Friday, June 22

Order of Trim Spa, For One, Please

I never thought we would have to go to this spot. But Timber is jiggly and squishy. But i don't think this product is for him. There is a series of recent events that has caused me to examine my posterior from quite a few vantage points.

Being a house wife and all, who does the bare minimum in the house and who is expecting child, in the form of an 8 year old to arrive Sunday, precious time must not be wasted. Matt - New Trek Demo Boy, needed a tour guide on the SART this week. I jumped at the opportunity, and well, maybe i should have taken an older bike.

I have embarked on some super secret covert training, so i can not divulge too much. The snowball affect of my mechanical in DV, coupled with a crack in the rim of my front wheel, tumbled me onto a borrowed bike for CovOp1. This was to be a 2.5 hour mountain bike ride. at minute 7, i snapped the seat tube. Makes one wonder. After pulling out broken piece, shoving post back in, i was looking at well over 2 hours in the saddle, BMX style. Oh, yea. I did feel real bad too. I thought i had slimmed down, and i didn't even take it off any sweet jumps.

Day two had much the same affect to the rear. I picked up my bike from the shop and headed straight for the trails. Approximate same distance to travel via mountain bike. 40 minutes in. Crack, crack, plink, ouch. There went both seat rails. Hmmm. The angle of the seat quickly went south, or the nose went quite north. I could not forgo the forthcoming events of single track drops, creeks, and oh dear, i may have said too much already, so i plodded along.

Now that i have compared the exact same route, with similarly, yet vastly different in the comfort, efficiency, and lame-looking department, bike "issues" as they say, i have concluded the following:

1. Trim Spa was good for Nicole

2. Riding with a too low seat takes a lot longer. No glutes or hamstring insertions are used, thus adding a lot to climb times.

3. Riding with a seat that is going the wrong direction in so many ways, has much longer lasting issues and should be avoided. Although travel time is quicker, the pay out is much smaller.

4.You are also forced to ride OUT of the saddle a lot which is a great training tool, for 30 seconds. Not 30 minutes. But you will sure find the dead spots in your pedal stroke and have the luxury of forgoing the gym for the upper body workout.

5. Descending without a seat post and saddle (i had to ride the single track and switch backs with it in my hand, since riding buddy was way ahead. then randomly he showed up behind me. i guess i am a bad tour guide, he took a wrong turn. Said, hmm, looks like you need a seat.)is quite invigorating and helps with balance and bike handling. Both hands on the bars a must.

6. Descending with a broken seat: tricky. It is good for balance, yet if choose the precisely incorrect moment to sit, this being a hard tail and all, you will realize that the bike is now a solid, immovable nor flexible object. Focus, and be careful.

Thanx to Mattfor his understanding and patience

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tour Joy, no worries on the broken things, it just means you're tough! Hope you can sow me around more when I'm passing through again.

Anonymous said...

I recommend my spider seat. Once you get used to it you can ride on anything. As long as you don't mind not having babies.

Team Lost Coast Brewery said...

Broken seats are the WORST! I have a penchant for snapping seats- broke 3 seats in 7 months and my current one is starting to squeak again...I feel your pain :(