Air saddles versus other saddles

Brian O. wrote:
Might we be seeing a geared Harper knee in the not too distance future?
A Gknee if you will?



If nothing else this would be worth pursuing for comic relief alone.
The image of a foot taking two steps for each stroke of the thigh might
be more entertaining than watching a unicyclist.



feel the light wrote:


I held the tubes in the perfect position, while my friend duck taped
them just so.

Then I held a foam pad over that, while my friend duck taped it just
so.

You don't have enough hands to do this yourself IMHO.



I have one of the "dog bone" socks. It's supposed to do the tube
holding. It's not quite perfect and the two-man duct tape technique
sounds like a good one. It would be hard to find one of the SARs boys
with enough grit to hold onto parts that I had sat for for years,
though.


wobbling bear wrote:
I switched from 150mm to 140mm on my big one and, though it could be
psychological, it made a difference for my old knees (note that those
cranks have also absolutely no Q-factor). I have short muscular legs
(but cannot freemount with 125mm)



I think that short legs means using short cranks is more desirable.
There is less exaggeration in the bend of the knee that way. For my
long legs, running 150mm cranks at moderate speed doesn't make me look
like a barely controlled machine from Fritz Lang's -Metropolis.- A
short legged guy is going to really be pumping those 150's.


--
harper

-Greg Harper

*jc is the only main man. there can be no other.*

"In general, I'd like everyone to just stop treating one another like
crap. I see it every day. It sucks." - SqueakyOnion
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I only had about 100km on my KH air seat before I switched it out for a
KH freeride. I found the air seat to be comfy for short rides and did a
good job of taking out some of the bumps but it would get uncomfortable
after only half an hour. I like the Fusion Freeride but I prefer my
older KH seat with the firmer foam cut down to a shape surprisingly
similar to the freeride.

I think when it comes to saddles we can learn a thing or two from bike
riders. All of the nice saddles (like the one on my bike) are quite
firm but are shaped to support properly instead of being soft so it
squishes into whatever shape your but happens to make it.


--
saskatchewanian

'St John Bosco Wilderness Camp' (http://www.johnboscocamp.com)
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Harp - I ran an air saddle for about two years. I never really liked
it.....always just seemed too squishy, rolled around, etc. A month or
so ago the tube went bad so rather than fix it I decided to get the KH
Fusion Freeride. At first it beat my ass (literally) and I was thinking
that I made a mistake.....seemed so hard compared to sitting on air.
Maybe that's because it was, duh! Anyhow I got used to it pretty
quickly and now I find it to be darn comfy. The other major plus is
that I feel more in contact with the uni on the Fusion than I did on my
air saddle. Now I'm using it for mUni not touring but still I'd go with
the Fusion if I were you.


--
zod

-Originally posted by maestro8 -
*...don't roll out on your unicycle, instead, roll out on your head...
*
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Maybe this is a stupid question, but somebody has to ask it.

I assume that the reason why unicycle seats are so different from bike
seats is so that your legs can 'grab' the seat to give you control.
With long distance riders routinely using handlebars I wonder whether
that need is diminishing. Has anybody tried putting a bicycle seat
(narrow front) on a unicycle with a handlebar and riding it for long
distances?

I've been thinking about doing this experiment but my current handlebar
is incompatible with my bike seat -- I'd need to get a handlebar that
attaches to the seat post.


--
Bruce Dawson
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I did some shopping around with saddles this year during all that
training for RTL. I started out with an air seat with Roach cover and
carbon base, that was originally made up by Chris Reeder. I've had it
on there for years and it was great, except for really long rides. And
flats.

It only went flat once on me, but it had really bad timing. It went
flat the night before the longest ride I've ever done (Lake Tahoe; 72
miles). I started the ride not realizing the problem (I thought I chose
the wrong pair of shorts), and during the ride I couldn't find the leak!
I ended up riding about 40 miles on an innertube and a tiny triangle of
foam. This is the downside of an air seat. Even if you have a patch,
it's hard to fix if you can't find the leak.

The other downside of air seats is that they spread even pressure
everywhere. This is good for the pressure points that usually get
abused, but bad for general circulation and cooling. I think a foam
saddle lets a little more air get in there to keep the temps under
control.

