Rosie has shipped!

[Thorn]

Be still my beating heart.....apparently the Terry Rosie saddle is now really available! It shipped! I got the notice in email (oh, I hope it isn't a joke). To those who have been [im]patiently waiting for the back order message to disappear, it has.

Gee, I ordered it in spring. I sure hope it was worth the wait.

[Running Mommy]

ahhh the rosie saddle... We have it in our test program here at the shop. There is much lore to that saddle here in the shop.
The boys made fun of the girl on the back of the saddle...
Look at it with a naughty boy slant and you'll get it....
Oh BOYS!!!!

[Triskeliongirl]

Can someone who has this saddle tell me how long the rails are, relative to the transition between the wide part and nose? For example the rails on the terry butterfly are long relative to the brooks finesse, but then I prefer the width of the finesse. If this saddle has long rails like the butterfly with the width of the finesse it would be terrific.

[Thorn]

TG: I'm not sure what you mean....do the following images help?

RM: Yeah, if I like the saddle, I envision covering up the logo. Sometimes you have to wonder what doesn't go through the marketing person when they design things.....

[Running Mommy]

thorn, what are you thinking about this? Have you "mounted" Rosie yet??
Oy... Now I sound like the boys...lol

I did just have a lady order one from me. She's got the tester on her bike right now.
But she did make a good point. She lamented that the 'ride like a girl' slogan was a bit patronizing.

[Thorn]

OK...for those interested, the preliminary report is...."OK". Not perfect, but "OK".

I currently ride a SMP Lady Strike. It has a wonderfully wide cutout, but is just a tad bit too narrow for me across the back.

Enter Rosie. Rosie is about the same width in the back as the SMP LS, but she's got a flatter top thus she provides a wider sitting platform than the SMP. That's good--the sit bones are sitting firmly on the saddle. Rosie has a slightly thinner nose and is a teensy bit less pear shaped than the SMP. That's also good as the chafing I get from the SMP is at the panty line. Rosie is also a tad bit less squishy than the SMP. Again, a good thing if you ride long distances. But, Rosie is not a firm saddle.

But....the SMP really spoils you with the cutout. Rosie is a flat-top Terry saddle with just a small cutout. The Terry cutout really just provides an escape route for the saddle padding, not really an escape route for your...uh..parts. I did do some riding in the full drops on the Rosie. I could ride in the drops and she was "OK"--there was pressure, but it wasn't overwhelming like, for me, riding a Brooks without a cutout.

However, riding an SMP spoils you. If I hadn't spent the last year on a saddle that removes all pressure on the girly bits, I'd probably be jumping up and down and cheering Rosie on. It is wide enough, there is some soft tissue releif and it isn't super squishy, but the SMP taught me that a saddle could be more in the soft tissue relief department. So, at this point Rosie is just "OK".

Oh, and yes, having a saddle have a person's name like Rosie is a bit odd. Yes, my bikes have names, but they have personalities. Do saddles have personalities independent of your bike? But, after a while you just start calling it by name and ignore those 13-year style comments that result. And, as for the pink "Ride Like a Girl"--if you're not a pink person (and, trust me, I'm not), I guess you try justify it....uh...."yeah, riding my bike makes me feel like a kid again"?

[Triskeliongirl]

Thanks for the pic. Unfortunatly it reveals that it does not have long rails, I was hoping they would go further forward toward the nose (to permit pushing it back further for those of us with long femurs). I don't like that Georgena doesn't get that some of us with an interest in high performance cycling also have wide sit-bones and long femurs.

Why can't we get a light high performance saddle with long light rails that is wide enough in the back to support real women with wide sit bones?????? Is my body type really that odd?????????????????

I ride a brooks finesse with a very laid back seat post and a bike with a slack seat tube angle, which is the best compromise I have found. But if only someone would make my dream saddle............

[emily_in_nc]

I ride a brooks finesse with a very laid back seat post and a bike with a slack seat tube angle, which is the best compromise I have found. But if only someone would make my dream saddle............

But...I thought you loved your Brooks??

[Triskeliongirl]

But...I thought you loved your Brooks??

OH I DO but it limits me in terms of what bikes I can ride. With the short rails I have to ride a bike with a STA of 73 or slacker. If I had a saddle with longer rails, I could have bought your lovely bike!

[motochick]

OH I DO but it limits me in terms of what bikes I can ride. With the short rails I have to ride a bike with a STA of 73 or slacker. If I had a saddle with longer rails, I could have bought your lovely bike!

Sounds like you should look into the selle an-tomica. It has freakishly long rails and is the most comfortable saddle I have ever used.

Brenda

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Unfortunatly it reveals that it does not have long rails, I was hoping they would go further forward toward the nose (to permit pushing it back further for those of us with long femurs). I don't like that Georgena doesn't get that some of us with an interest in high performance cycling also have wide sit-bones and long femurs.
Why can't we get a light high performance saddle with long light rails that is wide enough in the back to support real women with wide sit bones?????? Is my body type really that odd?????????????????
I ride a brooks finesse with a very laid back seat post and a bike with a slack seat tube angle, which is the best compromise I have found. But if only someone would make my dream saddle............

I hear you and then some. If you can ride a Brooks Finesse then you have way narrower sit bones than I do! So where does that leave ME? I have long femurs and the only saddle wide enough for my sit bones is the Brooks B68 at 210mm wide. Thank God it is dreamily comfy for me. Why don't saddle makers accomodate women with wide sit bones??? I have lots of girlfriends with cute little boy-hips....but come ON, there are the rest of us too!

I could never get even my comfy B68 far enough back on my Rivendell to feel my center of gravity properly balanced. That was the biggest goal when I got my custom Luna made for me- to get my weight back and balanced. So now on my new bike I FINALLY feel like my B68 can be set back far enough for me to feel beautifully balanced on my bike. It's a total joy and relief.

[Triskeliongirl]

Sounds like you should look into the selle an-tomica. It has freakishly long rails and is the most comfortable saddle I have ever used.

Brenda

Thanks for the suggestion, but they are not wide enough for me. According to their website their widest models are 145-155mm, and my finesse is 170. My finesse is perfect in all other ways, I just wish it had longer rails. But at these point I have bought bikes that work with that saddle so I am OK (and fortunatly I bought mine before the price skyrocketed), but I do think there is an untapped market there, and I would have thought that Gerogena of all people would have tapped into it by now.

[Thorn]

. . . but I do think there is an untapped market there, and I would have thought that Gerogena of all people would have tapped into it by now.

Exactly. My guess is that even if a manufacturer understands the need, there is so much saddle mis-information in the wild that the saddles wouldn't get the sales they could. So you have a small market, but more than 1/2 the market doesn't understand that they are in that market.

You'd think, though, that in the age of the internet sales channel, that a custom saddle manufacturer (as in, a person working out of their garage) could make a decent business. If only I had the skills....

[motochick]

[QUOTE=Triskeliongirl;355161]Thanks for the suggestion, but they are not wide enough for me. According to their website their widest models are 145-155mm, and my finesse is 170.

I am not sure how they measure, but I just measured mine from edge to edge at the widest point in the back. 190.5mm Of course, that is not all useable. The useable area would be 150mm. I wonder if your finesse is 170 of useable area or edge to edge? Something to think about.

Brenda

[Triskeliongirl]

Well that is interesting. To be clear, which model do you have? Does the cut out bother you? I heard the edges of the cut out bother some people.