Turning a fusion into an air fusion.

General
1

A few questions for the peanut gallery…

  1. Should I cut the foam down and use it in the air seat or should I just remove the foam altogether and run only a tube?

  2. Should I just use a plain jane inner tube or should I invest the money in an actual seat tube from uni.com?

2

Try it both ways, it doesn’t take much to change. The seat tube from uni.com is no more than a 20 inner tube, just comes with a denim sock.

3

foam helps the seat to retain it shape and good looks too. going air without foam on top can make for a lumpy looking sack of potatoes on top of your unicycle.

4

i cut some of the foam out anbd out the innertube in. but try and take the top bit of foam off in 1 piece and put it back on top of the innertube(no foam udner the innertube) thats what me and my mate done the other day but no matter what it looks like its well cumfy much better than a foam seat trust me have a look at my attempt here its called air seat 1/2/3 i think except i didnt put the foam back on top as it came off in many pieces

5

I built a fusion air seat by cutting the foam in half and puting a 20" tube on top. I tride jell and foam on top of the tube but it worked best with the tube on top and foam on the bottom. Sure it looks a little lumpy but who cares.
Make sure that when you drill the hole for the valve that you keep it as close to the rear bumper as posible, or you will have a hard time getting the inner tube all the way back on the seat.

Good luck, you’ll love the air seaty goodness.

6

I used an old Schwinn saddle. I removed the foam completely and installed a 12" inner tube. Because of the absence of the foam and the way the tube is situated under the cover it forms a nice channel. This channel resembles what the bicycle industry has dubbed the “love channel” available on many bicycle saddles. This modification has afforded me an extra 10 miles of riding before I start experiencing some pain.

7

I have cut just a .5 inch peice of foam and placed it on my fusion air saddle, using the UDC pillow and a 20 inch tube, and it looks almost exactly like the regular fusion seat now except the nose doesn’t swing up as intensely at the front. ++

there are pics of it in this thread

8

:thinking: I see no pics of a saddle in that thread??? Where’s Waldo

9

the seat pillow is good for keeping the tube in shape. my fusion airseat is bulging in the wrong places (like a fat jogger in lycra) as there’s nothing keeping it in line under the foam. I’ll get one when I can be bothered to sort it out.

10

HAHA, you’re right. That’s the wrong thread!!!

It’s actually over here.

Woops!

11

Thanks dude…I think I’m gonna set it up exactly like you did. I wanna be able to ride 7 miles without going numb :smiley:

Did you put the foam under or over the pillow and where did you get the foam???

12

I put the foam over the air pillow, it is probably a little more comfy if you put it on the bottom but then the top will probably look a little tumorous. The foam is just from the stock KH seat, I just cut a little 1/2" peice off the top to help fill out the upper curves nicely. You (or I) could always cut the bottom foam off and try it the reverse way, too.

13

yeah yeah, foam on top or face the tumor potatoe.

14

sweet info dudes…

I have an old broken KH seat (who doesn’t), so I can use the foam in it for cutting up and keep the foam from my fusion mint in case I ever want to go back!

15

You can cut the foam thinner at the nose of the saddle to lessen the curvature and give more room up front. See the pictures in my gallery to see what I’m talking about.

Then put the foam on top of the inner tube.

Figure out something to put the tube in to constrain it so it stays in place and in the correct shape. Sewing your own air pillow case is a lot of work for people like me who don’t know how to sew. An easy ghetto option would be to put the tube in an old sock and wrap tape around the middle area where it needs to be skinnier. Or you can buy the air pillow case that UDC sells and sew it in half so it becomes a single layer air pillow.

16

A bolt on one of my KH saddles broke off the other week, so when I opened up the seat to replace the bolt, I realized I was presented with an opportunity to convert this saddle (which I was not using for my main unicycle) into an air seat.

  1. I took the vinyl covering off. I was careful not to detatch the covering from the very front of the plastic plate. The foam piece was shaped exactly like the seat (as we all know)
  2. With an exacto knife, I sliced about an inch off the top of the entire foam piece.
  3. using the knife, and actually my fingers to pull pieces up, I carved out about an inches worth of the foam pieces interior, hollowing out the seat while keeping about half an inch or so at the bottom.
    4.On the real “wall” of the foam, I carved out a hole to put the valve.
  4. I placed a 20 inch tube inside this “foam bowl” and then I replaced the vinyl cover–it was still attached at the front, and I was able to fasten it pretty securely when bolting on the rear bumper. I used duct tape to temporairly secure the sides until I figure out a better way to connect the sides–actually, the duct tape is holding nicely, so maybe I’ll keep it there.
  5. I pumped air into the air seat. It’s good! So not only did I repair a broken bolt on my KH saddle, but I converted it to a groovin’ air seat as well!

my only regret is I didn’t take digital pictures of it while I was repairing it–then I could have posted them just to show how easy it was…

17

I’ve noticed some of you used a 20" tube, some a 16" and some a 12"???

I bought the air pillow from UDC and it comes with a 20"…am I going to want to go buy a smaller tube?

18

The UDC air pillow is a double layer design that folds over on itself. A 20" tube fits that design.

For a single layer air pillow a 16" or 12" will fit better than a 20". My air seat gallery has a picture of how I fold a 16" tube to fit my air pillow.

19

OK John, I got the pillow in the mail yesterday but I am confused. Does the tube go all the way inside the pillow, does it just go into the grooved ends, there’s no hole for the valve stem??? Very confused, set me skrate :thinking:

20

I like 12" tubes they fit perfictly inside. I think you can put the stem just where you shove the tube in.