My first 48 year old unicycle!

balancekaos said:

Hi everyone,
so i just started unicycling about a week ago after a friends dad gave
me his really really old *1966* schwinn 24" unicycle. it was just
sitting in his basement for *48 years *but its still in great condition
other than a little rust. over the last few days ive been in my
basement/garage because of the snow and ice outside getting only a few
feet. A couple days a go i took a break from skating in a local parking
garage to see if i could do any better and i actually could do it. Even
better is the fact that my friend was messing around with my camera and
took a short video of it.

I never imagined learning to ride a unicycle to be as fun and easy as
it was and I'm really excited for when the roads are dry tomorrow
(slippery, wet pedals).

Here are a couple pictures

-Chris

Actually that would be 42 years...but still that's a ways back!:p

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MuniAddict said:

Actually that would be 42 years...but still that's a ways back!:p

jeeze terry, u nerd 😉

hahaha

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munifreaker said:

jeeze terry, u nerd 😉

hahaha

jeeze thanks Kyle!🙄

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balancekaos said:

I never imagined learning to ride a unicycle to be as fun and easy as it
was and I'm really excited for when the roads are dry tomorrow
(slippery, wet pedals).

Be careful. Once you ride, there is no turning back.

You seemed to have learned very quickly. There must be magic in that
old Schwinn.

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johnfoss said:

If riding the unicycle seems impossible at first, that only proves
you're human. 🙂

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Well done and welcome to the forums

Does you dad still ride? Even if he hasn't been on a uni for ages I bet
he could get back on and you could have a riding partner🙂

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Unibugg said:

Be careful. Once you ride, there is no turning back.

You seemed to have learned very quickly. There must be magic in that
old Schwinn.

Yeah haha, i was surprised at how fast i learned too. From what i read
when i started it was going to take me a long time of only making it
one or two turns and after only a few days im learning to turn. My only
problem is how rough the seat is on the jewels, does that go away once
i get used to it?

thanks,
Chris

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balancekaos said:

My only problem is how rough the seat is on the jewels, does that go
away once i get used to it?

It goes away when you modify your seat foam to make it more comfortable
or buy a new seat

It looks like the seatpost is the same as modern ones so a KH style
saddle should fit.

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what saddle would you recommend?

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balancekaos said:

Hi everyone,
so i just started unicycling about a week ago after a friends dad gave
me his really really old 1966 schwinn 24" unicycle. it was just sitting
in his basement for 48 years but its still in great condition other
than a little rust. over the last few days ive been in my
basement/garage because of the snow and ice outside getting only a few
feet. A couple days a go i took a break from skating in a local parking
garage to see if i could do any better and i actually could do it. Even
better is the fact that my friend was messing around with my camera and
took a short video of it.

I never imagined learning to ride a unicycle to be as fun and easy as
it was and I'm really excited for when the roads are dry tomorrow
(slippery, wet pedals).

Here are a couple pictures

-Chris

It has cottered cranks. It really is old.

Someone should host a Schwinn reunion. There must be thousands of them
out there.

Welcome to the world of unicycling.

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The new KH Fusion Freeride is a really nice comfortable seat.

Some people like the Nimbus seat but I have never tried it.

Edit: I think it would be worth it experimenting with different foams
first as the general shape of your seat doesn't look to bad.

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balancekaos said:

what saddle would you recommend?

'http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=953'
(http://http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=953)
http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=823
http://www.unicycle.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=965

There's a good chance those might not fit.

...and for the $40-$50 prices, you might as well just save up and get a
new uni all together.

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munifreaker said:

jeeze terry, u nerd 😉

A little more nerdliness:
The Schwinn unicycles came out in 1967. It would be very cool if that
one is from the "first model year." Don't know how much change there
was during the early years. I know they started out coming with these
silly triangular pedals. The ones on yours were probably added later.
Everything else looks original; Schwinns looked like that until around
1979 or so, when they went cotterless.

Jewel issues:
The foam in those old Schwinn seats had a tendency to disintegrate over
time. I remember having seat foam turn to dust on me in the early 80s,
so there's a good chance your seat just doesn't have what it used to.