Then I tried the Fusion Freeride, which didn't impress me. I think it's
the right idea, with a flatter surface and center channel, but it didn't
seem to agree with my own crotch. It lasted slightly less time than my
air seat before getting uncomfortable (though it might work better on
super-long rides).

Then I tried the KH Fusion Freeride air. I was very disappointed to
learn that it's nothing but an innertube inside an air pillow, and
nothing else in there. I thought it was some innovative mixture of foam
and air, but it's not. If flat it would be even less comfortable than my
old Reeder/Roach combo. I should have read the description more
carefully, but I guess I focused on the "considered the most
comfortable seat by most riders!" part. I'm not most riders. It as
lopsided and I was unable to even it out without taking it all apart.
To be fair though, I should experiment with various air pressures.
While some air seats are best with really low pressure, some seem to
work better when a little more firm.

Then I tried the Nimbus Gel. This is my saddle of choice for the
moment. It's a little heavier, but my crotch seems to last a little
longer on it. It's what I used on my Coker for RTL. Mind you, all
saddles start to suck equally if you ride too many miles without
stopping. I had this notion reinforced for me at the Unicon Marathon,
which many of us did nonstop. OUCH!!!

Let's not forget to mention the plain-old KH seat. Originally I
replaced the Fusion Freeride (on my borrowed Nimbus 36 with Schlumpf
hub) with the old KH seat off my 29er. This is like a 2nd-generation KH
seat, from before there were multiple variations of it. It works great
for me! As does the Coker-branded Velo/KH saddle on my new Coker V2.
I've gone on long rides with both, and they've been just fine. I think
the equivalent of the old KH seat would be today's Nimbus Hi-Top ($39
from UDC).

The best way to be kind to your crotch on long road rides is to stop
every once in a while. Some people call this a circulation break or
crotch break. Even a few seconds of being off the saddle can make a
world of difference. Handlebars can help with this too. If you can ride
out of the saddle for a minute or so, it's almost as good as stopping
for a minute.


Bruce Dawson wrote:
With long distance riders routinely using handlebars I wonder whether
that need is diminishing. Has anybody tried putting a bicycle seat
(narrow front) on a unicycle with a handlebar and riding it for long
distances?

I know Scot Cooper did this for a while on one of his older Cokers, but
now he's riding a different setup and I think he's back to using
unicycle seats. For the bike seat to work there are two basic
requirements:
- You need a handlebar system you can really put your weight on. If
you're just holding onto it, rather than leaning on it, there won't be
enough support for you to ride a narrow bike seat and not keep sliding
off the front. And you won't want to angle the bike seat up, because
then it starts pressuring sensitive parts again. It has to be a balance
between seat and handlebars.
- You need to hold your handlebars all the time for it to work well. If
you have multiple handlebar positions, such as a stretched out and a
more upright one, it still has to provide that balance in either
position, or one or the other won't be comfortable.

But I think bike seats can definitely work for road unicycles with the
proper setup.


--
johnfoss

John Foss
Email: "jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
-----------------------------------------------

Man with broken collar bone say: "Have you checked your shoelaces
lately?"
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I started off with a Torker LX and the standard seat. It gets
uncomfortable pretty quickly, and the solution is to just take a break
every few minutes.

I bought a used unicycle that came with an air seat. My son has used
it a fair bit, but I didn't care much for it. With the Torker LX seat,
it is most comfortable when I am shifted back on it, where the wide part
of the seat begins to support my sit bones better. The air seat feels
cushier at first, but is applying pressure to the wrong places.

It seems to me that the ideal seat would be kind of a combination of a
unicycle saddle and a cruiser seat off a bicycle. Specifically, take
something like a Torker LX seat, and make it wider at the back.


--
StephenH
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I get no discomfort on my current seat set up, especially if I am riding
it with a guni. On a geared uni you put more force into the pedals and
it takes some pressure off of your crotch.

I am currently running a KH Fusion Freeride with a carbon fiber base
and GB4 handles. It doesn't flex at all and is extremely comfortable.

Air seats are not the way to go if you are going to be doing long
distance rides, they are alright for short distance though.


--
siafirede

'DCuni' (http://www.dcuni.com/blog) - my blog about Unicycling in
Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland
*James* = my name | 'Myspace' (http://www.myspace.com/clawsout)
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