On 8/16/05, Daniel J. Mitchell <danmitchell@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> [off-off-topic -- or you could just go for one gear.. I commute most
> days on my fixed-gear and love it, but it depends on how many hills
> you have to deal with]
Yes, the bike I had in Laos was a 1 speed bike with belt drive, not
chain. The belt was great because I never had any problems with it
coming off or grease/oil getting on my pant legs. I seem to recall
reading somewhere (and not bike related) that a good belt is more
efficient than a chain in terms of transfering power, not sure if that
applies to the one I was using though. I did really enjoy the one
speed experience, it was a nice simple way to ride and I think my
pedaling technique really improved because of it.
However, Vientiane is pretty flat (it's in the Mekong River valley) so
a one speed was no problem. In Halifax though there's some pretty
steep hills to contend with so I think gearing is a necessary evil
here.
> This is a very personal thing. I personally like rock-solid narrow
> saddles, but I know other people who don't. Sometimes bike shops have
> a bin of cheap take-off saddles that came with a new bike and have
> been changed for something else by the customer.
>
> It also depends on how long you'll be riding for at one stretch --
> if you're just going to be doing short half-hour rides or so, then
> you can probably get away with something wide and squishy, but if you
> want to do longer rides then something more solid would work better.
This is true. I should point out that I'm not looking for a squishy
seat. The one I had in Laos was pretty hard and narrow. But, it had
springs underneath the seat to act as suspension when going over
bumps. My understanding is that with a hard seat your weight is
carried by your "sit bones" but with a squishy seat your bones sink in
and your weight is also carried by your soft tissue which isn't good.
With the seat I'm talking about my weight would still be carried by my
bones but I'd have a little bit of suspension in the seat to take out
some of the bumps in the road.
I rode my bike in Laos about 40 mins each day (20mins each way to
work) and then frequently well in excess of an hour on the weekend
with rides usually being at least 30 mins at a time and usually
longer. I did a few 1.5hr to 2hr rides on the bike without taking any
breaks and the seat was still comfortable so I think that's getting
outside of the window for a squishy seat feeling good.
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