My Neck Rest is better than Yours.

[ratz]

I do believe we can adapt this: http://www.ademhr.com/products/adem2.html
to work with the bracket from this: http://cruzbike.com/headrest-cage-mount.html

 

[ReklinedRider]

Hmmm do tall people have trouble with this issue too, or is Randy Newman in charge of Cruzbike's headrest design team?

 

[jond]

Hmmm do tall people have trouble with this issue too, or is Randy Newman in charge of Cruzbike's headrest design team? [/QUOTE

i am 6 ft 1 inch and a bit in the old money. i use the original headrest with some closed foam packing from the delivery box layered x 4 at the top of the headrest. i never taped the original pad to the headrest frame so i have some natural suspension travel so to speak. i particularly needed when learning my head to be vertical but over time i have let the headrest out an inch or so and found that to be very very comfy. so much so that recent forays onto my catrike 700 found me adjusting that headrest . fine tuning the headrest is very worthwhile. now i could fall asleep on the bike it is that comfy.

 

[snilard]

Hi everyone. I will use this thread for linked question.
How to correctly setup headrest on V20?
My idea is that my headrest is to high and I need to shorten vertical tubes somehow. Because my head is to perpendicular to my body in any headrest position. I added some padding on top of seat under Ventisit and also some additional open cell foam to headrest. I will be testing it today or tomorrow.
Can anyone post photo of him/her on V captured from side?

 

[MrSteve]

I really like the cut inner tube idea. Do you simply cut your tube and use standard glue from a patch kit? I guess a latex tube will be great for this ? Thanks , I'll have to give this a try.

You made me curious, so I bought a fresh patch kit which came with a fresh tube of glue.
Fresh patches are nice and some of my patches dated back to the middle of the last decade.

Anyway, I missed the cushy volume of the tube you see in pictures at the top of this thread, so I cut another tube
into a longer length. That gave me back some of the air volume I've been missing.
Plus, it tested the fresh glue in the new patch kit.
The glued ends hold air, when the edges are doubled over the tube and taped: the tape takes the strain off of the glued seam
and the seam holds air without opening up when it's reinforced with tape.

I've had this new tube in use on the neck rest all week and no leaks.

Yesterday was too cool for my Summer helmets, so I went riding with my full-face BMX hemet.
It fits low on my head... and the air-cushioned neck rest effortlessly adapted.

 

[ReklinedRider]

MrSteve I'd love to see a photo

 

[MrSteve]

Here's a blurry photo showing where the extra length, the extra volume ended up being stored.
If you look closely you can sort of see the black electrical tape reinforcing the glued, folded
ends of the tube.
The stock Cruzbike seat back cushion rests on top.
And, if you look closely, you may see sweat.
I just finished riding the bike.

My heart was trying hard to beat itself free.

 

[John Dorlon]

On Maria's RAAM bikes I shortened the vertical rise on the headrest by 2 inches, as I remember. I cut 2" sections out of the straight section of the rise and then slotted the cut out sections 1/4". closed the tubes up, and then used them as reinforcements at the cut by shoving them inside the straight rise sections. I coated the inside with epoxy, drove the reinforcements in with a rubber hammer (they were a tight fit), and clamped the lower sections to either side of a piece of 2x4 lumber to keep everything in the right orientation as the epoxy set. We also covered the headrest material with a piece of nylon panty hose material to reduce the abrasiveness of the headrest. Seems to have worked pretty well.

Doug, I did as you suggested and it worked great! Thanks! I didn't worry about making the cut pieces such a tight fit - I used filled up the cracks with the strongest epoxy I could find. Seems like there isn't a lot of stress on this part of the headrest anyway since the weight of your head just pushes it together. If anyone is thinking about trying this - it's really pretty easy. It only took me about an hour.

 

[Charles.Plager]

Doug, I did as you suggested and it worked great! Thanks! I didn't worry about making the cut pieces such a tight fit - I used filled up the cracks with the strongest epoxy I could find. Seems like there isn't a lot of stress on this part of the headrest anyway since the weight of your head just pushes it together. If anyone is thinking about trying this - it's really pretty easy. It only took me about an hour.

