Amazon tells me that my order was shipped last Wednesday, and should arrive by next Wednesday. I can fill you in once I get it, install it, and try it out.

As I mentioned before, I replaced the stock saddle with this one, based on my LBS's recommendation. (If that didn't work, they suggested a Brooks.) I've tried it with and without padded shorts. I've had it since last Monday. It seems to be a good improvement over the stock saddle. No discomfort while riding. I did feel a slight bit of chafing during yesterday's ride, but that could be the padded shorts. I'll see if I can isolate the cause.

Soon, when I have a little extra money again, I may try one or two other saddles. The Charge Spoon gets good reviews and is fairly cheap - so if it isn't right for me, I haven't lost much. Its cousin, the Fabric Cell Elite, also looks promising. I'm still feeling tempted by the Brooks B67, but I'd hate to spend the extra money and chance it, and find that it didn't work for me. Selle Anatomica offers a 30 day guarantee - if I don't like it, I can return it for a refund. But this Planet Bike one is gradually making a good impression. I don't have to have this or that brand name. I do want a comfortable saddle! It doesn't matter if it costs $30 or $200. Let it be comfortable and durable, and I'm on it!

I'm sorry but am I reading this correctly? Your LBS recommended a saddle and you took advantage of their advice, time and trouble but ordered it from Amazon? Was your LBS unable to provide what they recommended?

Sorry for the confusion. I bought the Planet Bike saddle from my LBS! I only added the link for anyone who was interested in finding out about it!

As promised, here are my first impressions of my new Vibrelli Universal Bike Mount for smartphones. It is designed for bikes or motorcycles. It can fit handlebars up to 1.3 inches in diameter. Three rubber strips of various widths come with the Vibrelli, which enables you to find the best fit for your handlebars.

My phone is an iPhone 7, which lives in an Otterbox Defender case. My cased iPhone easily fit into the clamp, which held it firmly. The only tricky part was locating the mount on my handlebars, as the bar changes in width. If you start in the center and move out after a couple of inches, the bar becomes narrower, and then levels off just before the shifters and grips. So, the mount is best located (on my bike) as close to the center as possible.

I set up the mount (easy), placed my phone/case in the clamp and put the silicone web around the corners of the phone's case, and headed out. The mount proved very stable both on paved roads and on a rail trail with gravel and occasional rocky areas, as well as the random pothole. My test ride was about ten miles, and neither mount nor phone budged.

The mount does less than $20. If my first impression holds, this will prove to be a great buy.

In other news, I've ordered a Brooks B67 saddle, the Brooks Proofide, and a saddle bag through my LBS. For various reasons, I became interested in the possibilities of a leather saddle. I emailed Brooks directly, telling them about my bike and the riding I do. They said that the B67 would be the best choice for me. So, I'm going to give it a try.

Thanks for the update!

When I first got my 'Dale I thought it was sit on the stiff side. Great for climbing or when I need to put some real muscle into it, but a little rough on expansion joints in the road. My Ncle said to give it a bit, and let it break in. I thought he had been smoking something. Well just passed 300 miles, and seems much smoother

The only thing that still bothers me is the palms of my hands. M sure it's because I'm putting too much weight on my hands. I got some gel padded gloves and used them for the first time today, and they do help a bit. Of course at first my sit bone got very sore on long rides, but the saddle seems to give more now and I hardly notice that I went for a ride.

I had never ride bar end mirrors before. I installed one on my left side today, and it is great! I looked at a lot of them online and ordered one with a 3" glass mirror. I was thinking of getting another for the right side until I figured out the problem with bar end mirrors. They make your bike wider. I was suppressed how many times I came close to whacking the mirror today!

So still in love with my quick4

My Brooks B67 arrived last week, and the LBS installed it for me and did a free tuneup last Friday. The Brooks already feels fine to me. I'm told it will only get better and better as it gets broken in. My 'Dale also feels smoother overall. The tuneup helped, but it has felt smoother lately anyway. I'm almost at 300 miles.

Besides the Brooks, I bought a small saddle bag. I posted a picture in the "Post pictures of your hybrid" thread at the top of this forum (how original of me), so you can see it all! I'm very pleased with my Quick CX 4 - even more pleased now that my Brooks is on there. The Panaracer tires handle the rail trails very well. They make a little whine on pavement, which would suggest some rolling resistance - but I don't get the feeling as I pedal that the tires are slowing me down. I like the gearing, which is great for hills and for the gravel trails. It's all good so far!

I'm wondering if your problem with the palms of your hands could be fixed by a little adjustment to either the saddle position or the handlebar position. The geometry might be a little off for you. Or, you might be grabbing the grips a little too tightly - like I was at first. Just a thought.

I am starting to support my weight on my peddle leg when costing. This allows me to take the weight off my hand all together. I have also started imply holding the bars with my finger tips when I'm not pushing. On the "slow roll" type rides, this keeps me from putting all my weight on my hands. When I ride with my Uncle and cousin, I don't have that advance, simply because we all seem to want to push the pace. I'm sure it's all in the way I hold my hands

I did go to the Cannondale dealer with my Uncle. They have what we used to call a "fit kit" and they took a lot of measurements and had me ride my bike on rollers while they watched. The biggest change was they made me ride with a higher seat, and also adjusted where the seat sat on the seat post. This last weekend, I met my uncle and cousin and we did a 50 then went back out and did a 24. With all the changes I had less problems with my hands. In fact my only "problem" was near the end of the 24 when we had to stop at a cross road. I was tired and the seat is high, and I almost crashed when I tried to put my foot down, then tried to lift my leg over the seat while trying to regain my balance. Nothing to do with the bike, just this fat old body has lost some of its bake handling skills over the years I was out of it.

Also tried a bit on a road bike. Almost killed my self. Have to ride the drops to make those breaks work. Just a disconnect between my mind and what I have been doing far a while now!

I have a bit over 350 miles on the bike and it seems much smoother. My Uncle told me that he bike would " break in" and it seems that is true.

We did 18 miles of "rails to trails" riding that was not paved. I didn't think about it at the time, but I had no problem the the stock tires. The only reason I even thought about it was when we were back at the parking lot and someone asked how we got thru the "trails" portion with our shinny tires. A actually have a set of 25c tires I was going to put on the bike, but I haven't got around to it yet. I may not change them now.

Also found the stock tires to work fine in the rain. It didn't look like rain, so I went out about 8 miles on some bike trails. Suddenly the sky's open up and I had to ride home in mostly heavy rain. After a while I picked up he pace to get out of the rain and the last 4 miles were the quickest I have ever done on that 4 mile section. That was all serface roads, two lane black top. I don't plan to ride in the rain, but I was happy that I didn't crash and burn because the tires lost grip on one of the fast carves or something.

The stock tires are a good compromise. They do especially well on rail trails, gravel roads, and the like. They are reasonably good on pavement, but the whine they make on pavement shows that there is a bit too much rolling resistance. Since I plan to do a fair amount of my riding on rail trails and the like, the stock tires work for me. If I ever decide that I'd rather do most of my riding on pavement, then I'd look for a different tire.

It sounds like you are adapting to biking - and to your 'Dale - pretty well. You're getting a better sense of what your bike can do, and of what you can do. I've learned that I can't do a decent ride every single day. (Not yet, at least.) I need to space them out to give my leg muscles a chance to recover in between. I may settle into a pattern of biking one day and doing a long walk/hike the next, and alternating like that each day (provided that the weather also cooperates!).