Anyone have any thoughts on saddles? I am in the market thanks to the insurance company. I have been looking at the Selle San Marco, but really have no idea.

i got my first brooks last month.
for two weeks, i hated it.
now, i love it.

break in took about 400 mi.

Which means you ride 200mi each week. Nice average...

so whats the plans on saturday night?
any parties?

party at reds... duh

I got a Brooks B.17 just last week, myself. I've ridden about 50 on it so far, and it's already conforming to my buttocks like the gently cupped hand of an angel. Not quite that soft, actually, but it's reshaping more quickly than I had been led to expect.

You can get them for $50something off lickbike.com, too.

My roadie's got a Selle Italia Prolink for now, the ones below I've ridden about 40 miles each...
Fizik Arione - comfy, but I was getting numb.
Specialized Toupe - really minimal padding, I'd use it for climbing not for long spinning flats ... hotspots, suck.
Specialized Alias - On the road bike for the past year, I think it was good, but the stitching messes with bike shorts
Selle Italia Sugino - felt good but there wasn't any way to mount a seat bag to it cause of how the rails are setup
Terry Fly Tri - too much padding



Anyone doing anything tonight?

Peter just got a used but well loved professional at the warehouse the other day.

The brooks, or any other leather saddle (they are the same) brooks has just survived the dwindling market for leather saddles. ( I believe they also make holsters, tack and shoes etc) are great for some folks and rough on others.

Used ones are great, just dab a little leather oil on the underside, slacken the nut about a quarter turn.
and go ride. (don't forget your plastic bag). I like the burly kryptonite ones from citybikes.

( I used to work at this neighborhood shop when I was a kid, it was family owned and Pearl, the owner knew all the old school bike stuff (sewing tires, breaking in saddles etc).

Paul at citybikes is a great resource for this kind of stuff as is larry black.

I really like the terrazza by Serfas? I see some around town, I know citybikes has one. It is the only saddle I ever got on and was wowed immediately by the fit. (track bike too, so the stakes wuz high.

I think they have some more brooks at the warehouse so we can ask there.

Maybe peter has fallen out of love with his?

Spud,
Glad to hear you are feeling better. No broken bones, wheaoo!!!
I need to focus a little bit on safety. Brakes, helmets, lights and flec gear. They could be the diff. between hilarious and tragic. If we are gonna be role models (wapost) then we ought ot set an example for others.

I have some gear at the house, would anyone like to order a roll of reflective tape?


Spud, I hear you need a new lid.
Pick one out and I will pick it up a city.

"Splurge, youv'e got a discount"

Me or chris or noah, 30% off.
Orders 50% OFF.

Look forward to seeing everyone at the party.

There are some shindigs tonight but it would be fun a get a little after-work ride in.

Anyone up for it? Maybe East Potomac park or somesuch?

202-491-4707

-Ben

My B17 required exactly zero break-in to be perfectly comfortable; rode it once or twice, then did a century.
The Professional is really nice, too. A little narrower, but still comfy.

OMG SPUD! Hope you recover quickly. Facial scars are so tribal!

Oh, I've also got a Selle San Marco Trans Am Max Flite saddle, but the faux-leather gets kinda sticky in the heat. Good for when it rains, though.

cool thanks for the info. and good to see you have a lot of riders in the Palm Beach Pirates.

haha, nice one dave.

thanks, good luck with your wrist. hope you can ride with us soon.

i wasnt trying to scare anyone. yeah what did happen to thor, not even in the top 20? morrison looks pretty good and healthy and growing, christoph (who happens to specialize in child restraints) did a safety inspection of the Sachs wagon and gave them some tips and showed them a few things about child seats. hey LBK glad to almost talk to you in the ER yesterday, very spotty reception in there; i'm jealous of your soup diet, cant wait to see your vacation photos. yep, new faces are always welcome.

thanks, it doesnt feel so bad, the stitches were a little painful around my shin, my neck is kind of stiff still and my shoulders are sore. its clear that i faceplanted on the left side of my face, but i dont quite understand how i got the bruising on the back side of my right shoulder. nothing broken, so it'll just be a few weeks to heal up.

haha, thats a good one. yeah once my neck feels better and i get a new helmet, i should be riding again. luckily nothing happened to my legs.

thanks, i am too. yeah i still havent seen the helmet, but i'm sure it saved me from some brain damage and more cuts, if not my life. as i was telling dave, i had actually ridden to lunch a mile or two wednesday without a helmet and some volunteers teaching kids how to ride trails gave me a littl elip about helmets and offered to give me one; i'm sure glad i wore one later that night, wish i had put some gloves on too.
anyone know of a site that lists the actual safety rating of bicycle helmets? my tirreno was nice, but i wonder if there are any safer.

thanks guys, yeah i'd like to know what happened, if it was an accident or just carelessness.
yeah more reflectors/reflective stuff on the bike and bag/clothing. thanks for the discount, like i said a few lines up is there any way to compare safety test results of the available helmets; i've heard a lot of the high-end helmets arent as safe with all the holes and mass taken out to save weight. anyone know?

Fizik Arione feels sooooo good on long rides on my roadie. For hopping around the city (5 miles at a time), I wouldn't spend much on a killer saddle....even a Brooks will do

Damnit! Sprained my wrist at work today. one more down.

I've got your torreno and Steve and me looked it over last night. Its got scrapes all over the top and the front and there's a crack in the foam right in front too. We were both certain it helped alot even if it has to be retired now.

thats cool, it wasnt superexpensive, i dont mind retiring it. how do my glasses and ulock look?

damn, time to put training wheels on Noah and ride one handed? ;)

edit: oh and i have damn near a lifetime supply of triple anti-biotic ointment now; next time someone gets a cut or scraped up let me know.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/t...ings/index.htm

There are so many different models, I don't think you will find tests for even half of those.

Thanks for all the ideas. I am reading alot about all of them.

Speaking of shopping ... everytime I go into Citybikes I stare at that Redline 925 on the wall ... geez I like that one alot ...

I have a Fizik Arione, and a Gobi. I like them.

Spud, I also have your lock, it looks fine. RPC has your glasses, they do not look fine.

So last night I went into city bikes with the hope of buying/ordering everything I need to convert my bianchi road bike into a fixed gear. I was told that it wasn't safe to convert to fixie with my drop outs (see attached pic) because the pressure from slowing down/braking would want to force the axle forward out of the dropouts. I used to ride my friend's fixie once in a while up in nyc, and it had similar dropouts. Was the the advice sound, or overly cautious?

If it is sound advice, what is the best place (besides CL) to pick up a cheap frame/bike (58cm) that I could convert? I am pretty broke and was hoping to spend $300 all said and done (doing the work myself).

Any advice would be appreciated.

reedtimothy, look back a few pages in this thread. Someone else was having this problem last week and got the same advice from CityBikes. You can make your frame work if you want. The shop will tell you no to be on the safe side, and so you don't sue them. Good luck!

go back a few pages...

and everybody on the thread has to promise not to get over the edge anxiety ridden and scream at each other. you all already argued about that once this week, wait at least a month to have that same arguement again. and dont insult the person who gave that advice in any way.

pages 138-140 has most of the talk on conversions