About seat height

I am looking for thoughts on seat height for my 2 unis. I own a KH24
and a 24" Semcycle XL.

For my KH24, I am working on trials but also want to use it for longer
trail rides and have plenty of hills in SW PA. Lower seems better for
trials, higher would be good for distance and higher seems better for
climbing hills. I am starting to work on seat out hopping to allow a
higher seat height and still get good hopping height.

On my Semcycle I am working on freestyle, speed and some road riding. A
lot of the use seems to favor a higher seat height, except for the
tricks involving seat in and out. I am also doing some sprinting and
speed workouts around the perimeter of the gym and it seems a max leg
extension might help with smoother pedaling as I near my fastest rpm.

I do not like to change seat heights, so I'm looking for one setting for
each uni.

Is it best to try to keep both unis around the same seat height or
should I set the seat specific to needs of each uni? From bicycling, I
thought it was best to keep seat height changes to a minimum to prevent
knee problems. Is that a concern for unis?

Bill


--
billham

Direction is everything, distance is secondary.
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On Fri, 19 Dec 2003 21:27:05 -0600, billham
m wrote:

Is it best to try to keep both unis around the same seat height or
should I set the seat specific to needs of each uni? From bicycling, I
thought it was best to keep seat height changes to a minimum to prevent
knee problems. Is that a concern for unis?

I see no reason why the two unis should have the same seat height. My
(4) unis serve different purposes and seat height between them varies
accordingly. I have no problem switching from one uni to the other,
the more so since I usually don't do that rightaway.

For the KH, I think you'll want to have the seat lowish because trials
seems to be your primary use. Climbing with a lowish seat requires
more leg power but is mostly a matter of training. For short stretches
you can stand on the pedals. Distance with a low seat - not ideal. If
you do a lot of distance and trials on the same uni, you might wonder
if another uni is in order. Or, as yet tweak the seat height for the
purpose.

For the Sem, I'd say set the seat high and work on putting seat in and
out.

Knee problems are a concern to quite a few unicyclists. I have no
personal experience, but I would think switching seat heights in
itself doesn't cause or worsen problems. The height of the seat does.
Some knee sufferers have problems with a high seat, others with a low
seat.

That (I mean yours) was a very well worded post.

Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
--
"Friends don't let friends drop to flat - Kris Holm, discussing large drops to flat ground."

Bike setup is much more fickle than uni set up. With the bike you not
only have seat height but also the front-back setting, and then there's
the whole stem length and height issue. Once I get a bike dialed in I am
loath to change it. For me, knee and allignment problems on a bike are
associated with being clipped in, when I ride unclipped it is not an
issue.

My experience is uni setup is not so fickle. I keep my freestyle fairly
high, my Muni a tad lower and my Trials a bit lower still.

I tend to do most my riding with my arch over the pedal. For taking the
seat out I shift my feet back so the balls of my feet are on the pedals
to allow a bit more height.


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UniBrier - Its Time to Ride

Steve DeKoekkoek - I've got a one track mind.
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I don't think it matters as much on a unicycle either.

Long distance bike riders are very well adapted to one particular motion
and suffer whenever changes are made. A typical bike ride can last for
five or six hours. That's 30,000 to 40,000 repetitions of the exact
same motion! Chaning the seat or stem position by even a centimeter
throws off the fine tuning and is likely to trigger a repetitive motion
injury, so the rule of thumb for trained bike riders is to change things
slowly and over a long time. Greg Lemond said that he spent a couple of
months raising his seat position by 3 centimeters.

The only unicycle riders who even come close to this style of riding are
the long distance Coker riders. In comparison, most unicycle rides last
only a few minutes, are very dynamic, and use wide-ranging, whole-body
motions.

It seems that having the seat high (long distance biker setup) is useful
for long-duration efficiency, and low (BMX setup) whenever dynamic
agility is important, regardless of how many wheels you are riding.


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Thanks gentlemen. It's so nice to have this forum to help with a few
thoughts here and there. Ideally, I like to get this feedback in
person, but alas, at present only the forum is here to help me.


--
billham

Direction is everything, distance is secondary.
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