December 7, 2003

Go with the Flow?

This interesting bike saddle, built using mesh similar to that in the Herman Miller Aeron chair, won all sorts of design awards this past year. I'm eager to hear from actual cyclists who've ridden it. Is it comfortable?

I switched saddles compulsively during the first year or two riding. Buying saddles is tricky; you don't know if one fits you well until you've logged some time in it, and by then you usually can't return it. And once you break one in, it's difficult to give it up, especially if you ride an eighty pound Brooks leather saddle. But there's always that thought that perhaps some new saddle is just the one to make riding completely pain free.

When I was in France this year for the Tour, we stopped by the USPS Postal Service hotel after the stage to Lyon and watched the mechanics cleaning up all the Treks. Lance's pristine new bike frame was clamped to a bike stand, every part gleaming in the sun after a hand washing. But the saddle looked like it had been to hell and back, it was cracked, peeling, barely recognizable. Clearly, it had been with Lance for a long, long time.

Posted by eugene at December 7, 2003 11:49 PM