saddle news

It's been a sore week all in all.

yes I thought that would grab your attention. But ignore the young lady (and that isn't me, by the way - I'd kill for an arse like that) Note the lovely saddle. so take your eyes off the lady for a moment and look at the saddle. The bit on the bike. I said, stop looking at her and look at the saddle.

ok, maybe this illustrates it better

That is a brooks saddle. Brooks have been making leather saddles since 1866 and deserve to be bestsellers. Those are real copper rivets in there and while it is a heavy saddle, it's worth the weight. The leather softens to make a perfect imprint of your bottom and is much more comfortable than you'd think just by looking at it. There is a reason brooks saddle users are passionate about these little babies. Beautiful, traditional, comfortable.

Heavy-hearted, I have to put aside my lovely Brooks saddle, even though I really really love my Brooks and I've never had saddle sore from it. But alas it seems that Brooks saddles are designed for men, who have movable parts that allow a nice even spreading of weight. I don't have the luxury of being able to move anything out of the way and so I'm sat on, well... I'm squashing bits I don't think are meant to be squashed and cutting off blood supplies to some very sensitive equipment. Equipment I'd rather have continued use of ta very much. Going uphill makes this worse as the saddle tilts to the hill and I'm sat even more on areas that are, um, delicate - not to mention important.

To compensate for the squishing I have tended to tilt my pelvis forward so I am sat more on the fleshy part of my rump - this means I am curling my lower back round. Several hours of this makes me ache, especially at the back, shoulders and neck.

So, sadly I've bought a new saddle. It's an ugly saddle. It looks less like something crafted and more like something manufactured.

It has an indentation and special gel padding in areas that the sit bones go. The manufacturer promise that this one really is made for women and isn't just a man's saddle with more width.

Surprisingly it works. My delicate areas are well protected AND I don't have to curl my back and tilt the pelvis, I can actually sit on my sit bones and keep a straight back. The difference is amazing. I can sit like the Sous Chef does on his saddle.

However, this means breaking in my sit bones anew and that means saddlesore . This saddle is nice on my soft bits and not so nice on the hard bits. What I also didn't expect was the new posture that means I am using completely different (untrained) muscles for cycling. I can tell because I ache in areas of my legs I've never ached before. When I started out cycling my quadriceps built up and ached. Now my hamstrings feel like they've taken a beating. These areas correspond with the scrummiest, sexiest, well toned parts of the Sous Chef's cycling legs so I know I am now using the right sets of muscles but they are untrained so I have to build these up.

so it is a shame that I put my brooks aside. It is such a lovely saddle. aesthetically pleasing, fine on the arse but unfortunately not fine for other areas and my thighs would like to know why they can't have the Brooks saddle back.