Scoff if you must …
Yesterday, I tweeted about being saddle sore from 44 minutes straight on a 5+ mile unicycle ride.
My friend and fellow cyclist, Alicia, who regularly rides for a gazillion miles and spends hours in the saddle on her road bike, sent me this on twitter:
Are you seriously complaining about 45 minutes of saddle time? SERIOUSLY? I scoff at you.
To her and others sharing that opinion I say, scoff if you must. But here’s a shocker:
unicycle saddle ≠ bicycle saddle
Just look at the following images, and you’ll see:
The typical comparison would be “apples to oranges,” but more apt here would be diapers to thongs.
And the thing is, those 45 minutes in the uni saddle don’t feel like 45 minutes on a bike. Unless you’re riding the bike that whole time with your hands on your hips to make sure that all your weight is on your sit bones and it’s nearly impossible to stand up and pedal.
When riding off road, the little adjustments you make all the time to avoid rocks or roots, to step down drops, or to climb up a hill–taken together, these mean that you spend very little consecutive time with your full weight on the saddle. Plus, if you ride like me, you fall off regularly, and that gives you lots of little breaks from the saddle. So this on the road, staying on for (relatively) long periods of time, is new to me.
But I suppose the truth is that, in the end, I’m just too much of a softy. Sorry for the pun. Well, not really.
January 08 2009 11:01 pm | cycling
OH, POOR PETER!! I’m sure your bottom is far sorer than any cyclocrosser – maybe you could wear a Depends when you ride in the park, just for a little extra padding. Good idea, huh?
Lynn
Thank goodness my plea for sympathy elicited the desired result : )
Glad to help.
Peter, thanks for calling bike saddles svelte. Mine’s also pretty pink and white. The saddle on Frank may in fact be an actual diaper. That thing is a marshmallow. In my endeavor to ride gazillions of miles, I’ve been passed by several unicyclists. While going uphill. I could never spend 10 seconds on a unicycle saddle because I couldn’t stay upright for even 2 seconds. You are obviously way tougher than I am, but my motto is ‘Win if you can. Lose if you must. And ALWAYS talk trash.’ So, suck it up and get some callouses already! I’ll try riding with my hands on my hips during this weekend during Sunday’s little 40 mile jaunt.
Why must we mock what we do not understand. “A mile in his shoes”….well try 45 minutes in that saddle. I could not make it, I was fortunate enough to fall off several times during the ride. Depends, so that is your secret. Thanks for the insight.
-Gary
I’ve been moderated.. Good thing I did not use any profanity. By the way here is a link to the ride if you are interested. Not the entire thing as I had a technical glitch.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7412938