Saddle Up!

The new bike saddle showed up yesterday. Looks to be much better quality than the old one.

`It's not super light weight, but like the old song goes: it's built for comfort, not for speed. 

Instead of fastening onto the seat post with the mounting system shown above, my seat post uses a clamping system that grabs the lower rail. It's got one bolt to clamp it on and one to adjust the angle. The clamp didn't do a great job of holding the other saddle firmly because the two pieces of the clamp bottomed out on each other before they got tight enough to grip the rail firmly. I put the piece that actually gripped the lower rail in the mill and shaved .040" off the middle section. That was all it took.

I took the bike for a test ride and the old seat was a little more comfortable at this point, but I was riding in my bibs rather than padded bike shorts. Plus, these leather saddles usually take a couple hundred miles of riding before they loosen up and conform to your fanny.

The seat looks a lot better than the old one. I'll get some miles on it and then I might adjust the seat back a bit and the nose down a bit. I did get my three miles in on it yesterday, though. I didn't get much else done since it got up to 90 degrees. It usually takes me a couple of weeks to get acclimated to the hot weather - might take longer this year because I'm really out of shape. I'm starting to get that turned around, though.