Saddles again / Trico Sports split-rail saddle

[Doug Landau]

Anyone remember this thing?
It was heavy.
It felt almost rock-hard to one's thumb but not to one's butt
It weighed a ton
It was nice-and-wide and nice-and-flat
It was almost as heavy as the complete CF bicycle one was wanting to mount it on
It fit my butt perfectly
It is not even on ebay

I see there are more modern versions of the totally split design
especially by specialized. They are >$200 - goddam miserable wretched f*ing basterds! I -DON'T- want to pay the ransom. I tried one anyway. It looked right. It didn't help. I don't know why.

I tried a Brooks. It didn't help. It wasn't new and I didn't break it in by soaking it overnight and riding 60 miles the next day as I read here.

I guess I simply haven't exhausted all the options yet so better go back to Mikes bikes and try the rest of the specialized ones, and buy myself a new brooks too. Maybe a B-72. I guess if I want to be sure I have to try them all, bought new and broken in to fit me, then sold on CL as ridden once.

I saw a rubber Brooks the other day too.

I wish Trico sports would update and rerelease the splitrail. I guess the opportunity is no longer there for them.

[AMuzi]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOBSON-Easyseat-Easy-Seat-DUAL-PAD-Original-ADULT-BLACK-BIKE-SEAT-Ergonomical-/122127600883?hash=item1c6f5f4cf3:g:BTgAAOSw4s9Xk~ud

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ergonomic-Dual-pad-Nose-Less-Split-Cheek-Bicycle-Seat-/162215881419?hash=item25c4d1eacb:g:mOYAAOSw-itXp~ez

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Easy-Seat-Ergo-Dual-split-Pad-bike-Bicycle-seat-Saddle-medically-approved-/252572456131?hash=item3ace7dd4c3:g:Vx0AAOSwvzRXzZcs

These are not endorsements but you may find the images and
brands/terms useful in your search.

--
Andrew Muzi
<www.yellowjersey.org/>
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

[Frank Krygowski]

I had years of saddle discomfort when I first started riding. Brooks
never worked for me, either, although a B-72 is doing fine on the 3
speed I built for short trips.

I very briefly tried one of the split saddles Andrew linked. It felt
weird and unsteady to me, as if I might slide off the bike sideways.
But we're all different down there.

Some weeks ago, helping a friend shop for a bike, I was in a shop that
carried Specialized bikes (IIRC). They had a gizmo to help with saddle
choice. It was a thin pad containing some sort of goop. If you placed
it on a hard, flat surface and sat on it, it showed you the distance
between your "sit bones." That's critical. (On some narrower Brooks
saddles, I'd hit the rivets instead of the leather.)

You may find this interesting:
http://bicyclinglife.com/PracticalCycling/Sore.htm

Good luck in your search.


--
- Frank Krygowski

[John B.]

I've found saddles very dependent on the position one has on the bike.
A saddle for a rider that rides with his upper body very erect is
going to be different from the rider with the handle bars set lower
than his saddle who rides with his back nearly horizontal.

But having said that I find that the curvature of the sides from the
wide portion that your "sit-bones" rest on to the portion of the
saddle between your legs is very significant to how well the saddle
"fits".

As for the Brooks, my experience is that one just has to ride on the
damned thing until it fits. Several hundred miles. Soaking it with any
fluid just softened the leather over the entire saddle and allows the
whole thing to stretch until, in extreme it looks like a hammock.

When the Brooks rubber" saddles first appeared here I asked about them
here and if I remember one person said that he had one but no glowing
comments, nor condemnation either.

As for price, you might take a look at http://tinyurl.com/gsubm88
for an idea of the various models of Chinese saddles that are
available. Cheap.
--
cheers,

John B.

