Specialized Romin goes to Kentucky

I’ve now done about 200 miles on my Specialized Romin saddle and so far the smile hasn’t worn off my face.  Upon first look I never thought I could be comfortable on this kind of saddle.  I’ve always felt cutouts were a gimmick and tiny saddles that look like hammocks were unrideable.  The Romin has proved me wrong.

I’ll start by saying that when I progressed to riding my road bike more often this year I was finding the going rough.  My San Marco Regal seemed to have changed from last year, or maybe I changed, but it just seemed like it was rubbing the wrong way, literally.  So I when I began to research saddles the Romin kept coming up, I ignored the impulse but eventually gave in and bought one, despite the fact that it looked nothing like a comfortable saddle.

The first ride told me what I needed to know, it felt as if the uncomfortable parts of the Regal had been chopped off.  There is a great article explaining the design evolution of the saddle if you want more details, but essentially they minimize the nose and run a cutout the complete length of the saddle to take pressure away.  The rear of the saddle is kicked up to help put your pelvic bone on the right angle.  The saddle is just as comfortable if you’re sitting up on the tops or low in the drops, it feels right.

I have yet to make a single adjustment from when I first mounted the saddle, I tried to get the overall saddle level and put it all the way forward on the rails, which creates a 1cm farther reach then my old saddle.

Not my photograph but it shows where I had a flat this morning.

Today I did a 60 mile ride with my pal Luke, who normally throws down a hammerfest but he took pity on me today and we just did a social paced ride of 60 miles.  The highlight of the ride was crossing the Ohio river into Kentucky at the Shawneetown bridge.  I don’t think I’ve crossed this bridge before, so I was completely surprised when the expansion teeth appeared in the roadway.  I attempted to bunny hop the gaping holes in the metal plate and got my front wheel clean over, but my back got hung and caused a pinch flat.  First flat on a bridge, and the second time I’ve crossed the Ohio river on my bike.  For some crazy reason I forgot to bring a camera.

So some history,  Old Shawneetown is one of only 2 cities charted by the US Government, the other being Washington DC.  During expansion to the Northwest Territories it was an early administration center of the federal government and home of Illinois’ first bank.  Perhaps the most famous local story is how the founders of Chicago looking to sell bonds to fund the building of their city were turned down by Shawneetown because no city could thrive that far from a navagatable river.  Now Old Shawneetown is home to 193 people and gets flooded out every year.

One week away from the 3 State 3 Mountain challenge and I feel more or less up to it.  Wanted to do a century today, but after a 50 hard miles in the wind yesterday an easy 60 seemed plenty.  Going to do a few more hard paced rides this week and try to taper off.