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I hope you folks are taking notes! This is how you critique a hot or not thread!


I didn't quite put a thousand miles on it while I was building up a proper commuter up. I didn't keep as close a log of my cycling activity at that time as I do now, but I rode it from early October until the end of January or early February. At about 180 miles a month minimum, I must have put about 750 miles on it, in the winter, in Seattle, with the original useless crap-level Li-Chi brakes!

When my mountain bike got stolen just before the summer, I resurrected the Sekai, putting the awesome (seriously! They're really great.) Nashbar cantilevers on it, tossing on a brand new Sun Rino Lyte wheel on the front that I wanted to put some break-in miles on and giving it a slightly better rear wheel than the one that came with it out of my junk pile. So I've put about 20 miles mountain biking in out since I partially rebuilt it, about 10 of those hard, fast, flowy downhill.


The saddle is definitely hot. It's a Selle Anatomica Titanico X, that I paid a premium for in red to match another bike. Sadly, it's not working out with my Carradice quick release saddlebag support, so it is looking for a home. I actually really liked the saddle that was on the Sekai. It had a Sekai branded kinda of big comforty-type MTB saddle that had a pair of springs hidden under it. I had no issues at all with that saddle (or seatpost, which will be relevant below) riding it for months, about an hour each direction on my commute. Sadly, some lowlife nicked the saddle and seatpost while the bike was parked in my parking space under our apartment building, so I had to put something on it to ride it again. Luckily, in a spate of drunken midnight online ordering, I randomly bought a 25.4mm seatpost, assuming that was a size I needed for another bike. That seatpost sat in one of my spares boxes for nearly two years, every time I saw it while rummaging around for something else I shook my head and reaffirmed my new resolution not to buy anything in the middle of the night, sober or not!

When I first pulled the Sekai free from my nest of locked together hulks awaiting resurrection, I noticed the saddle and seatpost were missing, but assumed I had pulled them to keep anyone from stealing them, as bums keep stealing my bike covers (I assume for their waterproof properties and blackness for their camps), so I was worried about parts starting to disappear. I must have ransacked all my various boxes of bike parts three times before I came to the conclusion that, yes, some damn low-life had stolen the seatpost from the Mountaineer and worse, had stolen that saddle I really liked. Luckily, my drunken online mail-ordering mistake happened to provide me with just the part I needed! Which was great, because I didn't have any time left before the mountain biking trip to wait for one to be delivered!

Here's some proof that I commuted on it. This shot was actually from this morning. The previous shot upthread, in front of the orange lockers is from two years ago when I rode it for months, on a night I forgot my key to the cage. The past few days I was having a problem with my rear wheel on my commuter, and the Sekai is the only thing I've got close to running at the moment as a back-up, so I swapped out the knobby on the front for a big Michelin slick that came free to me along with a rear wheel I bought off Craigslist and swapped out the rear wheel for another from the junk pile that happened to already have a slick tire on it. I was hoping that this other wheel's cassette would mesh a little better than the other wheel I had on there, but no dice there. It did get me in to work.



I think this bike would actually look a lot better if it was set up for someone who it was the right size for and maybe didn't like as upright a stance as I do. I thought it was a 22" frame when I went to go pick it up from the Craigslist seller, but it is actually a 21" and I should probably, ideally have a 23" frame. Poor thing looks more ungainly than it should, set up the way I have it right now.

Anyone notice what's going on with that seatpost? It wasn't a laid-back seatpost when I bought it! I didn't have any issues with the seatpost that came with the bike, but when I replaced the stolen one with the cheap Sunlite one it wasn't up to the task. It did okay the first 5 miles of mountain biking or so. But it was definitely starting to bend from the pounding it took on the flowy downhill sections on my way back to the trailhead. I was hoping I could make it to work and back on it and spare my commuter any damage to its rear wheel, so I could get it to the shop. I definitely noticed it getting worse on the way in to work though!


In fact;



I only made it about halfway home before I gave up on it and put my bike on the bus for the last 3.5 miles of uphill. The seatpost was getting worse! It was getting too uncomfortable, too far back and putting a LOT of pressure on the part of your body you really don't want to do that to. I took a six pack of nice beer in with me to the shop and dropped off my commuter this morning, so I'll have it back in action later today or tomorrow, so I've got some time to try and track down a better quality seatpost! But for those of you keeping score at home, that puts me at having put in about 800 miles on this poor bike, 20 of them mountain biking!

Okay! No more Sekai Mountaineer pics, I promise!

Anyone need a laid-back 25.4mm seatpost?