On 12/09/2016 11:18 AM, George Schick wrote:
"...There is no panacea when it comes to saddles..."
Amen to that. Also, things change over time.
No kidding. I used Brooks Team Pros for close to 40 years, and B.17s
for more than a dozen years with perfect satisfaction, and then one day
they started to not work anymore. It wasn't the saddles that changed,
either: I changed. Position didn't change, fit didn't change, but one
year the saddles that felt great now started hurting around the
perimeter, especially in the area where the saddle starts to narrow.
Quite a shock, and quite an expense, too. I'd thought for years that
the "saddle merry-go-round" was finally over for me, that I'd found the
answer for life; the only major perturbation was the scare when it
looked like Brooks was going out of business.
When I started leaning toward "serious cycling" back in the early 70's
I road bikes that the saddle jacked way up higher than the handlebars.
It more or less had to be if one wanted to stick to the popular
"groupo" of the day because Cinelli bar stems were too short to allow
for much vertical adjustment. So the saddles of choice were the
narrower models like the Cinelli's. Things progressed that way
through the mid-90's when they more or less culminated with the Selle
Italia Flite, a particularly stiff and narrow model. About the time
the turn of the century when the past-50 blues started playing, I
discovered Grant and his various bike fitting methods and
recommendations. Now I ride with the bars level with the saddle and
have been using a B17 ever since - far fewer aching back and neck
pains after a ride.
And certainly, major changes in fit can call for major changes in saddles.
On Friday, December 9, 2016 at 7:25:29 AM UTC-6, Steve Palincsar wrote:
On 12/08/2016 10:48 PM, Bill in Roswell GA wrote:
> I find it a bit funny that we never hear about the Berthoud saddles
> any more. I guess most folks realized that a Brooks/Rivet/SA is
more
> comfortable for most people. However, even a used Berthoud goes for
> not much less than near new price. Would be interesting to try
one as
> I tend to like saddles a bit on the firm side.
Well, let's correct that. A few years ago B.17s and Team Pro's
stopped
working for me. I'd tried a Berthoud Aspin and found it worked,
and did
some unsuccessful experimentation with Rivet & SA. I tried the Rivet
Pearl & Independence, and neither worked for me. I bought a used SA
from a friend, tried it and found it OK for a 30 mile ride, but then
obtained a new one and found it bloody horrible: sharp edges at the
sides of the saddle really cut into my thighs. Over the course of
the
next three years ended up switching all six bikes to Berthoud
saddles, 5
Aspins and one Aravis. In many ways the Berthoud is a big
improvement
over the Brooks design. The leather is better - thicker and more
consistent, tensioning is much easier - allen key fitting rather
than a
made-on nut requiring a special S-bend wrench, and the made-on bag
attachments - moulded in eyelets and a Klickfix mount - are vastly
superior to Brooks' metal loops (or nothing). It takes longer to
break
in an Aspin than a B.17 because the leather is much thicker and
firmer.
Unlike SAs, Berthouds don't stretch much - at least, not the regular
unbutchered ones; I haven't tried the newly introduced slotted
models.
Regarding slotted saddles: they don't always work for everyone.
On that
broken-in SA I never even noticed a slot was there. Another friend
tried that same saddle when it was on a bike, before I bought it
and was
inspired to buy a new one; by the time we got to the 30 mile mark
on a
50 mile ride she was in such pain she bought a roll of duct tape
to tape
the slot over. It was acting like a lobster claw, pinching her on
both
sides of the area slots are intended to protect.
There is no panacea when it comes to saddles.
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