Saddle Up

First, to take a total left turn from anything even remotely related to triathlon... "Words of Radiance" (2nd book of the Stormlight Archive, following "Way of Kings.") hit the stands yesterday. Sanderson is an amazing fantasy writer (Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time - chose Sanderson to finish his series after his death.) and this series is supposedly going to be his epic saga. (that is...lots of big books) I can't recommend anything he has written enough. If you're on the fence for fantasy (maybe you like Game of Thrones on HBO) then this is a good place to dive in.

Just showing off some of Michael Whelan's amazing art.

Ok, nerd blurb over... but continuing the trend of not talking about triathlon... here's a picture of my Corvette, post installation of a new air intake.

More of a pain to work on than your average tri bike.

While I have to admit I'm not all that great of a car mechanic (although the Internet helps immensely)  so far I haven't screwed anything up and I'm more than willing to experiment on my own (and my braver friends) cars. Of course changing an air intake is pretty low on the wrench scale, but baby steps. I didn't want to pull the top of the motor on my first go :)

Anyways, back in the world of relevance (as if anything on this blog was relevant) it's new saddle time at the Morelock Stable.

Of course, if you weren't already aware (possibly those of you reading this blog in braille.) I'm a Cobb Mobb(ster) this year, so it only makes sense to be riding Cobb Saddles. The first saddle I ever purchased (that is, didn't come stock on my bike) was a Blackwell Research ISM Adamo (a blue one... to match my blue S32) that I used to the point that it had to be retired (left saddle rail of any saddle I keep for an extended period of time eventually sags. Weird problem I know.) I also had a short stint with a HC170, although it was sold to a local rider when I started taking my Scott apart for it's rebuild (which... I swear... is the next thing on my list to finish)

That said, I liked my time with the HC170 enough that I knew it was the Cobb saddle I wanted on my road bike.

Nothing but me, the bike, some fans and a workout.

When I had originally built my "budget" Cannondale, the saddle was the final afterthought. Since I was already ordering Nashbar brakes, I just threw in a $15 Nashbar saddle to go with it. I mean, the bike was only going to be used for short(er) rides and Crits anyways, right? Well, as it turned out I ended up using the CAAD quite a lot, so I think it's fair to say it (or is that I) deserves a nice saddle.

The HC170 probably isn't the saddle for everyone. I have always liked a minimalistic saddle (hell, my Zipp's saddle is nothing but a hard piece of carbon.) and especially so on my road bike. Minimalistic doesn't mean uncomfortable, despite often being misrepresented that way. I've only put about 100 miles on this HC170 so far, (all of them on the trainer, which for me is always a good gauge of how a saddle is going to work - hot spots, chafing, etc.) but I can happily say I haven't had any issues. Like everything else when it comes to contact points though, it's terribly important NOT to listen to what the guy on the Internet says and instead see what works for you. That said (shameless plug?) Cobb does give you 90 days to decide if it's the saddle for you, guaranteed... so there's no need to take anyone else's word for it, especially considering I can usually tell within a ride or two whether a saddle is going to work or not.


Not to be left out in the cold, I also planned on upgrading the saddle on the Cervelo. Unfortunately my LBS was sold out of the SHC... I opted to take a demo home with me while I (eagerly) await the white one heading my way. (Green just isn't working on this bike...don't you think?)

I guess if there was a category for bikes with most garish color combinations

So with new saddles on the whips (whip is such an underused term for bikes... and cars, and anything non-Xzibit related) it's time to get my lazy butt back in shape on the bike. I sense plenty of 5x5's and 2x20's in my future.

I also signed up for the White Sands Triathlon again this year. You may remember I nearly died on vacation last year at this race... so I'm a little hungry for some payback. I will be bringing my wetsuit with me this year as well :) Since being an iceberg of bad choices isn't on my list of things to repeat. The Trideltathon (one of my favorite warmup races) is the week before, and this year is a reverse tri... so I'll like hit that up as well.

Anyways, that's for reading through my mess of collective consciousness. Hopefully you've found some tidbits of usefulness in this mass of messy thoughts. I'll be bringing some more in depth thoughts on the Cobb Saddles (especially the SHC) in the future.

Until next time, thanks so much for reading

-Christopher Morelock