3Twelve?

Three Twelve. As in three hundred twelve or 312. Miles, that is. That number is significant to me because it is the number of miles I rode at the first 24 Hours of Booty. I have vivid memories of that initial solo ride, but one part I have not really spoken of was the bike I was on for that ride.

I chose the weekend of November 3-4 for the ride, and my last race of the season was in mid October (Hincapie's Michelin Classic crit). I had an opportunity to sell my race bike right after that race, so I did. Without a bike, I was in a pinch. The thought of riding an unknown bike was not appealing, but I turned to my long time homeboy and best friend, Jeff Corbett, for a rig. Jeff was running the 7UP Pro Cycling Team at the time, and it just so happened that I had Jeff's "Team Sebnup" bike with me after the Michelin Classic. It would be nice to think Jeff called offering his support and graciously offer his bike, but this is Crusty Corbett. Truth is, I basically commandeered his bike. "Don't fuck it up," he said. I didn't.

It was a 58cm frame with 175 cranks. Perfect. I rode the small ring exclusively, using the 39x16 on the uphill portions. I was surprised at how easily I adapted to the bike, even the saddle. Of course, having two pairs of bibs on probably helped with adapting to the saddle, not because I was getting saddles sores, but because it was freezing at night! No mechanicals the whole ride, just pumped up the tires and went. So big props to Jeff for being part of the first 24 Hours of Booty. I'm hoping he's part of many more.

Resistance to change

I would like to think that I am a pretty progressive guy, at least in terms of paying attention to new technology. I may not be a "first mover," but I like reading about the latest stuff and figuring out how I can use it. Of course, I also look at all the new bike stuff and geeking out on the latest components, frame designs, etc. However, there's one area that I have yet to move away from: my saddle. Here's why:

For the past 10+ years I have used the same type of saddle, a Selle Italia Turbomatic 4. This is a big, heavy, low-tech saddle that evolved from the Turbo saddle that Miguel Indurain used back in the early '90's. There was a Turbo II, then a Turbomatic 3, and finally the Turbomatic 4. This is a saddle that probably 1/3 of the european pro peloton used in its heyday. Comfy and ready for riding all day.

I liked the feel and stuck with it under the "comfort is king" mantra. I knew every curve of my saddle, to the point that I could even tell if my rear tire was slightly low on air because of the change in pitch of the saddle caused by the tire going down. Sure, I attempted to stray a couple times with some new fangled saddle, but everything felt like a piece of steel or about as wide as a ruler. Usually both. I didn't need to change, and frankly didn't want to, but Selle Italia discontinued the Turbomatic 4. Not a problem at first, thanks to eBay. I loaded up on six of them and put them on my road bike, tt bike, fixed gear, and mountain bike. Spares were used when a saddle was crashed or went bad (unlike the new carbon saddles, the foam in the old saddles starts to sag and plastic bases bend). I'm now down to my last saddle.

So I decided to try another saddle one more time. But this time, I relied on some new technology. At 24 Hours of Booty this year, the Trek guys had the new Bontrager saddle fitter thingamajig that could measure your sit bones and recommend a new InForm saddle in the appropriate width. Sounded a little gimmicky, but I tried it anyway.

I bought an InForm RXL in the 146mm width per the saddle fitter. The saddle is very minimal with hollow titanium rails and felt pretty damn firm, especially compared to the old faithful Turbomatic 4. I measured it as close as I could with my Turbomatic position and took it out for a spin. And, much to my amazement, it felt not only bearable, but actually as if my sit bones were taking the load like the saddle propaganda advertised. I felt fine on it in one ride with no soreness either. Amazing. It feels strange to not have the sides of the saddle rubbing my inner thighs like the Turbomatic, but that's a good thing. Also lightened up the bike by almost a pound, which I can only really tell when I'm out of the saddle stepping on the gas and the bike is rocking back and forth.

So I'm a happy camper with my new saddle, and a little proud of myself that I could finally let my old saddles go. It was kind of strange to have an $8,000, full-carbon bike with an old school '90's saddle anyway....

How to take 3 kids for a bike ride

Here's how we do it: I have a baby seat that fits on the top tube between the seat and handlebar, which is really nice because the kid can see and you can communicate better. I've never crashed with a kid in the seat, but I suppose if you did your arms would protect the kid better than a rear-mounted baby seat. A "free loader" tag-along type bike (no front wheel) is connected at the seat post, so you have a little stoker back there. Then one on a separate bike. The cruiser bike I use is a Trek Clyde with internal 4-speed hub. It was one of the first generation cruiser bikes that are fairly common now, it looks cool and has old school lines. Pretty decent workout with two kids attached to the bike, and we do about an hour riding around the neighborhoods. A couple times we have also attached a Burley trailer to the bike of the free loader and filled it with bikes, toys, etc, and rode to a destination. Now THAT is a sight!

Suburban dad?

Today marks the first fall soccer game for any of my kids. Ironically, my daughter is starting first. My mind goes back to my first soccer team when I was 4, the Cobras. We were purple and white, with fully flammable polyester jerseys. I played left wing then since I was one of the few lefties, didn't switch to goalkeeper until late elementary or junior high. Even though I sort of burned out after playing through college, the old juices are starting to come back seeing my daughter get ready. I will probably find myself coaching at some point, and that's cool by me. Will this be the start of the classic suburban weekend pattern of sports games? Probably. Bring it on.

I am old school, I guess...

At the urging of my friend Jeff Holt, off I go into blogging. Who knows how relevant my post are to your life, but I'm interested to see how things go. First thought:

When Lance announced he was coming back for the Tour, my initial reaction was "Crap, he won't be coming to 24 Hours of Booty!" Then, almost reflexively, I thought "Crap, I have to go to France!" I'm hoping to make that happen, but depends if my wife can go with or if it's some sort of weekend sortie with my dad.

Seems like Lance can go nowhere but down, I mean the guy left at the top of the sport. But think of the result if he wins. He would blast into the statosphere and be a bigger icon than he is.

He has a lot riding on it in a sense, but at the same time doesn't. With the cancer community following the 7-Star General of the LiveSTRONG Army, and with the sporting world watching as well, he cannot have anything go wrong or some sort of scandal break out. If he doesn't win, it's not the end of the world, but his star may lose some shine as a "declining athlete coming back and finding he can't compete." My sense is that he has vetted the race and the riders in contention and thinks he can school them, so I say rock on.