Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,520
Likes: 12
From: Colorado Springs, CO
Bikes: 1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo (frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame), 1974 Peugeot UO-8
Originally Posted by
graywolf
Well you are using a saddle that is designed for an upright riding position with dropped bars so I would expect it to be weird. It is designed to rest your buttocks on whereas a saddle for the dropped position is design to rest your pelvis on. I would think the nose is too wide for comfort.
There is an old rule of thumb that says if you slide forward on the saddle it is too high, and if you slide back it is too low. That kind of automatically adjusts for your riding style and body type where the inseam thing does not.
I don't know if anything I said above will be of any help to you, but I thought I would mention it for your consideration.
Hmmm...I've never heard that rule of thumb but I'll certainly give it some thought. The description for the Champion Flyer is basically a B17 with springs so I thought it would be fine with dropped bars as long as the bar height was at or slightly above the level of the saddle. I haven't really found the nose to be too wide but the combination of reach and handlebar height is causing me to reach too far forward and put pressure on the nose of the saddle where is should not be. If I ride with just my fingertips touching the top of the bar where I'm a little more upright it seems pretty comfortable. Today I ordered the 225mm standard Technomic stem in 70mm reach so I should be able to position the bars almost 2 inches higher and that combined with the 70mm length should reduce the reach pretty dramatically. Hopefully that will solve the saddle issues. If not, well, that's the beauty of the Panasonic - it's transportation so I'm not married to any particular saddle/stem/bar combination to be orginal or even period correct. If this doesn't work out I may swap the Brooks for a Selle Anatomica.
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1959 Bottecchia Milano-Sanremo(frame), 1966 Bottecchia Professional (frame), 1971 Bottecchia Professional (frame),
1973 Bottecchia Gran Turismo, 1974 Bottecchia Special, 1977 Bottecchia Special (frame),
1974 Peugeot UO-8, 1988 Panasonic PT-3500, 2002 Bianchi Veloce, 2004 Bianchi Pista