Bicycle Mechanics - Gel hardened...

i have a vetta gel saddle.. i have been riding with it for a long time...

today i have been cycling for about 20kms and noticed a pain on my butt.. first time this had happened to me since i got back into cycling...

i checked my saddle as soon as i got home and noticed that a portion of the gel has somehow hardened. i'm pretty sure this caused the pain.. oh, the saddle got wet some time ago.. could this possibly cause this?

i don't want to disspose of this saddle w/c has been with me for almost 5000kms. and i can't find any similar saddles here..

can this be fixed? if so, how??... can hot/warm water help?

thanks in advance...

I had a pair of Vetta gel gloves years ago. Once they got wet the gel hardened and they were useless. I took them back to the bike shop I bought them from and he replaced them with a pair of Spenco gel gloves.

It was many years ago (probably 15 or more) but it sounds like the same thing. You'd think they would have sorted out the problem by now.

You say you've been riding the saddle for a long time. How old is the saddle? How many years ago did you buy it?

i'm not really sure when exactly.. but i guess i had it for about 5yrs.. more or less...

ah.. so it was the getting wet part that did the damage... never going to leave my bike in the rain agian(damn, i always learn the hardway)...

so this means i have to search for another saddle that will fit me...
wish me luck for another tiring day at the LBS.. i hate shopping(money is tight.. ).


thanks.

That's the amazing thing. You would expect that a bicycle saddle and cycling gloves would at least occasionally get wet. I find it crazy that a company producing cycling accessories wouldn't take that into account when developing their products.

yeah i know... well, it may be a marketing strategy(just kidding)..

i'm going to get the "air" gloves now.. no more gel for me..

Oh, well-another saddle in the trash...
As for me, I think that I'm going to go out now, and ride on my 35-year old Brooks B71 saddle, which, BTW, is still comfortable, and probably costs less new than that gel saddle did.

How many miles to break in the Brooks? I have a customer that has done Paris-Brest-Paris on one. He said he started bruising at about 800mls, not bad. Couldn't find a B71 but they have B72's for about $100 and presofteneds, for the sissies, for about the same price.

I haven't had any problems breaking in my Brooks. My second ride on a it was 30 miles and I didn't have a problem.

The mythology of Brooks is that they can take a while(forever) to break in but once it happens your butt has a friend for life.
I have mostly used Flites myself.