Week 40 - Day Four: Saddle Sore

BIKE: Eastwood
TIME THERE: 22 min.
TIME BACK: n/a
WEATHER: clear, 14C, 4 km/hr tailwinds there;
WHAT I WORE: yoga pants, t-shirt, zip-up hoodie
NOTES:

Eastwood, you need to behave yourself!

It's been almost two weeks that I've been riding Eastwood now because Mike is out of commission with a broken spoke that I have yet to replace. So far, I've been finding the ride remarkably comfortable (thank you, wide thick-treaded tires and shock absorbers!), and I've been surprised at how comparable the ease and speed of riding has been between my heavy mountain bike and my light, agile hybrid. It's made me wonder if I should just stick with the mountain bike permanently, especially because the shock absorbers and wide tires would likely make for a more comfortable, safer winter ride.

But there's a downside. I'm not sure why, but there's something about Eastwood that's giving me a saddle sore. Right where my left leg meets my crotch (nice placement, Eastwood), I have developed what is either a cut or a friction burn or something that freakin' hurts. Today, for the sake of experimentation, I wore a different kind of underwear to see if it might be the underwear band that's causing the problem, but so far I've found that not to be the case. It's something to do with how I sit on Eastwood's saddle, and how my riding position on this bike never stays where it should so I end up sliding too far forward on the seat. I've tried adjusting the seat so it tilts back a little bit, but then I just feel like I'm being slightly violated by the seat without it actually causing any difference in my sliding-forward tendency.

All I know is that this ain't working. I need to do something to fix it, but I have no idea what the problem might be. And I'm off to Calgary for the weekend starting tomorrow right after work, so I don't think I'm going to have the time to troubleshoot it in the next few days. And that really sucks, because this sore is making my daily rides very uncomfortable. Maybe I should try replacing Eastwood's saddle with Mike's, since Mike's saddle has never given me any problems in nine months of consistent riding. I hope that might help, because that would be a pretty easy solution.

Oh, Eastwood, you should know better than to mess with a woman's lady-bits . . .