sessions instead of one two-hour session, especially since you have already learned forward riding and freemounting, and also because you are practicing in your own garage and thus spend no time getting there. For me, multiple half-hour sessions are not feasible because getting to a good practice area takes 10 minutes each way.
On the other hand, sometimes it took me half an hour to get back to where I was the previous session, and it was only once I stuck at it for over an hour that I started to see improvement. I would think it is worth trying both ways. One of the things I think I learned about following advice here is that it is always worth extracting and trying the positive advice (like, try leaning more forward, try sitting more upright, try launching out, try shorter sessions, even if some of it points in different directions) but usually not the negative advice (stop using walking poles, stop using the fence, don’t use different size unis while learning, don’t do long sessions.). Try everything, but don’t let someone else’s advice stop you from doing something that is working for you. Trying different things is actually a good strategy in itself. Different things work for different people at different times, and advice that makes no sense today may click into place a few days or weeks later.
Yes, that’s very true! The opposite also happens.
When I first managed to idle with one foot, I had to always put tremendous pressure on the fork with my other foot. If you get really good at one-footed idling (I’m not there yet), you can actually remove your free foot from the frame entirely and hold it out in front of you.
Torker LX saddle mount
I think Torker might have changed the seat mount on the LX. My son’s seat looks like this:
The bolts are spaced about 20mm x 60mm. I am not sure if this is standard, but I don’t think it is the miyata mount either. Either way, i might use your suggestion of altering the foam.
padded short also a great idea, thanks
Torker LX saddle mount (image)
Sorry about the broken image. Let’s try again, Torker LX saddle mount:
I live near Edmonton, Alberta, Saskatchewanian. I was thinking about making a studded tire, but i don’t know where to start. Where do i even buy a new tire (or a used one) to stud? Just Unicycle.com? Do i just need to buy a new tire to but on the old rim or a new rim too 
Thanks for all your advice everyone!
Hi Unicyclist7894,
usually, you go for the homemade studded tire on a tire you already have because you want to keep the cost as low as possible. There is several ways of doing it (with upsides and downsides as usual in homemade projects).
If money is not a problem, you can go in a local bike shop and buy any studded tire you like/can afford and install it on your uni.
And in between, you can just get some proper studs (like http://www.maxigrip.se/en/hm11) and transform a tire you have (with sufficiently tall tread) into an ice tire (one way transformation).
The two hour session was only a day or two after i got my unicycle, and it was before i could freemount or ride forward for any stretch. It’s actually when i learned to ride forward. But yes, now i usually don’t spend that much time at once, unless there is a particular skill i am working on that requires a lot of undivided attention without letting myself break and forget it (like when i learned to freemount, i didn’t want to have to come back later and relearn the bit i had gotten)
That happens to me quite a lot too And just after reading though threads on here, it is quite evident that not everything works for everyone, and you definitely have to take and leave advice.
But if i turn my tire in to a studded tire, I won’t be able to ride it when spring finally rolls around. It would be different if i just had extra tires sitting around, but all I’ve got is my one uni and it’s one tire 
I think this year i’ll leave it for now, we’ll see how i feel a bit farther in to winter. Alberta has had a really mild November, and I’ve had a few days where I’ve been able to go outside for a few runs without ice.
Next year if i’m still crazy enough to be riding this thing, then maybe i’ll get a studded tire.
Quite a while ago I wrote up a tutorial on how to stud a tire. Unfortunately all the pictures disappeared since the website hosting them is no longer active. here it is
I am sure I don’t have to tell you that Edmonton can get pretty icy. I am currently in Saskatoon until spring and we have had the same bizarre weather.
You should be able to get an inexpensive tire that fits your unicycle from any bike shop, Canadian Tire, or really anywhere. Unicycles use regular bike tires.
My reply might be a bit late and not much needed now, but I was in the exact situation as in the original post. I own a Torker CX 20 and learned on it. To me I wish I had replaced the saddle much, much, way much sooner. From the very beginning it hurt me after half an hour on it. Being cheap, I persisted and persisted resorting to getting a (cheap) pair of cushioned bike shorts instead. I bookmarked this Velo Saddle (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C6DSFU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) on Amazon wishlist for 2 years before finally buying it!! And yes, I regretted not having done it sooner. To me whether to replace a seat or not pretty much depends on how much you can tolerate pain + how much you’re willing to spend.
