I haven’t been cleaning my main winter, unicycle (a 26" basic Nimbus Muni from 2009) because I am super lazy. And when I say, “haven’t been cleaning”, I mean… never. Not once…
Unsurprisingly (with the salt and grit used on the roads in the winter) the seat post is now rusted completely solid in the frame. Being able to adjust seat height is important to me because I run different cranks lengths from time to time in the winter, depending on conditions (i.e. amounts of snow). I have not had to do that much this year because the super mild winter means there is hardly ever any snow but certainly last year (and I hope again in the future), it is really handy thing to be able to do. I suspect the lack of my moving the seat post has also contributed somewhat to ending up in this situation.
Anyway, I have tried brute force (including with a hammer!) and with oil and WD40 but no joy so far. I kind of feel stupid letting it get to this state to be honest and perhaps I may still separate it but if not, then a new frame I suppose…
I can see that an near identical Nimbus CrMo frame from UDC Germany is €39/$43/¤391(NOK). Probably a better deal for a CrMo frame is however, is the more expensive URC “Medium” frame (€79/$87/¤792). I own a URC “Small” frame already on my 24" and can say that while the Nimbus frame seems a little more solidly built, for my usage this does not matter much. It is more interesting frame to me as the URC frames accommodate wider tyres (4" wide for a 26" wheelset) and hence that would increase my tyre options for winter. This is also enough gap vertically on the Medium frame to allow for a 27.5x3.5 or 29x2.50, if I ever decided to buy (or build) another wheelset.
Or… I could of course go all out and spend a whole bunch more and get mad4one equivalent to the URC frame. Being aluminium it should be rust free, offers a massive range of colour options, while accommodating wider tyres (and bigger wheelsets) but… maybe that is just an overkill and hence a waste of money. I know I am not the kind of rider who would really use such a frame to its full potential, nor am I likely to in the future if I am honest with myself.