Pictures?

 

[John Dorlon]

Pictures?

Sorry, I didn't take any. I will say - one thing that I did slightly different than Doug - after I cut the pieces out, and removed a slice to squeeze them narrower (I removed more like 3/8 or maybe even 1/2 an inch) - I glued the small pieces into to lower headrest tubes first (the part that goes into the bike), then let that dry. After it was dry I put those tubes into the bike and pressed them into place with the scissor expansion clamp, then glued the top of the headrest onto the headrest tubes that were sticking out of the bike.

Since then I've also made a "Mr. Steve Inflatable Headrest Cushion". Haven't taken it out for a spin yet, but I will soon, and I think it's going to be a keeper. The only thing I have to add about that process is that maybe if you could find an inner tube the right size then you wouldn't have to cut and glue it. I used a 1.375 diameter tube which is about 35-40 mm - I think that's about the right diameter - and the cut length was around 34 inches (which converts to a wheel diameter of 10.8 inches). Here http://www.rubenatires.com/tubes/, they have a 10 inch tube and a 12.5 inch tube, each being 1.75 - 2 inch diameter so that might be a little bit thick, but at $6, I'd say it's worth a try. That was the closest thing I could find, so maybe we have to cut and glue after all. The glue seemed more like snot than glue, and I didn't think it was going to work at first, but Steve suggested I clamp it and let it set overnight, so that's what I did, and it looks like it's going to hold air just fine.

 

[snilard]

On Maria's RAAM bikes I shortened the vertical rise on the headrest by 2 inches, as I remember. I cut 2" sections out of the straight section of the rise and then slotted the cut out sections 1/4". closed the tubes up, and then used them as reinforcements at the cut by shoving them inside the straight rise sections. I coated the inside with epoxy, drove the reinforcements in with a rubber hammer (they were a tight fit), and clamped the lower sections to either side of a piece of 2x4 lumber to keep everything in the right orientation as the epoxy set. We also covered the headrest material with a piece of nylon panty hose material to reduce the abrasiveness of the headrest. Seems to have worked pretty well.

I am thinking about this modification. What if It will now work, can I bought original headrest tube as a spare?

 

[John Dorlon]

I am thinking about this modification. What if It will now work, can I bought original headrest tube as a spare?

I had the same fear. I sent an email to Cruzbike and Robert sold me a spare headrest tube at a reasonable price.

 

[Bruce B]

[/QUOTE] Since then I've also made a "Mr. Steve Inflatable Headrest Cushion". Haven't taken it out for a spin yet, but I will soon, and I think it's going to be a keeper. The only thing I have to add about that process is that maybe if you could find an inner tube the right size then you wouldn't have to cut and glue it. I used a 1.375 diameter tube which is about 35-40 mm - I think that's about the right diameter - and the cut length was around 34 inches (which converts to a wheel diameter of 10.8 inches). Here http://www.rubenatires.com/tubes/, they have a 10 inch tube and a 12.5 inch tube, each being 1.75 - 2 inch diameter so that might be a little bit thick, but at $6, I'd say it's worth a try. That was the closest thing I could find, so maybe we have to cut and glue after all.[/QUOTE]

I happen to have a 12.5 " tube of that diameter so I tried it out. It is a bit too long and I had to tape the extra rubber up between the two head rest tubes to prevent the loose end from falling down against the tire.


More pictures.


The bump of the 7th cervical vertebra at the base of my neck is well supported by the neck rest, a real plus.

As noted by John a 10" diameter tube would probably be a better choice to use with the OEM headrest.