Definitely consider a new unicycle before spending too much on that
one. Though old Schwinns are hard to kill, they're heavy, and the
wheels aren't very strong. Keep it as a learner. If you just want a
seat you could get any of the ones that fit the Schwinn style mounting,
which includes the KHs.

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johnfoss said:

Jewel issues:
The foam in those old Schwinn seats had a tendency to disintegrate over
time. I remember having seat foam turn to dust on me in the early 80s,
so there's a good chance your seat just doesn't have what it used to.

This is one thing I do remember about my (brother's) old Schwinn. Sort
of how a cheap pillow behaves.

It was also important to us to catch the uni whenever possible to
preserve the seat even under threat of personal injury 😉 . The
bumpers and handles on modern unis sure do take a beating in
comparison.

I tried a search for those "triangualar pedals". But no luck. Do you
have any?

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johnfoss said:

If riding the unicycle seems impossible at first, that only proves
you're human. 🙂

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balancekaos said:

My only problem is how rough the seat is on the jewels, does that go
away once i get used to it?

Don't worry about your jewels. Once they've been worn away by the
saddle, you won't have to worry about them any more!🙂

Jerry Attrick

PS I had my kids BEFORE I started unicycling!

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JerryAttrick said:

Don't worry about your jewels. Once they've been worn away by the
saddle, you won't have to worry about them any more!🙂

wow im having that in my signature lol 😄

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JerryAttrick said:

Don't worry about your jewels. Once they've been worn away by the
saddle, you won't have to worry about them any more!🙂

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JerryAttrick said:

Don't worry about your jewels. Once they've been worn away by the
saddle, you won't have to worry about them any more!🙂

PS I had my kids BEFORE I started unicycling!

Lucky me!
I had both of mine after municycling for years! There goes that
theory:eek:

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Unibugg said:

It was also important to us to catch the uni whenever possible to
preserve the seat even under threat of personal injury 😉 . The
bumpers and handles on modern unis sure do take a beating in
comparison.

It's not that the Schwinn seats were weak; they would never bend up like
the old Japanese/Taiwanese ones. Just that the strong steel base would
very efficiently cut through the vinyl cover. Amazing how weak that one
detail was, but since the Schwinn seats were better than all the other
seats at the time (you should have seen them), they didn't fix it until
they were "losing market" to Miyata. Their improvement was the Viscount
seat.

Quoted message said:

I tried a search for those "triangualar pedals". But no luck. Do you
have any?

No, why? Collectors' items? I guess they would be. They were like block
pedals, a solid black block, that narrowed toward the outside end to
surround the very large bolt there. Not a pure triangle by any means,
but much narrower at the ends than at the base. Stupid pedals. I think
they used to use them on their exercise bikes also, but I did some
looking on eBay and couldn't find any examples.

If you really want some you could try Tommy Miller (The Unicycle
Factory). There's a good chance he has some.

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That's motivating! Those old schwinn's can still inspire kids. I had one
from 1972 till last summer. Ran it over with the truck and pounded it
back into shape. Ended up giving it to my friends son in Ohio and he is
riding it all the time. As for the seat... it is pretty much duct tape
by now! ha! Instead of replacing the seat save a few more dollars like
John said and get a different uni. You can always use that one for
bangin around.

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johnfoss said:

No, why? Collectors' items? I guess they would be. They were like block
pedals, a solid black block, that narrowed toward the outside end to
surround the very large bolt there. Not a pure triangle by any means,
but much narrower at the ends than at the base. Stupid pedals. I think
they used to use them on their exercise bikes also, but I did some
looking on eBay and couldn't find any examples.

If you really want some you could try Tommy Miller (The Unicycle
Factory). There's a good chance he has some.

I really just wanted to see as I couldn't imagine a "triangular wheel".
But your explanation curbed my curiosity a bit. Here I was
imagining some pointed isosceles pedals. 😉

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johnfoss said:

If riding the unicycle seems impossible at first, that only proves
you're human. 🙂

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