Saddle woes and slightly cold toes...

Favourite pic of the day. John is afraid of all things scary, you know like ghosts and ghouls. here he looks like he is crossing himself lol 
   

Lol @ John

A week or so ago I decided to order some rather swish bars and a new saddle for my beloved Sandman Fat Bike. I was getting bored with the white bits of kit I had put on my bike sometime ago. I chose a lovely pair of Race Face Next Carbon bars bars and a nice looking SDG Duster saddle both in black. The new bars have a lower rise and are not quite as wide as my previous Race Face Responder bars, however I really like them and think I can adapt to the new riding position. The saddle however, omg! it has broken my bot. Now I am not talking about just saddle sore here, nope I am talking serious bruising after only one 10.5 mile ride on Wednesday  afternoon. I have not been back on my bike since and was absolutely dreading perching my ass on my new saddle today.  I forgot my phone today, so no Strava, but I do know both John and I did not venture all that far and I was in agony from setting away from my house, until I got back home. In fact I am still sore now. Of course it doesn't help having to wear a prosthetic limb as the very area I think I have bruised, well I am sitting on it, so no relief unless I chill with my leg off for a while.

Wednesday's adventure out I found incredibly difficult. I think it was a mixture of being off my bike for a bit due to this dam cold that has been lingering on me for over a fortnight, oh and my choice of routes for poor John and myself. Marshy ground, full of deep and claggy mud, plus over grown dead grass and lets not forget the rather spiteful thorn tree thingies we encountered. Oh and did I happen to say that quite a bit of this was unrideable and up hill. So really Wednesdays outing was as much a push and a walk as a nice ride lol. 

Got a few photo's here...

John Wtf! You doing

Anyhoo even though I have suffered on this mornings venture out I have to say I had a thoroughly enjoyable look out with my friend John. It was cold and even started snowing at one point, but we shared a few good laughs and some canny banter. We met a really nice chap whilst out on one of the trails coming off from Chapman's Wells and so shared a really pleasant conversation with him, discovering he was a local lad called Simon and his dog which looked like a pointer to me was called Caesar and enjoyed chewing pine cones as he was bored waiting for his master to get moving and stop his idle chit chat.

Over at the Pond, which was partly frozen

 
















         John should know better last time he was fell in the pond

 Shortly after chatting with Simon as John and I headed through the woods I got my eye on something near the small stream, so took my eyes off the trail and proceeded to get knocked off my bike by a fallen pine tree. Trees for some reason always have it in for me. This particular tree had fallen with it's top half pointing up the trail so when I got to it it was if I had been jousted off my bike lol Never mind no injuries and I know John had a good laugh at my expense.

Aye it's no good being in Deep Water

  Like I say we didn't go far, however I did enjoy playing coming down the various trails today, just a kid at heart I guess, so on one particular decent it was fun to hit this little dip and jump out of it...I had a few goes Wheeeeee! I also practised with my balance. I am useless at track stands, oh and had a bit of a lean off the back of my bike coming down a steep bank. Finally as we approached the park I rode down the steps and onto the tarmac court. The light snow fall had lain. It was at this point we decided we would head home, as well I just couldn't take the discomfort of the saddle, plus my 5 little piggies were cold so I wanted to go 'wheeee wheeee wheeee all the way home' of course I didn't as that would be just plain silly. I mean I did go home but not 'wheee, wheeee, wheeeeing'.
 

John modelling the latest in Fashion wear from Arctic ONE

Here I am playing in the Park... at one End

 And then at the other...

Down the steps

It's only me

As we rode towards South Moor park gates John said 'Aww crap I have got a puncture' so I suggested we head over to the nearby 'Piney's', it's like a small pine forest. I knew it would give us a bit  of shelter and we could sort John's flat. Puncture repair wise it didn't go to well. I had 2 tubes of glue, one was hard and useless having dried up, the other, well it must have been to cold or something as the glue was thick and lumpy. Anyhoo we tried our best and John's tyre stayed up at least until I left him not to far from his house.

I though John may have had sweeties

John having a pump, obviously

What No Glue?

This afternoon I have visited 2 bike shops with the aim of trying to get my sit bones measured. No success I'm afraid. I did toy with the idea of getting a ruler out and trying to measure my ass, but somehow I got to thinking that possibly would not work. So what have I done you may ask. Well in fairness I have never had a saddle that I have ever been completely comfortable on, but the Charge Spoon I was using was probably the best. So I checked out the specs and saw that it was a 143mm wide saddle. I have therefore ordered a new WTB saddle which is around about the same size and when I get it will pop it on and give you my verdict.

In the meantime if there are any nice ladies who would like to rub my bottom better, just drop me a line...