What makes a freestyle unicycle a freestyle unicycle

Off-topic
1

So, what makes a freestyle unicycle good or just a freestlye unicycle?

2

Strong rim and hub, although NOT splined 95% of the time.
Short cranks.
High seat.
Longneck for good freestyle.
Lightly treaded tire.
More stuff other people will add…

Oh, and to be ridden by someone who can post questions about unicycles in RSU… hint hint

3

light weight, square crown, not a humongaloid seat.

For some reason UDC feels the urge to put a giant KH seat on everything…

4

the biggest difference is a skinnier tire than used for trials, and shorter crank arms. usually also has a really strong wheelset, though not splined, because thats heavy and unnecessary. and it generally has a long neck too.

5

Wait, since when do they have a strong hub/cranks?

I think freestyle unicycles are over-rated.
You can spend $600+ for a good freestyle unicycle, but itcould break on a 3 foot drop. I think the best unicycle I’ve ever ridden for freestyle is my old '04 Torker DX. I’ve ridden a semcycle longneck with a hookworm tire, and I didn’t find it that special. I guess I’m used to my 2.3 low pressure K-rad tire.

6

“Freestyle unicycle” is kind of a niche area of “regular unicycle.” Back in the day, all you could get were “regular” unicycles at varying levels of quality and strength. The only real difference for Freestyle then was having appropriate length cranks, a good fork crown shape, and preferrably something rigid that wouldn’t break.

That hasn’t changed much, but the unicycle market has divided up by sub-species. You can still use most any “regular” unicycle for Freestyle, and the specifics beyond that will be an appropriate tire for your own riding surface (indoors or out), crank length you like, seat you like, etc.

A Freestyle unicycle doesn’t have to be 20" either. Look at Teresa and Sem.

My guess on why UDC uses a lot of KH seats:

  • They are super-comfortable (for most people)
  • Strong
  • Obtainable

Remember, before the KH seats, Miyata was the saddle of choice. Those have been hard/impossible to keep in stock since the mid-1980s. And their quality has gone down with their switch to Chinese manufacture.

I don’t consider the KH seats too tall for Freestyle. Just lower it! But anything with a handle can be a problem for Freestyle, so having a no-handle option would be nice. and a flatter curve on top would seem to better serve most of us. However that more-pronounced curve may be geared towards kids, who probably still represent the vast majority of riders.