I have had my trials uni with a KH seat and handle for about two weeks now and I have found that after doing allot of hops and such my hand becomes very bruised. At the joints where the fingers meet the palm there are big bruises every time I ride it seems. Does anyone know how I can avoid this?
I have had my trials uni with a KH seat and handle for about two weeks now and I have found that after doing allot of hops and such my hand becomes very bruised. At the joints where the fingers meet the palm there are big bruises every time I ride it seems. Does anyone know how I can avoid this?
Which style of KH handle do you have? There is an older version that looks like 'this' (http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=782) and a newer version that's on the KH Fusion and maybe some of the newer saddles.
The old version has a very small radius right where your fingers wrap around. The new version has a much more rounded radius with fins underneath which makes it much more comfortable to grab.
If you have the old version you can take a short piece of vinyl tubing or even a flexible piece of an old garden hose. Slice it open lengthwise. Fit it over the underside area of the handle where your fingers wrap around. Tape it on using something like hockey tape. Wrap it around with tape real good so it stays in place and can handle getting hit on the ground.
on the underside there are sort of lines that go up and down it, so that its much stronger and bulkier than that one. i will try to not pull as hard but that will be hard to break, i suppose i can work on my seat out hops.
and unfortunatly gloves are out of the question as i cant even afford shin pads yet, and my shins are screaming out everyday fortunatly not to loudly as the blood tends to muffle them :P
You have the new style KH handle so the vinyl tubing thing isn't going to help much with that. Best bet is to find some gloves. Cycling gloves are expensive. Look for them on sale. Sometimes you can find full finger cycling gloves for under $10 on sale. That's a good deal but hard to find them that cheap.
You can also look for gloves for other sports. Cycling stuff can be expensive while other similar sports equipment can be much less. Look for baseball batting gloves or weight lifting gloves or other similar gloves. You can find them for less $ than you can find cycling gloves.
As a person who has broken 9 seatposts (standard and aluminium), 4 seats and a handle, it takes a definite amount of pulling up force (or so i've found) to actually cause me to get any blisters or bruises.
Although, at first I did find that going from old style KH to new style, or vice versa will cause blisters for a bout a week.
I've never had visible bruises, but may pulling hand often hurt in the same way as you describe. I think that your hand will just adapt as you continue doing it. Plus, you will learn to synchronize your pulling and jumping so that your hand (pulling up) isn't fighting against your feet (pushing down). You really should get gloves though. I got mine for 'Tommy and Lefebvre' on Bank St. They were around $26. It's the off season, so now would be a good time to go, because they'll be on sale.
-------- Off topic -------- ntappin, are you doing the Santa parade on Nov. 19th? You should. --------------------------
you will learn to synchronize your pulling and jumping so that your hand (pulling up) isn't fighting against your feet (pushing down). You really should get gloves though
I think hecklar hit the nail on the head. You shouldn't be getting bruises from your handle unless you're really wrenching on your hand, and it sounds like your current technique is what's injuring you.
And you really should invest in gloves and shin guards. They aren't all that expensive. You can get some cheap-o soccer shin guards for about $10 and some batting / weightlifting / motocross gloves for $15-20 that will work just fine for uni riding.
You could panhandle the $30 in a couple afternoons if you tried hard enough :p