 

[John Dorlon]

I took mine out for a ride yesterday. I had the tube folded like an "M" inside the headrest sleeve, with the dense foam under it and nothing on top (except the sleeve). It worked pretty well, but I've made some changes for next ride. Now it's folded like an 'n' and I've added the open-cell foam pad back in, on top of the tube (so the tube is sandwiched between the foam pads). I had to increase the air pressure in the tube just a little because my head is now resting on 2 segments of tube instead of 4, but there seems to be more vertical squish travel this way (due to more room for it to expand horizontally as it squishes). I think it will be more comfy with the pad on top too. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

 

[John Dorlon]

Follow up on my last post - after several rides of around 300 miles combined - it works good, I'm keeping it. I didn't document the whole process, but I put a few photos of the finished product here.

 

[MrSteve]

Footnotes:

The primary reason for this neck rest kluge was that, for the first time in my bicycling life, I actually needed a headrest.
When I finished building the seat pan of the 18-degree reclined seat for my Sofrider and tested it for fit and position on the bike, I found
that -surprise- I needed to add a headrest.

Road testing the new low seat was too much fun: road vibrations were blurring my vision. My eyeglasses were dancing
on the bridge of my nose.
This was on the Sofrider V1, remember.
Full suspension and big-ish tyres.
The soft, compliant, air-suspended innertube headrest completely eliminated both the buzz and the blurry vision.

One side effect from test-riding motorcycles was my inability to sit on any normal upright bicycle, of any type, for longer than a few minutes.
That led me to recumbent bikes.
Another side effect from test-riding motorcycles was a very strong neck.
Even now, on the Vendetta, I really only use the neck rest when I need to be aerodynamic... and when I do use the neck rest,
it's very, very nice to be able to see the road clearly!

 

[super slim]

what is the weight of the standard cruzbike headrest, and what is the height adjustment range from the seat top to the centre of the bend?

 

[Rick Youngblood]

what is the weight of the standard cruzbike headrest, and what is the height adjustment range from the seat top to the centre of the bend?

SS, the stock headrest is 366g (it's lighter than it looks), includes stock pad, mesh cover, and wing-nut-tube-hold-down-thingies (these thingies has changed from V2 to V20, mine is V2). From seat top to bend center - minimum approx 7 inches, give or take an inch. The height adjustment is made by sliding the headrest in and out, I'm not able to get a reading for the amount of adjustment that is available.

 

[super slim]

Rick Thanks

 

[ReklinedRider]

Well after several weeks of off and on piddling with inner tubes in multiple ways, I decided that route was more trouble than it was worth, even though several configurations provided really good pneumatic suspension for my head.

However, none met all of my goals: better visibility; get head more vertical; get those troublesome lower cervical/upper thoracic vertebral spines comfortable; and of course better vibration and shock damping for the ol' noggin.
So I took a different route, and I'm pretty darn happy with the results. Not ecstatic, mind, but happy enough to be excited.
I ordered a couple of Ventisit headrest pads and a neck roll, and after trying them in different ways here is what met all the above goals (i'm glad 'not goofy looking' was not one of the goals!):



Inside the stock sock are the two stock pads; added inside to the lower front is a 10 x 15 x 4cm ventisit pad. A buckle/velcro strap holds the neck roll in place. Under the upper end of the seat pad is another 10x15x4 headrest pad, cut to size and held together w zip ties (the headrest pads come from ventisit zip tied in the back to hold them together).





This provides support to the upper back under the seat pad and a smooth transition to the vertical. The drop off from the top of the seat pad to the ventisit pad inside the sock gives both space and support to the C7-T1 vertebral spines.

The neck roll is adjustable on the fly just by rolling it up or down a bit depending on whether i'm scooched way down in the seat or up more to bridge etc, and gets my head more vertical and i can see way better.
Most importantly, it provides vibration and shock damping to the base of my skull at least 90% as good as my best inner tube config. And will be cool in summer, whereas the inner tubes promised to be hot and sweaty in the summer heat, not to mention needing occasional reinflating.

I agree it's not the coolest looking thing ever, but i now, as a short person, finally have full access to the comfort of the Vendetta as well as full road visibility, and my head is not so far tilted back that the air attack shield acts as an air brake
Check marks: all 4 of my goals for the neck rest. Bonus: Ventisit coolness for the neck and skull base.