Greetings. I hope I am not being rude by asking this, but for gentlemen who possess a rather loose scrotum, what is recommended to prevent crushing the testicles when mounting a unicycle? Unless I sneak my hand into my pants and pull them forward, mounting is a very painful process for me. I ride primarily in places where people might see me, so I hope to avoid placing my hands into my clothing below the waistline. I ride a general-purpose 29" unicycle on paved trails. It has a Kris Holm seat from about 15 or 20 years ago that I find to be quite comfortable. Regardless of the seat brand, I have the issue of the first few seconds of my nuts cracking when mounting. It does this with padded cycle shorts and standard undergarments too. I am honestly tempted to add a bit of cotton to a subsection of the padding in the shorts to perhaps force the family jewels to a location where they will be safe from shattering when mounting, but I hope some individuals here will let me know what has worked for them. Thank you. -Will
As I recall from my days of learning to ride, this was an uncomfortable fact of life. However, I believe there are a couple of simple steps you can take that may help mitigate the discomfort.
I’m guessing you’re mounting the uni with the pedals in the 6-12 O’clock positions. This mouthing position tends to force the saddle up and into one’s nuts. If so, try the 3-9 O’clock positions, this mount balances the pressure more evenly resulting in less crushing.
Secondly, padded cycling shorts make quite a difference and are well worth the small investment.
Hope that helps.
+1 for the padded bike shorts but I would add seek out some bib shorts. These stop the waist band slipping down and keep everything pulled up tight.
There are also pants made by Aussiebum which have a little pouch to host the jewels. Their original purpose is not unicycling, but they do work wonders in our sport. 
I’d play around with seat angle a bit (pointing the nose more down), but it might then start to be less comfortable when riding. Other than that and the obvious tighter underwear to keep things in place, not fully sitting down during the mount can help a lot. As @Dino suggested, 3-9 (ish) mounts tend to allow you to do that more easily.
Another tip that many do automatically, but I’ve sometimes given to male beginners is: When sitting down, start with the seat pushed back under you a bit too far, start sitting down and slide the seat forward. That discretely moves everything to a more comfortable place.
I’ll give my 2 cents worth. Number one try using a jock strap it will keep you in place regardless of your dimensions. Also I am a huge fan of the nimbus air saddle cover as it will make any saddle more comfortable for longer rides. It will not solve the problem of immediate placement but that is what the jock strap will do. Total investment $60.
I have the Nimbus Air Saddle Cover and am hugely disappointed with how it gave out after just 6 months. Its really not worth the money.
Mine have held up nicely. The one I have on my 26er and my 29er get the most use. I have not had a failure. What happened to yours?
Wow, thanks everyone for your nice replies and advice. I have been mounting with the pedals in the 1:00/7:00 positions, and that worked well for me when I learned in '05, but that was almost 20 years ago, so I will try 3:00/9:00 instead. Also, I will try to pull my cycling shorts upward and tying the knot more tightly to prevent them from slipping. And, a moment ago I ordered some Aussiebum undergarments to see if they can help. I tend to not wear underwear/boxers/etc whenever I wear padded cycling shorts, but should I be wearing underwear in addition to the padded cycling shorts? If so, what should I put on first - the underwear or the padded cycling shorts? I always wear comfortable pants with zipper pockets over the cycling shorts, which might seem odd but works well for my need for secure pocket space. Thanks again for the kind replies you have sent. My memory is not good (I’ve had encephalitis and a couple of brain surgeries), but once a solution of some sort is determined, I will tape the instructions to my unicycle storage area and continue to use those instructions. Thanks again.
If you’re going to do some taping anyway, just tape your nuts up out of the way.
Expensive but they work. I have one pair and they are holding up well.
I wear under padded shorts.
Maybe it is not that saddle or type of shorts but the way the mount is done. I do a rolling/running type mount and my butt or sensitive parts don’t get anywhere near the saddle till I sit down in the final riding position. I have never figured out how a person could place the saddle in their crotch when doing a simple step up mount without crushing sensitive body parts.
The trick is to tuck the saddle between the squishy bits and the inner thigh, and then stand up on the pedals and readjust once you’re up. Lately I’ve been gradually relying less on that though and putting little/no weight on the saddle until I’m up.
Definitely don’t wear underwear with padded shorts.
Also, try double bagging. I wear bib shorts with a pair of MTB shorts over the top, it really helps!
A couple of the air pockets have burst
When I first learned to ride a unicycle, I had that problem when I started freemounting. The solution I thought of back then was to mount starting with the unicycle in my back. I learned on my own, so no one there to give me opinions, and I just thought “frontmount” is for girls and “backmount” for boys for obvious anatomical reasons. So I practiced for some days until I had it, placing the unicycle behind me, placing the starting pedal on 3 or 4 o’clock towards me, jumping a little up and back while pushing the starting pedal down and moving the unicyclie towards and underneath me.
I picked up unicycling again 20 years later, this time with some other unicyclists around and youtube to see how things are done. I never went back to my old way of mounting, and I don’t have the problem anymore I had back then. Can’t perfectly explain what made the difference, now I mount the normal way and it’s fine. My guess is, I changed the sequence of motions and wheight distribution, starting with two-point support of fist foot and hand on saddle, putting wheight on my hand, then placing the second foot, and getting down on the saddle later and with more control compared to landing / crashing on the saddle for dear life in the beginning of my learning curve.
So, this would be a rather unusual solution to the problem I guess, but an option that’s there. Probably not worth the effort of learning this skill, the tip I would give my younger selv is take your time, use whatever avoids pain and frustration, develop balance and control, use support as long as you need it, try to shift gradualy to freemount, with your progress following what you can do painfree.
Wow. I have seen some pictures of extreme wear on the air saddle but this is the first I have heard of failure on the air cover.
No underwear with padded cycling shorts. They should be tight enough to keep everybody in check down there.
To each their own. It works for me.
Thanks everyone. I was mounting with the pedals around 7:00/1:00. Several people mentioned mounting with the pedals around 3:00/9:00, so I tried that, and it works well for me. Combined with pulling up the cycling shorts a tad tighter, I have a method for painlessly mounting my unicycle. I have taped a note to my unicycle storage box that simply mentions to tightly pull the cycling shorts up and to use the 3:00/9:00 mount, so those bits of advice will eventually enter my neurological memory. At some point I might try some of the other options, but for now, I have a way to comfortably mount. 