C-Forum

Just got back from an 8-day, 84-mile river trip in my Bell Ocoee. The longer days took 5 to 6 hours of paddling, often 2 hours or more without a break, and were brutal on my knees. So my next upgrade will be an adjustable height saddle. I'd like a bike saddle to rise up out of the pedestal for the flat water sections (or maybe do without a pedestal entirely?). Dropper seatposts are all the rage in the mountain bike world so the technology definitely exists.

I'm looking for a set up with about 2" of infinite adjustment (more would be nice but I doubt there's space) and a remote trigger. In the dropped position, it needs to be 8" tall, including the bike saddle. It needs to be a closed system to keep out silt so this requires hydraulics, like the Kind Shock LEV seat post I have on my bike.

Does any company currently make something like this for open canoeists? If not, has anyone built one on their own?

Happy April to you, too!

San Juan? I've thought about the problem. When quieter sections allow it, I just shift my shins back and "stand" on my knees. My Synergy allows me to shift a whole seat position back.

I'd love to come up with something for my c-1s, which I can no longer paddle unless I stop about every half mile for a knee break. I'd like a way to release the thigh straps without popping the skirt, and then to tighten them again for action.

I know of some one that suspended a H shaped wooden frame from his gunnels and mounted a bicycle seat to that. He said it was quite comfy but I never tried it out. The height could be adjusted easily

Bolt one of these in...

http://www.contractorsdirect.com/Concre ... /RAC-A-TAC

Like some mountain bike seatposts, can we also have built in shock absorber, please? For those really big boofs!

On a serious note, I to am looking for the perfect ww tripping set up.
I've been using thigh straps to a reinforced traditional web seat. It works quite well for me performance wise and can offer plenty of movement, freedom and options. When kneeling and tight, I've got great control and can roll with ease. I can instinctively free myself from the straps, but there is definite potential to have my feet and calves caught under the seat. In addition, tightening up to my ww standards oil cans the hull of my boat.

A german fellow once showed me a "panic" rig he had fabricated, where an easy to reach cord released pins on his seat. The seat broke away, but was still connected at one corner with a short flexible tether. Might try to replicate it in my next boat.

OR maybe a set up like I once built for a friends C-1. It was an easily added or removed "over saddle". It added about 2" height and width for the flats.

Oh ya.
I have a chek paddle cat that originally came with bike seats. I can not possibly come up with an adequate description of the discomfort that developed after more than an hour.

On a bike your weight is distributed between your legs and butt, you don't have straps pulling you down adding further pressure and you aren't always trying to move side to side on a bike seat.

The first (and only) time we used this rigging was on a four hour III+ trip. To add to the intense physical trauma, the situation back in camp became equally uncomfortable. It had been a single boat trip with my buddy's girlfriend. We had a lot of work to explain the way we were both moving for the next two days.

Ezwater is correct, the San Juan. All of our river trips are a minimum of five days, which start to take a toll on the body. An adjustable pedestal wouldn't be necessary for piddly one- or two-day trips. I tried a 2" pad on the foam block as proof of concept and the comfort difference was dramatic but that isn't something I want to futz with on a regular basis.

YT, I'm not planning on running anything over II with the seat raised, this would just be for the calmer sections where the thigh straps are unbuckled anyhow. I have ankle and shin blocks to help distribute the load and I'm used to long days on road and mountain bikes so a good saddle should be fine.

Sounds like I'll just have to build it myself.

Thinking it out now, on a raft we were trying to do leans with all are weight and might against a craft that had no desire at all to tilt.
Give it a try in canoe and report back. Let's see some innovation! The remote trigger concept is awesome.

If you spring mount the seat, with a radio remote trigger, you could do this when people borrow your boat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRCycCRHd7Q

that's easy. just add your seat of choice and bolt it in..

One simple way to set it up is to have your pedestal go the full length between the thwarts and have 2 positions - 1) bow forward, low saddle, 2) stern forward, high saddle - One side cut low for bigger whitewater, then just spin the boat around the other way and have that side of the pedestal cut higher so you can sit or at least kneel higher...

You could use a bracket like this to support a drop-in thwart seat at a comfortable height.



That's PVC angle glued and riveted to the inside of a Spark.

Alternately, just make a form-fitting "cover" that fits over your current seat.

Stack two of these - you could boat scout everything!

Larry Horne wrote:that's easy. just add your seat of choice and bolt it in..

you could just sit on your throw bag