36er, handlebars and bike seat??

Bike seat on a 36er for road riding??

Those of you with significant, larger handlebars or even aero bars that
effectively hold you into the saddle and reduce the need for the forward
part of the hour-glass shape of a standard unicycle seat, someone here
(I think that Sasquach-Saskatchawanin?) suggested trying out a bike
seat. I think this idea will only work well with a significantly
forward leaning riding position.

Any one tried this yet?

I'm looking at adapting a standard bicycle touring seat to the modified
rail adaptor that is the backbone of the aero bar set that I'm using
now.

B


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Oh and the three objectives behind such a move:
1. Increasing comfort
2. Decreasing weight
3. Increasing the efficiency of "the spin", not having the front part
of the seat to rub against your legs.

B


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A downhill specific seat like the 'Azonic Love Seat'
(http://tinyurl.com/6a8udo) might be worth a try. The downhill style
saddles are longer and bigger than regular MTB saddles. A potential
downside to the Azonic Love Seat is that it doesn't have much padding
and is rather firm. There are other similar saddles by other
manufacturers.

I don't think a narrow road style saddle would work well. The narrow
racing road saddles only work on a bike when you're always pushing a big
gear and always on the drops. That's the opposite of how you ride and
sit on a unicycle. A more MTB specific saddle like a WTB Laser would be
a compromise but I still think it would be a little short and narrow up
front. The WTB Laser is a nice MTB saddle that works well for a more
upright MTB posture and spinning lower gears that is typical of MTB
riding and casual cruising.


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I went out and got a seat and post and tried it out.

I am using my handlebar with a Kalloy seatpost (unfortunately 24.0 so I
needed to shim) and a KHS saddle from the cheap bin. This is on my 26"
MUni because that is the only unicycle I have at the moment.

It took me a while to get the seat angle and height right but I
eventually found a setting that was fairly comfortable. I had to turn
the seatpost backwards to let the seat sit flat when I rode.

First thing I noticed was how free it felt on the front part of my
crotch. the seat felt like... I was riding a bike. All my weight was on
my 'sit bones' and the handle. The next thing I noticed was an absence
of rubbing. I never really thought of it before but my legs rub allot on
a unicycle seat. Since there was less between my legs I found that I was
riding with my knees closer together and seemed to spin (160mm cranks,
HA!) fairly smooth.

So far it was awesome. I could see myself going indefinitely without
discomfort with a better seat. I can only ride for about an hour strait
before I start getting discomfort with a unicycle seat.

Then I straitened out taking the weight off the handlebars. It went
from weight on my hand and sit bones to weight on my legs and a single
point in my crotch. Not comfortable at all.

I think my handlebars are a bit shorter than ideal for this setup but I
really liked what I had experienced so far as far as a road setup is
concerned. I think that my next road unicycle will have a long handle
and bike seat setup.


A bit random but I think that something like the WTB Laser (which I
have on my bike) would be the ideal seat for this. A bit softer than a
pure road/race seat and actually designed to be sat on for extended
periods of time unlike a downhill seat.


and here is an old picture with my handle for those not familiar with
it. I don't have a camera to take pics of the current test setup.
[image:
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery2/m...f982b4b17877a]


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saskatchewanian;1137957 wrote:
I went out and got a seat and post and tried it out.

I am using my handlebar with a Kalloy seatpost (unfortunately 24.0 so I
needed to shim) and a KHS saddle from the cheap bin. This is on my 26"
MUni because that is the only unicycle I have at the moment.

It took me a while to get the seat angle and height right but I
eventually found a setting that was fairly comfortable. I had to turn
the seatpost backwards to let the seat sit flat when I rode.

First thing I noticed was how free it felt on the front part of my
crotch. the seat felt like... I was riding a bike. All my weight was on
my 'sit bones' and the handle. The next thing I noticed was an absence
of rubbing. I never really thought of it before but my legs rub allot on
a unicycle seat. Since there was less between my legs I found that I was
riding with my knees closer together and seemed to spin (160mm cranks,
HA!) fairly smooth.

So far it was awesome. I could see myself going indefinitely without
discomfort with a better seat. I can only ride for about an hour strait
before I start getting discomfort with a unicycle seat.

Then I straitened out taking the weight off the handlebars. It went
from weight on my hand and sit bones to weight on my legs and a single
point in my crotch. Not comfortable at all.

I think my handlebars are a bit shorter than ideal for this setup but I
really liked what I had experienced so far as far as a road setup is
concerned. I think that my next road unicycle will have a long handle
and bike seat setup.


A bit random but I think that something like the WTB Laser (which I
have on my bike) would be the ideal seat for this. A bit softer than a
pure road/race seat and actually designed to be sat on for extended
periods of time unlike a downhill seat.






Interesting report Saskat. This really got me thinking. So I went to
the local used bike co-op yesterday and bought a handfull of old seat
rail clamp parts to try this out - with a couple of bored holes in the
top plate of the adaptor, I think I can mount the bike seat on top of
the exisitng rail adaptor. This will add about a half inch to my seat
height, but give me the flexibility to try out a couple of different
styles of bike seats. The downhill seat John Childs linked to might be
an interesting one to try out.

More later.
B


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update:
orderd 2 seatpost to make it fit today on my work i work at a
lbs

so hope to finish it this week


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john_childs;1137784 wrote:
A downhill specific seat like the 'Azonic Love Seat'
(http://tinyurl.com/6a8udo) might be worth a try.



John: I was hopeful about this idea so I got a hold of an Azonic Love
seat and tried it out yesterday - OMG, what a truly horrible unicycle
saddle. Way too hard for distance comfort, but the most troubling bit
was the width in the center was too much, making it really uncomfortable
to pedal - unless your pelvis is bovine-wide. The brief ride I took
made me feel as though someone had slipped concrete into my bike shorts.
I returned the seat and will keep searching.
See picture
B


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haha, wow that seat is massive. The seat that I used was a pretty normal
looking one. I can't imagine anyone riding that thing on a bike where
they are sitting on it for long periods of time.

Also were you using the single handle that is under your seat in the
picture? My handle is quite long and I felt that I would benefit from a
longer one giving me an almost bike like position.


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saskatchewanian;1143965 wrote:
haha, wow that seat is massive. The seat that I used was a pretty normal
looking one. I can't imagine anyone riding that thing on a bike where
they are sitting on it for long periods of time.

Also were you using the single handle that is under your seat in the
picture? My handle is quite long and I felt that I would benefit from a
longer one giving me an almost bike like position.



Yes, not my brightest idea, but worth trying out. Yes the handle seen
in the pic is one of the off-road "black cock" unihandles I've made for
a while now. I'm with you on the desired bike riding position bit for
long distance rides. See pic of the general riding positon I'm using on
my KH36 now.

For the saddle test, I just tried it out by its self on a rail type
seat post on my 29er - with no handlebar, just around the block and it
so completely and fully failed the comfort test in this state that I
didn't even go on to trying to fit it on a proper handlebar set-up.
B


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I remember the Azonic Love Seat being more narrow than that. I tried it
briefly on a Creative Geckos muni 5 years or so ago. It worked better
on a muni with the lower saddle height. I can't see that Love Seat
working on a Coker.

There is a lot of experimentation in bike seats. Lots of different
shapes and sizes. Even finding a suitable saddle for my fixie bike
required several tries.

I wonder how the 'Azonic Journey' (http://tinyurl.com/5kye5a) might
work for a Coker?


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