Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas Day ride

Santa was kind to me this year, he brought me a new Brooks B-17 saddle. I've heard a great deal about these saddles for a long time and Santa delivered.

For my Christmas Day ride today, I covered my new saddle with two plastic bags to keep it dry.


We had a white Christmas very early morning, but temps overnight in the mid-40's with a great deal of rain washed and melted away our snow.

Half-way through the ride it started to rain again. I wore cotton stretch tights beneath my ski wind pants. The wind pants are not waterproof, so near the end of my 23 mile ride my legs were getting quite cool.

I rode down to New Haven, then jumped on the Rivergreenway and rode towards Fort Wayne. The Park Dept. plowed this stretch of trail, and it was nice to ride without worrying about cars.

Although the rain was quite heavy at times during the ride, I was glad to have the chance to get out.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy riding!

10 comments:

rlove2bike said...

Merry Christmas and a nice present you received. Sounds like you had a good ride despite a little rain. The nice thing about rain is you don't have to shovel it...ehhh.

Steve A said...

That saddle looks darn near as nice as the bike!

jeff said...

I've used a Brooks on my Surly for years and love it! In eastern KS we had almost a foot of snow to shovel this AM. Merry Christmas!

Rat Trap Press said...

I love my Brooks saddle. Hopefully you were comfortable on your first ride with it. It may take a few days to get the seat angle dialed in but when you do it's great.

Merry Christmas.

Doohickie said...

Nice saddle!

Big Oak said...

Steve - you ought to know about the bike. You have good taste!

Jeff - don't hurt yourself shoveling - you too, rlove2bike. Just remember, every shovel-full is one shovel-full closer to spring.

RTP - I did fiddle with the seat angle for quite a while in the garage before I took it out on the road. For now I think I have it about right. May need to adjust it as the saddle breaks in.

Doohickie - thanks!

The interesting thing about that saddle is it feels hard as a rock. But when I sit on it, it gives and is quite comfortable. I had no soreness after the ride. Can't wait to get back on the bike again this afternoon.

Jon said...

I think the B-17 is probably the most comfortable saddle Brooks makes (for me, anyway). I was on one during the 24 hour solo race that I did back in June (100 miles, offroad, and felt fine, after).

A great and lasting gift, it is.

Merry Christmas!

Big Oak said...

Thanks Jon, it was from your blog that I first learned of the comfort of the B-17. I rode it again yesterday without any padding, and was quite comfortable. It seems comfortable now, and it isn't yet broken in!

Apertome said...

What a great gift! I love my B17 ... I find mine is more comfortable angled up a bit; of course that may not hold true for you, but if you are having problems, try it. It's counter-intuitive, but it worked for me.
Took me a while to figure that out.

Glad you got out and rode. I was actually in Fort Wayne this weekend and contemplated bringing a bike, but I didn't. I sort of wish I had, although I didn't have a lot of time. I was thinking about getting on the River Greenway on the southern end, how is it in that area?

Cotton is the worst, especially in rain, you should try a synthetic base layer, or wool. I got some "pepperskins" poly long underwear, much cheaper than actual bike-specific tights and much better than cotton. With your wind layer, it'd be a winning combo. Or if you want wool, check out Rivendell's wool tights, they are very nice.

Big Oak said...

Michael - All of the Rivergreenway is in good shape, except when the rivers flood, which lately seems to be often (specific enough? try, more often than a blue moon, but less often than a coon's age).

Someday when my new kitchen is all paid for I'm going to order some synthetic tights from Peter White Cycles. Don't know if that will happen before spring though.

Let me know when you have your bike in Ft Wayne again.