Originally Posted by awc380
I think 3 things could be culprits here:
1) Find a true micro-adjust seatpost (ie: 2 bolts, no locking grooves)
2) Tighten up the saddle - a loose Brooks is nowhere near as comfortable as a properly tightened one.
3) Riding so long on ANY saddle hurts, I agree with the above posts. 160 miles??? Jesus...
I ride my Swallow on brevets. The 400k I finished last year was 250+ miles with a time limit of 27 hours.
Yeah, I was sore... but not to the point of not being able to ride or finish, and I've since learned that much of my discomfort was due to a poor fitting bike that wasn't set up for looong distance. I has serious issues on the 600k starting at mile 200. I changed the brands of shorts I wear and discovered that the pad in the new shorts + my saddle + my posterior didn't get along. Back to the old brand and things seem to be fine.
I think the seatpost suggestion is a good one - Thomson or Salsa are 2 brands that I've used.
Saddle tension is probably a personal choice. I've never adjusted mine - but the Swallow is
slightly softer now that I've got nearly 1 1/2 years on it. I've found that while comfort went up using a new Selle Anatomica, I kept feeling like I was losing power when climbing. I've since tightened up the saddle tension and felt improvement... but it is still far softer than my Brooks'.