Just the other day, Bosrug rider and blog follower, Doug wrote and told me about discovering that the seat frame on his ATP, Vision R40 was broken.
How long this had been so was not part of the email or him noticing while riding, but because of a "Winter Mod" he had done, noticed it.
In most cases, when a seat breaks, you go to the bike shop and buy a new one. End of story. Well not quite.
Because over the past 10 years of, "Oh my God!, If I ride a bike with a skinny seat, I may never have kids!" OK, That's cool, but the biggest problem is , what seat to buy.
We at the bike shop have at least 50 different seats to choose from. One actually looks like a boot jack, so at all costs, men should wear some kind of covering while riding this seat, Shorts come to mind.
A "safe" seat can run you as much as $300.00!
Then there is Brooks Saddles. People love Brooks, Go on their website and see!
http://www.brooksengland.com/curiosities-and-friends/stories-and-photos/more-stories/091208_153927_86/
Sorry Doug, no seat for you. Why? Well, can you say "Standardization?" Sure you can!
In the lack of our favorite style of heads up bicycle riding, because designers are from aeronautics and not bicycles or light bulbs, all recumbent seats are different.
We laugh as to exactly how you ride a recumbent home if your seat gets stolen, but when it breaks, its a whole other story.
A whole other story to follow.
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If you're a recumbent rider, you eventually have to commit to *some* level of ingenuity and technical savvy to overcome obstacles like broken seat frames. I.e., your bike manufacturer is out of business and you can't just buy a replacement part at the local bike store (or even online).
ReplyDeleteYou have to be able to either fix it yourself *or* be willing/able to work a network or resources to find someone who *can*. In my case, I've leveraged my friends for pointers to decent TiG welders in my area who I'm pretty sure can *repair* my seat frame. So, hopefully my favorite bike will be back on the road in the next week or two.
Until then, I'll be riding my Trek (upright bike) to work and wearing the ridiculous bike pants with the big "diaper bulge" padding in the crotch...
/doug