So I've been riding the new Kona Sutra, with out-of-the-box equipment (minus the front rack, which I took off until I do The Big Tour) and the cheapest plastic platform pedals imaginable for the last four days. Sat / Sun about 10 miles on the road, and Mon / Tue just a lunch errant run right off campus and back (I work for the University of Alaska Fairbanks), 5 miles give or take.

There will be a lot of tinkering over the next weeks plus more gear buying of course(*). I'll want different pedals (Powergrips? real clipless pedals?) and need to learn so much, such as how to ride correctly with drop bars, including downhill (it's hilly here... ouch!). But what needs urgently addressing is the saddle.

The bike came with a WTB Rocket V Comp. It looks like a placeholder for a Brooks saddle in "honey" colour, which would look awesome. But I don't know I want a Brooks just yet. Meanwhile, i know the WTB Rocket is not going to work. It's all of 12.5 cm or so wide at its widest and to my best guess, the distance between my sit bones, center to center, is something like 11.5-12 cm (guestimated by sitting on stuff, getting up and measuring, or holding a ruler to my behind...). It might be more as I'm wide-hipped and general not fine-boned. Anyhow, I feel like the saddle is uncomfortably stuck between the insides of my sit bones, which I now feel constantly. I also feel like I want to constantly slide further back to have SOMETHING under my sit bones, and then perch at the back rim of the saddle.

Back on my 8-speed city cruiser I had before, I *think* I used a 155mm Specialized Sonoma (?). That was fine, if a bit overly cushioned (and of course more upright than a touring bike).

Mainly I don't know what saddle would be a good point to start. I could ask the LBS. Also, we found an unused WTB Speed 5 (my partner's) in some bike gear crate, which is 15 cm at its widest, though a bit soft (a bit like the Specialized come to think of it). I'll try that for the rest of the week.



(*) ... and I signed up for a bike maintenance class for 6 weeks during the 2011 UAF summer session, which I'm much looking forward to.