Cycling is like life. Cycling with no goal is meaningless. What meaning is there cycling in circles? Or living aimlessly? Meaning comes from direction and destination. Join me in my life's journey on a mountain bike :)

Blogging since 2003. Thank you for reading :))

Sunday, February 06, 2011

From one extreme to another

Mandai, 47 km. First, the saddle seems to close to the stem, which marks the start of a backache. The further I shift the saddle away, the better I feel, until it’s a shift too far. Time to shift back a little, tilt a little, trial and error. Time will tell. With patience comes perseverance, or is it the other way round? Whatever, millimetre by millimetre, we’ll get there. The saddle rails are only so long.

I cut short the adjustment process by comparing Made in England with Made in Italy. Both saddles are similar in length and shape, even though the rails are of different length and angle. What counts is where the saddle is positioned in relation to the sit bones; it would be folly to look first at the bottom of the saddle (the rails) rather than the top. Once the top is roughly in place, then the bottom will be in place. I lower the seat post height too, since Mr Brooks has ‘higher’ rails.

However, if replacing an old saddle with a new one (same brand and model), mark the new saddle’s rails based on the old saddle’s position: put the saddles facing each other (like mirror image) then use a marker to mark the new rails according to the markings on the old rails.

Patience, perseverence and contextual knowledge. All of these take time. Sometimes, a lilttle means a lot. Sometimes, a lot of things mean little. Today, I cross the 50,000 km mark ...

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