I finally went back to my old Toupe Saddle on my road bike since it was liberated from the TT bike. I wanted to do it before TOTV, but I felt like it was too big of a gamble.
One would assume (Ass U Me)its a simple swap and even measuring before and after doesnt tell the whole story. It simply felt awesome to be back on it. I wasnt sliding forward and feeling like I had to squirm back every second. I am just a flat saddle type person.
More accurately I am a flat, thinly padded, 143mm wide, light weight saddle type..with a hole in the middle. I can ride on a few models of saddles well enough (toupe, phenom, SLR, arione, etc.), but only really love one. My aging blue and white Toupe. This just muddles up the whole saddle thing as if its not hard enough to get a saddle you like. Because you may ride your friends SLR and love it, but buy one and hate it. Could be his was worn just right or maybe had a unique shape. Bugger.
But I also felt like my legs had grown and at the bottom of the stroke I felt like I had lowered the saddle 2cm. And Sunday climbing 4 hills in the area (Old Mill both ways, Cedar, Fairmont and Sherman) I felt like I had lost power and couldnt turn the cranks over seated. That was as much being tired and stressed as anything else really or so I thought.
Tuesday I commute to work and decided that's enough. Just because the tape measure says everything is fine, its not. I stop and raise the saddle 3mm (guessed at the time)and started back into a my tempo riding and pow, felt good again and didnt feel like I was riding someone else s bike. The power was back and accelerating up climbs seated seemed normal again.
Unfortunately my happy feelings were somewhat squashed by two fat head A - holes in a candy apple red Chevy Blazer who did the tired old "get on the Bike Path" with a fat arm swinging out of the passenger window. I said nothing, made no one finger salute, then they slowed to give me more of their opinion so I sat-up, grabbed my phone out of a plastic baggie (took time) and they accelerated off as I took a picture. Sadly they were too far away to see the license plate. But I was worried about more retaliation which always ruins a ride.
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3 comments:
Next time I suggest getting the plate number and calling the police with it. File a formal complaint that forces the police to go out, find the jerks, and let them know they were "caught". Of course, it is your word against theirs but they will know.
A picture the size a cell phones produces is worthless. File the paperwork and stop worrying about retaliation. It will help all of us.
I feel your pain, Ray. This has got to be the worst year ever for riding on the road. I’ve been assaulted more in 2009 then all my other years of riding combined. My favorite incident this year (if you can really find any joy in being attacked) happened in Euclid Creek Reservation. While riding into the park from the Anderson Road entrance three boys around the age of 13-15 years old notice me coming down the hill. One of them decides to run out into the middle of the road and start mimicking that he’s going to tackle or knock me off my bike. His actions forced me to brake hard and swerve but he still came within a foot of “pretending” to do harm. As I ride by him he yells at me, “F*CKING F#GGOT BIKER!!! Classic.
Jim-I have done my part on occasion with a call in and a felony charge on the driver. It wasnt fun. And i rarely act in a way that will enrage a motorist so that the NEXT rider is the victim of my rage second hand. And I think the phone IS a good detterent so that the driver gets on his way. Call me crazy, btu i want to come home to my family in one piece, not as a martyr.
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