Torker CX Saddle

[Unicyclist7894]

@saskatchewanian

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.
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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!

[Siddhartha_Valmont]

@Unicyclist7894

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).

[Unicyclist7894]

@song

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.

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)

@Spinningwoman

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.

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.

@Siddhartha Valmont

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).

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.

[saskatchewanian]

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.

[Anch]

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.