Monday, December 5, 2016

"Goldilocks and the 3'ish Saddles"

Namaste

You know the fairy tale "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears"?  Well consider this the "Cindy and the 7 Saddles" version.



With TDA - Hippie Trail on the near horizon (7 weeks away!!) I'm still struggling to find a tolerable saddle for my touring bike - Kona Sutra, as we'll be averaging 100km per day on this trip.  This is an important component!!  The other thing that is making this especially difficult is that I'm saddle testing on my trainer at the moment, which isn't ideal.
  • I immediately eliminated the saddle my Kona Sutra came with (1)
  • When I went to Cuba last year I used my mountain bike seat (2) on my Kona, which was OK, but I came home with a saddle sore that took about 3 weeks to heal....
  • Then came a series of shopping trips to various bike stores/online to trial a multitude of saddles over the last 5 months or so.
    • Specialized Power Tri saddle on Argon 18 - hate this saddle (3), so it needs to be replaced

    • Selle Italia - Diva Flow (4, 5, 6) - ordered/returned 2 online (and ordered a third in error), I was so convinced I would like this one - nope for tri bike and touring bike

    • Specialized Oura - maybe on my Tri bike (5)

    • Specialized Avatar - likely on my Tri bike (6), not for Kona
    • Brooks England Cambrian C17  (7) - I think this is it; made of rubber with a cotton fabric overlay; currently being "test ridden".  The big test is 3 hour Sat bike class.


So the following saddles are for sale:
  • Specialized Tri Power Saddle
  • Selle Italia - Diva Flow
  • Specialized Oura
Call me....
Wish me luck - my ass is going to need it.

Ciao, happy training - Cindy