20.07.2024 84km.

 ~o~

  Saturday 20th 60F/16C [at 7.00] Clear and bright. With 26C on offer for late afternoon. A warm and sunny summer's day at last. Easterly winds would make an ideal day for a ride. Except that I can still feel the damage I did on my last [100km] ride. All my remaining saddles are uncomfortable. Where do I go from here? I could rebuild the Con-Tec using the B67 steel work. Perhaps my memory of the comfort offered by the Con-Tec is false?  

 I am afraid it was. I went back to my April-May posts of last year. I was getting saddle sore on longer rides. Even when I wore my best bibs with the thickest padding. It is mostly due to friction but mixed with sit bone pain from contact with the hard saddle. You'd think the thickest padding would help here. It doesn't. Nor did the heavily padded vinyl saddle. Though that was dirt cheap by most saddle standards. The problem is that I know I will get saddle sore if I use the well-worn B17 on a longer ride. Back to the B67? It should offer the best compromise of width for the upright riding position. Spring suspension to reduce impacts on the sit bones.    

 Up at 6.15 after waking at 4am. The lower back pain should soon fade.

 8.15. 67F/19C. I have refitted the Brooks B67. It had more Proofide treatment a couple of days ago above and below. Now polished off. It never seems to soak in anyway. I have used a builder's level to set it horizontal and re-tensioned it. Level make it look nose up. So it can't be easily judged by eye. Now to consider the choice of shorts or bibs. Sitting on the B67 in ordinary clothes feels hard. So I need some padding before I even leave the drive. Thinnest padded bibs I think. Minimum sweating on a hot day.   

 9.00 70F/21C. I am trying to do it right for a change. No rushing off without preparation. Showered, morning coffee and make the lunchtime rolls to take with me. Plenty of apple juice in mini-cartons. Corny chocolate bars. Check.   

 9.15. I am going to ride to Odense.

 14.15 Returned from an 84km ride. I  headed east on rural roads and lanes at first and then rode north into the city. Where I visited numerous cycle shops. The Brooks B67 wasn't too bad for the first half and then became progressively worse. I had stopped and adjusted the nose upwards a little. Which helped. After looking at expensive bibs [£300 equivalent!] in a huge shop I bought a pot of Assos chamois cream. The first cream I have ever tried.

 On the way back the saddle soreness was getting worse and worse. So I stopped in a gap in the hedge and quickly applied the cream directly to my neder bod. The cooling relief was immediate but rather short lived. I had probably waited too long. Or had been too mean with the cream.

 Later I stopped suddenly at a red light and fell over! Too slow to lower the dropper post. Idiot! No serious injury except to my pride. Scuffed elbow. Bent reading glasses in my jersey pocket. Pain in my left buttock now I have stopped pedaling.

 16.00 78F/26C. Woke from a nap. Warmest day this year. My left buttock and elbow hurt! Silly old wotsit!

 Dinner was salad. My back hurts!

 

 

 

  ~o~