July 19, 2010

Respect the Saddle

I love my saddle.  I haven't always loved my saddle.  When I first began riding longer distances a few years ago I found that my saddle was no good.  I was always sore.  I figured I just needed to callous, but after a season of riding, my first cetury ride was accompanied by plenty of discomfort!  After that I set out to replace that saddle and relieve the anxiety that tainted my ride.

I quickly discovered that there are a great variety of saddles, and for the most part...they don't come cheap.  I looked at all kinds of shapes and sizes and wondered how much I would end up spending before I found THE saddle for me.  At that time I discovered that a friend of mine, Jon had been blogging about his experiences building bicycles over at Sabrosa Cycles.  When I zoomed in on pics of his bikes I saw the same saddle repeated over and over.  The brand was Brooks.

Looking further into that brand I found a legacy of simple comfort.  The thought of a one piece leather saddle suspended front to back over steel rails eased my anxieties and opened my pocketbook.  I signed up as soon as I'd saved my pennies (maybe even before I'd saved 'em)!  Sitting on that newly installed saddle was a liberating moment.  Even in its stiff, un-broken state, that leather was MUCH better than the foam-over-plastic number that had come with the bike.

So when a friend was over last night, and he admired that saddle...I gushed with excitement.  I love that saddle.

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