gerblefranklin wrote:
> *
>
> Is it possible to begin putting labels on the seats to identify what
> generation they are? I hate trying to figure it out. *
Good point- maybe I should do that! The next generation (not available
yet) of saddles will be easy to recognize though because the will have
removeable covers.
Here's a brief history on this saddle:
In 2000 (before Kris Holm Unicycles officially existed) I approached
Norco, trying to find someone to make a good unicycle saddle. They
weren't interested due to the perception, as always, that unicycling was
too small to warrant any investment in product. After a year of
bugging them, the President of Norco finally introduced me to Velo at
the 2001 Interbike Tradeshow in Las Vegas. They weren't too interested
either, but after another year of persuasion, they were convinced to
look at some drawings of what I wanted, and Norco invested in the
necessary molds to make the saddle.
On the first prototypes and initial production models, I provided
feedback to Norco who then forwarded changes to Velo, and so on. It
was confusing and inefficient, but for the first time ever, there was
ongoing time and money being invested into making a good production
unicycle saddle.
Finally, mid-2003 I bought Norco's control over molds and was able to
control design directly with Velo. Although the saddle wasn't exactly
perfect, now I finally had control over the design, and could more
efficiently start to introduce the necessary improvements.
Making these changes is slow and you often have to do one at a time- you
would not believe the things that can potentially go wrong when you
start mass producing products. However, for the first time we now have
a saddle that can be improved through first-hand input from riders (plus
a bit of $$ investment from KHU) , and that's a big difference from the
Viscount and Miyata Saddles.
The new (ie late 2003-2004) version of the KH saddle is really
comfortable for trials- in my opinion it has a much more comfortable and
easy to grip underside edge than either the Miyata or Viscount saddles,
and with the rails bracket I find it more comfortable than my old
carbonfibre airseat.
Future versions will also have a removable seatcover and thicker, more
comfortable front handle, and most likely ongoing improvements will
continue to be made for the forseable future.
Kris Holm.
--
danger_uni - Kris Holm
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