LegoBoy and I swapped some seats around this weekend when our new KH Fusion Street (2011) saddles came, so I decided to setup a mini-studio and take some pictures for direct comparison. Here is what I came up with:
All the seats are aligned by the grab handle so that the shapes can be compared. It’s too bad I didn’t do this before selling my 2007 KH Fusion Freeride or my Torker LX, but at least I took the pics selling the Nimbus Gel and Torker DX today.
So far I’m liking my 2011 KHFS more than my 2006 KHFS, but I’ve only gone on two rides with it. As you can see from the left column, the new KHFS is still excessively curved front-to-back, but it is much better than older seats such as the original KH Fusion and other seats with the Velo base. As you can see from the right column, the current generation KH base has a slightly better shape when viewed from the top; some of the older seats were too narrow at the center and wide at the nose.
I’m guessing jbtilley grew up riding Schwinns. Otherwise he would have saved the brick for some of the lesser unicycles of those days. The Schwinns had the good seats before Miyatas came along…
I actually like the Schwinn slightly more than the Miyata, but neither is good for anything other than a short ride, at least without good bike shorts. They aren’t any worse than the old KH Fusion or Torker DX, just different. I left the Schwinn out of the picture because I didn’t feel like peeling all the duct tape off…
Thanks for that very interesting. Given I don’t like the amount of curve and how wide the front is on my Nimbus Gel, it looks like a KH Freeride should be a lot better for both of those. Still deliberating on uni seats - it’s a bit of a buy it and hope situation (at least with bike seats you can generally find a shop to look at them in).
Uni technology has come a long way indeed, since I was a kid in the early 60’s! My guess is that in the near future, saddles customized for each specific rider will become commonplace, much like shoes; one size does not fit all, so it should be with saddles! They could be fit according to body type, weight, type of riding, and the foam’s shape could be made from a mold taken directly from your sit bones, targeting the precise location of your pressure points, for a custom fit!
Those all look so comfortable compared to the seat I’m dealing with on my street uni right now. Thanks to several times of breaking seats I have MacGyver’d the pieces together to create a total Frankenstein saddle. Part viscount, part kh free ride, and completely chafe inducing. I need to add some padding on the sidewalls. Also, might as well throw this out there, if anyone has a handle for an older viscount seat (it is a solid metal seat base) I would love to take that off your hands…
