"The quest for the perfect saddle" continues...

The perfect saddle - continued...

Being here without power and Internet, I thought I would continue my ramblings regarding the quest for a perfect saddle. here using my IPad to dribble down a rough idea of the current state of affairs.

Thursday I returned the Selle SMP Saddle to Central Wheel with some trepedations, as although I did not feel 100% comfortable on it, I did have added power, (More on this later). I then went to Berlin Cycle to find out that my Specialized Romin was not in yet, and that it would arrive on Friday. As it was raining I did not mind that much.

Friday came and it was a beautiful day for a ride, but I had to work. After work I again went to Berlin Cycle to find that my Romin was in. Not the SL model that I ordered, but the new 2012 version they called the PRO. The Pro has carbon rails that are 8mm thick, and would not fit on most seat posts. Scott asked me what seat post I had, and told him the Thompson Masterpiece. The Thompson clamps from the top so there was no problem. I then stopped off at Cycling Concepts to pick up my headbands that I had ordered the day before, and we weighted the saddle. The SL was quoted at 209 grams, but the Pro turned out to be only 162 grams...NICE! The only downside to all of this is that the carbon rails might not hold my large frame...but it gave me a lighter bike by some 100 grams...Ya baby Ya!

I took the saddle home and put it on my bike at my fit coordinates. The saddle is curved both in the rear and in the nose, so it is tough to get it just right. It was now nearly 5:30pm. I decided to ride toward CC, and adjust it there. On the ride to CC, the saddle felt good, no hotspots or pain emerging anywhere. It felt remarkably like the aliante from Fi'zik. The difference was that I could feel that my sit bones definitely were supporting my body on the bike. The Romin has very little padding, but I did not feel any discomfort.

When I got to CC, Dave leveled the saddle a bit, placing the nose downward a bit. I measured the SMP at 3in from rail to where your sit bones rest. Although I have not yet checked the Romin, my quess is that it is somewhat lower. Maybe if was fatigue from being a Friday after work, but I could definitely notice less power on the bike that with the SMP, so some tweeking is in order. I road back down route 3 to do a hill or two to see if the saddle caught upon returning from standing effort, but it nicely has a slightly downward turned nose that does not catch. On the ride, the best thing I can say is that I barely noticed the saddle. I forgot about it, and road comfortably. The only caveat would be that I only road 13 miles, and need a longer ride to judge better the long distance effects on my backside. For now though it looks promising...

Another adjustment that was made was that Daniel from CC road with me on Wedneday, and noticed that I need to go up on the steering tube to get a more relaxed position in my shoulders, as they were hunched when riding normally. Danny move the stem up 1 cm on the steering tube by moving the 10 mm spacer below the stem. On the ride I did notice more comfort, but think it may need to go do about 5 mm, and maybe get a 10mm shorter stem...We shall see.

The Specialized Romin Pro deserves a longer ride to truly test its medal, but with luck with be the saddle for me moving forward...For now the quest for the perfect saddle has landed on the Romin steps.