Riding in Frozen Slickness

I met up with Bill this weekend. Saturday we rode up Ireland and then connected via Crank to Betty. The trail was in about 3 inches of crusted snow. It was tough to ride up Ireland. Crank required pedaling downhill.

Once we dropped down Betty to the road it seemed easy sailing, but the road was coated with slick-as-glass ice. Bill went down and I almost did, but seeing Bill down led me to stop in time. Thanks Bill.

That was very treacherous, I had never seen the road that bad.

In hindsight, maybe rollercoaster up and then up the altar would have been good. Or perhaps down to the racetrack then up Betty.

Winter riding is always unpredictable.

Bursitis from new saddle.

For years I have used a regular saddle on my mountain bike, but I have heard of problems with some special artery being affected negatively by many hours in the saddle.

One guy that I ride with had prostate surgery and he rode with a strange saddle that worked wonders for him.

It was the Adamo saddle. I thought it looked weird. Rather than a nose like most saddles, it forked the nose into two sides. It reminded me of the mandibles of a spider.

Pretty soon there were four guys that bought the same saddle and they really liked the saddle.

So, always wanting to be in on the latest good thing, I bought one.

At first the saddle was uncomfortable, putting more pressure on the sit bones than usual, but probably relieving stress on the middle part of my crotch, which is what I wanted to avoid.

After several months, I still experienced discomfort riding on that seat, but I learned to ignore it and cycled on.

Now after 4 months and close to a hundred hours on the saddle I can say the seat is even less comfortable than the first time I used it on a ride. But the discomfort is not the worst part of this story.

I have developed bursitis in my right hip. It doesn't manifest itself very much while riding, it mostly is painful running or walking.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe it is just a coincidence, but I searched for some other theories and I found a doctor who has had experience with Adamo type seats:

In the past year I have treated 27 cases of proximal hamstring tendinopathy or ischial bursitis. 19 of those patients had been using saddles similar to the Adamo design—a noseless seat.

Here is the link to his full article

So, I am planning on switching out my spider mandible seat for my regular more comfortable seat.

Hopefully that will cure my new found bursitis.