I got out this evening for an 18-mile ride on the Veloway, which was about all I could handle after the MS over the weekend. It was a good ride, just what I needed to ease back into the biking routine after the MS ride left me with a sore taint.
I’ve got a new pair of Sugoi shorts with the largest chamois pad I’ve seen. It didn’t seem to matter. I was struck by the fact that my bottom started complaining after about the same distance when I did the century ride last fall. It’s the soft tissue that gets sore — the perineum.
I’ve written before about my Specialized Alias saddle, and how much I like it. But I gotta say, after about 50 miles, my bottom starts to hurt.
The Specialized Alias saddle.
So — it may be time to start rethinking the saddle. The Alias is firm, like a racing saddle. It could be that I need to go to something with a little more padding so that when I do longer rides, I come through them without any soreness. The problem is, how much (or how little) padding do I need?
I like to window shop as much as anyone. I’ve been attracted to the WTB line of saddles. Wilderness Trail Bikes seems to be primarily a mountain biking line, but they do have saddles for road biking. Most are reasonably priced, too. They carry a little more padding than I’ve presently got. Could be worth dropping a few bucks on one to test it out. Most retailers will take back the saddle after a reasonable try-out period.
The other thing that occurs to me is that I might need a real bike fitting. I’ve done some tweaking of my saddle position since I got the bike, so it’s not in the same place it was when they fitted me at the time of purchase. However, their fitting was rather cursory, and I wasn’t impressed with the process.
A shop in Austin is known for its fitting services, and the price is right, too. Any thoughts about new saddles vs. a professional bike fitting? Which way should I go?
The courthouse square in LaGrange was a picturesque place for the ride to start.
This is just the crowd on my side of the courthouse. Riders extended out of sight to the left, and behind the courthouse on the other side of the square.
A bagpiper serenaded riders just miles into the day’s journey.
This is a flat section of the parks. I chose not to stop on the hills to take pictures.
Riders were treated to turkey or veggie sandwiches from Subway, potato chips, a small apple, and a bottle of energy drink.
The police were out in force, and did a nice job of controlling traffic. It appeared that they had decided to give cyclists priority this day. As the ride entered Austin, riders became even more bunched up because of heavier traffic and the requirement to actually stop for some red lights.
Ride’s end. Barely room to get a picture with so many people around.
That’s not a river or a lake — it’s farmland. Shortly after I took the picture, some other riders on the bus started getting updates on their cell phones: the first day of the MS 150 was indeed cancelled.
Most of the crowd were good-natured about the circumstances of the cancellation. Parts of Saturday’s route were under water, and the county fairgrounds in LaGrange, where we were to spend our first night, was a quagmire. On top of that, so much rain had fallen that it had collapsed some of the team tents.
The Bike Noob with the Tyrannosaurus Rex at the Museum of Natural Science.