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The Selle San Marco Ponza

05.28.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

After my MS ride last month, I was sore. I wondered whether my bottom problems we the result of my saddle. I ride the Specialized Alias saddle — 143 mm size — and I’ve read and heard a lot of nice things about it. Last year, I even wrote about the comfort of the saddle. But since then, I’ve become less enamored of it.

My friend David invited me to try one of his spare saddles, just to see if it would make any difference, so I went by his house to pick it up. It’s a Selle San Marco Ponza, and comes as factory equipment on several mid-range bikes. Reviews I’ve seen online are all over the map; some reviewers love it, some hate it. I’ll bet that’s true of the majority of saddles, which tend to be the most personal pieces of equipment on a bike.

I was anxious to try anything new, so I put it on the bike and have ridden it a number of times.

Ponza2

The Ponza.

It’s not apparent in the picture, but the first thing you notice about the Ponza is its width. It’s a racing-style saddle, and quite a bit narrower than the Alias. I’d been leery of trying a narrow saddle, so I began this test with some trepidation.

SpecializedAlias

The Alias.

The other obvious difference is the lack of a cutout on the Ponza. That bothered me, too. I couldn’t imagine being comfortable, especially after more than about 20 miles, on a saddle that offered no relief to the softy bits.

But the experience was a revelation. The narrow saddle felt much better under me. It’s much easier to slide into and out of when you’re up out of the saddle during a hill climb. My important stuff didn’t get squashed the way I feared. On our 34-mile jaunt last Sunday, I completely forgot about the saddle — which I guess is a pretty good endorsement.

The saddle isn’t perfect. For one thing, it has an almost complete lack of padding compared to the Alias. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since the saddle is supposed to handle only part of the job of supporting a rider. The pedals and handlebars have to absorb their share of the load, too. And once I got used to coasting with the pedals in a horizontal position, and standing to pedal on even slight hills, any discomfort went away.

Still, I think my search for the perfect saddle is by no means at an end. I’d like to try something like the Ponza with a cutout, or at least a depression down the middle. I’ve got one in mind, and I’ll be mounting that on the bike in the next week. Look for another saddle progress report in the near future.

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Categories // Equipment, soreness, Uncategorized Tags // saddle

Could my saddle be too firm?

04.21.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 15 Comments

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.

specializedaliasThe 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?

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Categories // Equipment, soreness, Uncategorized Tags // bike fitting, saddle

Dealing with injury

03.26.2009 by Ray Niekamp // 5 Comments

Since I began biking almost two years ago, I’ve been lucky when it comes to injuries.  I haven’t had any to speak of.  Oh, I know I’ve griped about my numb toe too often.  (By the way, those new shoes of mine have indeed taken care of that problem.  On a two and a half hour ride last weekend, I had barely a twinge out of it.)  There was some soreness after my crash last fall, but nothing to keep me from riding.

That’s a nice departure from my running days, when I used to develop injuries fairly often.  If I could, I’d run through the pain.  Sometimes that was fine — sometimes, it aggravated the problem.

I bring this up, because I got a recent email from reader Don, in California.  He said:

Last week I injured my back and left hip, I believe it came from having my left foot too toed in while riding, which caused aggravation along the tendon that runs in that area. I took two days off, iced and did Tylenol. I’m fine. But that still leads to the question of how to handle biking injuries? 

We look on with amazement as Lance Armstrong has surgery for a collarbone fracture that was worse than first thought, then gets patched up with a five-inch steel plate and a dozen screws, and is expected to be on the trainer in a week, and back to racing in eight to twelve weeks.  But that’s Lance.

How about you?  What kind of injuries have you had to deal with, and what was recovery like?  What did you do to come back, and how long did it take?

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Categories // Injury, soreness Tags // Injury, soreness

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