SEA TO SHINING SEA: Avoiding a sore butt

Friends ask me if I'm concerned about getting a sore butt from riding a bicycle across the United States.  They envision some kind of really comfortable seat - cushy for the tushy, you know what I mean?

When I tell them the seat I'll be on amounts to a stretched piece of leather about 1/8 inch thick with no cushioning at all, that about does it.

"You guys are crazy."

Now, Becky will be riding on a Terry seat with some cushioning.  Not a lot, but some.

Mine is a Brooks seat made in England.  The design goes back to the late 1800s when bicycles were a major mode of transportation.  What the Brooks people figured out is that the less contact your butt has with your seat, the better.  There are two bones in your pelvis, one on each side in back, that bicycle people call your sit bones. The idea is to have those sit bones in contact with the seat and not much else.  With the leather seat, your own personal butt breaks in the leather at the point where your sit bones make contact so the seat fits you.  The more you ride, the more the seat conforms to your structure and the more comfortable it is.

So far so good. The Brooks seat I have also has a cut out piece in the center to make sure certain nerves and other sensitive parts don't get damaging pressure resulting in numbness and other stuff that can cause a man to get downright concerned. They figured that out back in the 1800s too.  Apparently the male anatomy hasn't changed much since then.

So that's it.  I'll let you know how the seat is working out.  I have about 500 miles on it so far and it's been fine.

Last night I mounted a compass on the capstan just behind the handle bars.  I like to know what direction I'm going.

Foggy and rainy today but it's supposed to be a nice weekend.

Get outside and get active.  It will make you happy.