- So, here's what you need to be careful with
when you are changing saddles.
By bringing the height of the saddle down, it ended up...
Getting chased by mooses and whales and bears all the time.
Hey, guys.
Morning, Trainiacs.
Me and the dogs are about to go on a bike ride inside
on the trainer with Zwift and it's about time
that I start trying out these Cobb saddles.
So, right now, I'm gonna show you how
to change out a saddle and make sure
that you got the measurements dialed in
and basically, you're set up in a way
that gets you to a starting point that you're not gonna have
major saddle sore problems, ie, sore bum problems.
It's gonna get you in the ball park of comfort.
So, here's what you need to be careful with
when you are changing saddles.
Take a look at this Physique saddle
that comes stock with the bike.
Compare it to this Cobb saddle,
there are a few major differences.
Number one, the width of this is a little bit different.
I think this one is a little bit wider.
Number two, the rails are set up a little bit longer
and we'll talk about why that is after.
So, it ends up being a higher, wider saddle
and it might even be a little bit longer.
And that said, we've gone through the entire saddle setup,
pressure mapping system at Alter Ego Sports
to make sure that I was dialed in with this,
but I wanna get this basically into that same spot.
Now, that's a little bit trickier
than just saying, "Okay, well I'm gonna loosen up the bolts,
take this off and then swap this on."
Because, as you can see, the structure of it is different.
So, you take two measurements before
taking off the first saddle.
Number one.
I like to use the stem cap, because even if
the handle bar turns a little bit
and you're a little bit off, you're still pressing
into basically the same spot,
because it's just rotating in the same point.
Measure from that to the front nose of the saddle.
Second place that you measure from
is pedal one of the sides down to the bottom
of the pedal stroke and go up,
not to the underside of the saddle,
because that can change with the thickness of the saddle,
but you measure to the top of the front of the saddle.
So, basically, right there, right as it starts leveling off
and then you try to match those up by going forward
and backward and up and down with the seat post.
Let's do that now.
So, what you're gonna have to do is you're gonna have to
go back and forth a little bit.
In my case, I did the reach first
and then I did the height of the saddle next.
By bringing the height of the saddle down,
it ended up skewing the reach, so you gotta kinda keep
everything loose, that's why I've got the torque key here,
make sure you use a torque key, torque wrench
to make sure you're not over-tightening and cranking.
Cranking?
Oh.
Cracking the carbon, and you keep each one
just a little bit loose, making sure that that measurement
is right and then as you get that right,
you're not throwing off the other one.
So, right there I should be bang on.
Now, I can tighten both.
And now, give me one hour and a little bit of Zwift
and I'll tell you how I like this Cobb saddle.
(upbeat music)
You want me to hit go?
- [Man] Yes, please.
- Bye-bye.
- Bye-bye, sir.
- Downside to having a smart trainer,
if we wanna do all this Zwift stuff
and have a Wahoo Kicker connected,
we gotta be at the mercy of everything else in our life,
like internet service.
I just started working up a sweat,
I think I biked 20 minutes, and I might
still have time to finish that work.
Well, 25 minutes of riding, two phone calls
and still, no working internet and Bluetooth later,
I ain't riding, I'm out of time.
If this were in the middle of the season,
Taren would be upset.
Tell ya, in 25 minutes of riding
and 30 minutes of being on the phone
with the internet company later,
I can tell you that the Cobb saddle ain't bad.
Couple of things to note here with the Cobb saddle
versus the stock Physique saddle,
the Cobb saddle sits a fair bit higher than the Physique.
The rails on the Physique saddle here
don't nearly have as much height as the rails
on the Cobb saddle here and what John Cobb says
is that he actually makes these rails higher,
so that they've got a little bit more shock absorption.
Now, also, this isn't the case on these two saddles,
but John Cobb says that, on average,
he tries to make the amount of room
that you can move a saddle back and forth
on these rails a fair bit longer.
He wants athletes to have more play with
how far they can move the saddle to
make it comfortable one way or another.
What he said is that by making these rails higher,
so that they've got more give and longer,
so that they're more easily adjustable.
Then it adds about seven grams to the saddle
but he's like, "You know what, if we're adding seven grams,
but likely making a rider more comfortable."
That's a trade off he'll make all day.
Here, there's a little bit of a channel
in the Physique saddle, but there's an entire
channel cut out in this Cobb saddle.
Apparently, what John Cobb did when he started
making saddles that they still kinda hold true to today
is they'll start with a mold of a saddle
and as rider's ride it and testing happens,
they'll start asking the riders where
pressure points are and where problem areas are
and where those problem areas are,
that's where they'll start shaving down material.
And what they get to, is they get as stiff a saddle
as they possibly can keep while shaving off
as many of they problem areas as they can get away with.
This saddle is a fair bit larger than that,
so this is gonna weigh a little bit more.
The Physique saddle kind of slopes down while
the Cobb saddle ends up kind of tilting up, it's at
a higher angle so as you put on a saddle, you wanna make it
as level as possible or just slightly down.
You don't wanna go down too far,
'cause then you start sliding
and bad things happen to your undercarriage.
So, there you go.
If you need to change your saddles, you can do that.
If you wanna use the same saddle and you've gotta move it,
you can take a sharpie marker, mark the spots on here
and on the seat post, you can mark the post
where that needs to be, but if you're changing saddles
altogether, you wanna get those measurements,
so you can at least get close
to where you know is gonna be alright.
Now, de-grumpify myself, I'm gonna get away from this bike,
just forget it, I'm gonna forget it,
and I'm gonna go see acupuncturist Peggy.
She's gonna stick some things in my heel.
Alright, so I'm gonna blow your mind with something here.
Number one, this is new Triathlon Taren HQ.
I've been not sharing the progress of it with you guys
for awhile because there's a surprise in there
for all of you that I'm waiting to show
until it's completely done, it's pretty cool.
But here, watch this.
(upbeat music)
And 270 meters later, I'm at the acupuncturist.
This is where it gets really good.
Coach Pat's house is less than a mile that way.
The pool is exactly one mile that way.
Where we gather for our Tuesday Thursday morning
road ride group is two and a half K that way.
Triathlon Taren HQ is like 18 feet from my back step.
If I ever move, I gotta move somewhere
that everything is within a couple of
three woods and a nine iron away.
Maybe isn't a frozen tundra though.
Needles in feet, mmmmmmmm.
But I'm a tough guy, so I made it.
I'm also not naked under here, but I'm classy.
This is acupuncturist Peggy. - [Peggy] Hi.
- She takes care of me and sticks me with needles.
- I do (laughs). - And laughs.
Okay, thank you, Peggy. - Bye, Taren.
Have a good day. - You, too.
She is officially the cutest.
She's the nicest.
She brought Kim and I Christmas presents last year.
She got me this Canadian Triathlon, look at that.
Running, swimming, climbing, it's accurate.
Get chased by mooses and whales and bears all the time,
that's why we're so tough.
That's why we're so cool.
Alright, that is all for today.
Thank you, acupuncturist Peggy, you're the best.