New Mercury Build

[Slammin Sammy]

Hi Steve,

At the risk of being branded a Brooks heretic in this forum (in my defence, Brooks occupies pride of place on five of our family's seven bikes), can I respectfully suggest you take a look at the range of excellent products from (Brooks parent company) Selle Royal. Many of these saddles have deep but firm cushioning with a perineal cutout to protect the sensitive bits. While cushioning is only one factor in saddle comfort, it sounds in your case what may precisely be needed.

While I personally have never ridden one, my buddy in the LBS is a fervent acolyte, and he has managed to convince my wife to try one on her next visit.

Methinks this change, together with a careful examination of your riding position and posture, may even obviate the need for a Thudbuster or other engineered solutions.

http://www.selleroyal.com/en/comfort

[rualexander]

Regarding your Ixon IQ light failure, get in touch with B&M and tell them it's stopped working, they are very good with sending out a new light even if the faulty one is out of warranty period.
They replaced mine no problem, and I've heard of a couple of others being replaced too.

[jags]

I messaged Mark Beaumont  on facebook last week i asked him what saddle he used on his reckord breaking world tour  he said he uses the Sella SMP Pro.
obviously is a top rated saddle if he uses it.

anto.

[markbUK]

Gosh Steve I thought I had issues sorting out saddles, funny you found the C17 different, I didn't use it with a thudbuster so may be that was the diffence, I used the thudbuster ST with a rido 2 which was OK, with the RIDO I always found I was fidgeting around to get in the right position, with the ST I always thought it wasn't moving! But you could tell it was if you held the seat post mechanism whilst going along, choosing the correct elastema seemed critical ... It would be great to see the completed bike, your frame colour was the one was going for until the black frame came up on eBay

Mark

[jags]

Steve have you that bike finished yet 
i can't take it any more its driving me nuts waiting for the final few photos.


anto.

[uksteve58]

Slammim'.....Thanks for the suggestion. Yes they look interesting. But I should say this isn't a new problem for me...it's a problem I first encountered 30yrs ago, but I've only been cycling on a regular basis for last 10yrs....I've never solved it and of course in that time I've tried quite a few saddles on many bikes with different riding positions. I'm not saying position isn't a factor...it's probably several factors that are playing their own part in my discomfort and discovering what they are and to what degree each is having an impact..will probably remain undiscovered. As I've said I've never had any soreness in the perineum, it's almost totally in my sit bones and same as you suggest I've always felt that some padding in that area would go some way to alleviate the problem....but I've tried gel saddles and gel saddle covers before...none helped....but open to try again.
SR seem to have a large range of models...I think I'm probably in their 60 degree bracket...I'll definitely give them a thorough look at. But for the moment the Thudbuster, 40mm tyres and B17 have made it possible for me to do a reasonable distance on consecutive days which truly is a massive change for me, so for the next few weeks I'll experiment further with this setup but having said that I'm fairly certain the TB and big tyres are here to stay, there's no point in me finding a partial solution and then immediately looking for alternatives. When the new bike is totally finished I can then look at further improvements. If I can find a shop with a high-tech bottom/saddle analysis tool I might very well give it a try. Decent saddles are too expensive to keep on buying and trying. Anyway which SR saddle(s) have you/family/friends good experience of?

[uksteve58]

Thanks Dan...yes it's such a massive improvement...I think the TB and big tyres are equally responsible for the change. I put the softest elastomer in yesterday...not sure if there's a discernible difference..I'll give it a few more days.

[uksteve58]

Rualexander, thanks for the tip on returning the IQ light, I'll definitely do that soon. It's only 2-3 yrs old, not seen too much use. They can only say no!!. I notice from elsewhere on this forum that they improved the design by making the lead to the switch permanently attached rather than a detachable one, so presumably they had other users with water ingress problems.

[uksteve58]

Anto....feckin' pictures!!!  ...I did say twice already that I would post some pics when it's finished...but here's 2 bad pics in fading light. Only front mudguard fitted, temp pedals, dodgy dynamo wiring, un-cut steerer.
I'm going to put the rear dynamo light wiring under the rear mudguard so it's not cable-tied to the rear rack. I also have a "the plug" to fit and thinking about a 2nd light..I do cycle at night a lot in pitch black lanes...but don't want multiple pairs of wires running down the fork leg so am thinking if there's anyway of having a 6v distribution block on the accessory bar, but this is dependant on finding suitable parts....and time...am busy at the moment racking some miles up.

[uksteve58]

Mark...yes I was exactly the same on the Rido...always fidgeting around, it was better than the C17 but couldn't say it was anything like comfortable. Yes I'll definitely post some decent pics when bike is finished. If the PDW mudguards don't work out..(the stays are pretty useless...and there's maybe not enough clearance for hiding wiring underneath) then I'll put some bigger SKS ones on I've got here. Also...have you had any probs with chain becoming slack too quickly after adjusting EBB, I torqued it up ok..but the chain has developed too much slack after a 100 miles or so...that can't be right. it's a new chain BTW.

[jags]

Looking good Steve thanks for the pic's.

anto

[markbUK]

I remember having a similar problem, when I first built the bike, but put it down to not tightening the ebb enough, the Thorn instructions made me a bit nervous of over tightening, now I work my way round the bolts and then set them at 5nm seems OK ... I also think a new Thorn chain ring needs a few miles to quieten down not sure if that also contributes to the problem ...

[uksteve58]

Yes I think you're right Mark, I went by the advice from AB and did not torque up to the max of 5nm. I'll just nip it up a bit tighter and see how it goes.

[uksteve58]

I have 28mm (29mm measured!) on one bike and 32mm on my Club Tour Grand Bois tyres similar to the Compass tyres. Very comfortable, supple and fast. However not cheap and I wouldn't use them commuting. They have transformed my riding as they are just so comfortable.

Steve

Sorry for late reply Steve...missed your message.
Yes I saw those tyres were highly recommended but I couldn't find anyone in Uk with any stock...got 40mm supremes now though, and very happy with them.

[John Saxby]

I ordered some 40mm Marathon Supremes

Steve, sorry I missed a couple of your earlier posts.  A few observations from my experience with Supremes:

1)  I use 26 x 1.6 Supremes on my Raven. The nominal width of 1.6" (40.64 mm) is 39mm actual, inflated, so I take it from your comments on the wider tires and the TB, that you 700 x 40's fit and are comfortable.  Good news!

     I've had no puncture problems with my 1.6 Supremes (only 2 seasons' experience with them so far, however) and they offer good speed (within my limits and those of the bike), good grip and comfort, though I expect the 26 x 2.0 are even better in that respect.  I have had some problems with sidewall cuts. One was serious, the second less so.  Both were repairable, one with an emergency bodge.  I wrote about that on the crazyguy thread on 26 x 1.6 Supremes, if you're interested: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/reviews/board/message/?o=tS&thread_id=350687&page=1&nested=0&v=32

2)  Comments on the Thorn Forum of 700c Supremes have generally been positive, as I recall.

3)  Not enough experience with my 700 x 35 Racers to get any punctures.  I have read very positive reviews of Racers of different sizes from users here and on crazyguy.

Good luck in any case,  John