spokewrench
Active Member
- Region
- USA
I believe Raleigh seats were called saddles. The concept seems right. Sitting on an animal's back is different from most seating. It's moving, you have nothing fixed to hold, and you're trying to maintain control. The Chinese developed paired stirrups in the 4th Century AD. Stirrups have been called as big an advance as the wheel and the printing press. On a bicycle, pedals can be like stirrups, working together with the saddle.You're not "sitting" on the bike. You are pedalling it with your feet on the pedals and your hands on the handlebar grips. You do not sit in the chair for hours without changing your position either.
I suffered numb hands when I used to ride upright. Not anymore.
The name "bike seat" is the most misleading. It is a "saddle" not a seat.
I'd forgotten what I knew about bicycles when I bought a Radrunner. The first thing I noticed about the Schwinn-style upright seating was dangerous instability. I had trouble making a u-turn on a street 5.5 meters wide. When I took one hand off the bar to signal, control with the other hand required such force that I got tennis elbow. I bought a cushy sprung saddle and a suspension post, and it still rode very rough.
I moved the saddle back about 25 cm with a layback post so that my center of mass could be about halfway between saddle and handlebars for stability. Now I could make a u-turn on a driveway 3 meters wide. I'd forgotten that this also improved the geometry between saddle and "stirrups." The pedals braced my weight so that one-hand control was easy. Bumps were no longer a problem except for my hands because I was like an equestrian with most of his weight on the stirrups. Moving the saddle back increased the distance from a pedal at top dead center. I didn't have to bend my knees as sharply, and that meant a better power stroke.
There was too much weight on my hands until I figured out that I needed to get a riser to raise the bars.
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