[Doug Landau]

Thanks. Actually the saddle I had, the "split-rail" model, is a pretty traditional shape: It's the first six images:
https://www.google.com/search?q=tricosports+splitrail&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK5anZvtHPAhXMmh4KHcw9DpoQ_AUICygE

There are now Specialized saddles that look just like it but don't weigh a ton. But they don't fit the same. I did the thing Pete suggested back in 04 with the styrafoam and measured my sitbones and concluded that he is right that is why my bones feel like theyre hanging off the edge of the popular saddles on both sides at once.

I guess my post is more of a gripe than a question. I wish the bike stores would have examples of each saddle with the upholstery removed, just bare nylon, so you can see the shape, and exactly where it curls down at the sides. Maybe then it wouldn't be the case that you simply can't tell what will work for you by looking.

[Doug Landau]

Note that in the 1st pic you can see the ruler. It was adjustable. I guess I'll keep trying new saddles and also keep watching ebay and in the end get another and use it. It really does weigh about double the weight of the bike but if that's the only way to get comfy, then I should be happy that there's a way at all.

[Gregory Sutter]

On 2016-10-11, Doug Landau <doug....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> There are now Specialized saddles that look just like it but don't
> weigh a ton. But they don't fit the same. I did the thing Pete
> suggested back in 04 with the styrafoam and measured my sitbones
> and concluded that he is right that is why my bones feel like
> theyre hanging off the edge of the popular saddles on both sides at
> once.

For something quite different, and if you have a setback seatpost,
you could try ISM.
http://www.ismseat.com/help-choosing-saddles/

You're also welcome to try the Specialized Alias 155 and Selle Italia
Max Flite Gel Flow that are sitting in my stack of parts in Pacifica.
Both are on the wider side of saddles.

> I guess my post is more of a gripe than a question. I wish the
> bike stores would have examples of each saddle with the upholstery
> removed, just bare nylon, so you can see the shape, and exactly
> where it curls down at the sides. Maybe then it wouldn't be the
> case that you simply can't tell what will work for you by looking.

Most performance saddles have little enough padding that you can
use a tape measure to get a decent estimate of the width.

--
Gregory S. Sutter Mostly Harmless
mailto:gsu...@zer0.org
http://zer0.org/~gsutter/

[Frank Krygowski]

On 10/10/2016 4:48 PM, Doug Landau wrote:
>

> I guess I simply haven't exhausted all the options yet so better go back to Mikes bikes and try the rest of the specialized ones, and buy myself a new brooks too. Maybe a B-72. I guess if I want to be sure I have to try them all, bought new and broken in to fit me, then sold on CL as ridden once.

This article just came out. It may be of interest - or not. It's
pretty basic.

http://bicycletimesmag.com/its-not-you-its-me/



--
- Frank Krygowski

[cycl...@gmail.com]

I bought one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Prologo-Scratch-Pro-134mm-wide-Road-Bike-Saddle-Demo-Saddle-/361770035508?hash=item543b2ca934:g:2PMAAOSwCGVX3B1I

And it was VERY comfortable. While we're all built different at this price you can afford to test something.

[Doug Landau]

thx! I agree, will try.

[Doug Landau]

On Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at 12:00:33 PM UTC-7, Gregory Sutter wrote:

> On 2016-10-11, Doug Landau wrote:
> >
> > There are now Specialized saddles that look just like it but don't
> > weigh a ton. But they don't fit the same. I did the thing Pete
> > suggested back in 04 with the styrafoam and measured my sitbones
> > and concluded that he is right that is why my bones feel like
> > theyre hanging off the edge of the popular saddles on both sides at
> > once.
>
> For something quite different, and if you have a setback seatpost,
> you could try ISM.
> http://www.ismseat.com/help-choosing-saddles/
>
> You're also welcome to try the Specialized Alias 155 and Selle Italia
> Max Flite Gel Flow that are sitting in my stack of parts in Pacifica.
> Both are on the wider side of saddles.

Thanks Greg!! I will take you up on that in the near future. I am riding a selle italia max flite gel flow currently and look forward to trying out your specialized alias 155. Back at you offline with postage.

Doug