I had a couple old wal-mart gel seat covers lying around, and figured why not make my giraffe LX seat into a gel seat. But I cant figure out how to undo the clips on the bottom, do they just pop off or what? I don’t want to do something stupid (like I normally do) and rip or break anything…
I assume the LX seat cover is similar to the Miyata and has enough space for gel?
Use a flat screwdriver to carefully bend the clasps back. If you bend them too far or too much, they will break. Once they’re all loose, the seat cover should come off pretty easily.
The Miyata air seat conversion guide here at unicycling.org also shows the process for removing a Miyata/Torker LX seat cover.
Ah, thanks, instead of bending them back I was trying to bend them down. :o I thought they were attached to the seatcover instead of the base!
Well I went on to making my gel seat, I had a hard time cutting down the foam to make the cover fit back on, but I made it, bearly. I’m a bit dissapointed with the seat, its more comfortable than standered LX seats, but not as good as I was hoping it would be.
So would an airseat be more comfrotable than a gel seat or what?
make sure that by ‘comfortable’ you don’t mean ‘squishy’. while it takes some getting used to, a harder seat can often be more comfortable in the long run. I know I love my semcycle seat, and it has very much the same foam that’s in the Torker.
Is the seat for freestyle, trials, muni, long distance road riding, a flotation device, or some other use? The perfect muni seat is going to be different than the perfect freestyle seat.
Well, right now its on my giraffe, but it will go on a 26" or 29er when/if I get one, so mostly road riding…
I did ride it for a few miles, and I’m still indifferent about it…I think its too flat, not enough curve for me, maybe thats why I dont like it. But it feels…weird, for some reason.
The shape of a saddle does make a big difference in terms of comfort and feel. If you’re going to be customizing the insides of a saddle one of the big challenges is to get the foam or other material to have the right shape for you.
Some saddles like the Viscount and KH have a sculpted shape to the foam. Other saddles like the Miyata and Torker LX and Semcycle Deluxe use a squarish bit of foam that looks like thick carpet pad. The sculpted shapes generally tend to be more comfortable but getting that sculpted shape in a customized seat can be difficult.
The big problem with using gel from bicycle seat pads in a unicycle seat is that the bicycle seat pads are not sized or cut or proportioned for a unicycle seat. You end up trying to fit a blob of gel in the unicycle seat and it’s just not going to fit exactly right. The challenge is to get the shape right and that is difficult.
You can play around with the shape by cutting wedges of foam (maybe carpet pad foam) to fit under the nose and back of the saddle to increase the curvature. You can cut other pieces of foam to get the shape on the top and sides of the saddle just right. Experimenting with the type of foam you use will also be a part.
And my favorite tip. An electric carving knife works nicely for cutting foam. Makes it easier to sculpt and cut curved shapes. Makes it easier to get smooth cuts. It’s a good thing.