Back in the saddle search again (or not)

[ny biker]

Great news, Emily.

I have done two short rides (17ish miles, slow and hilly, about 90 minutes each) with the new Affinity that replaced the old worn out one. And there was chafing on the right side both times. WTH? With the old saddle I would have minor chafing on the right on long rides, which I was able to manage with chamois cream and the right shorts. But I never had a problem on short rides before. So I was starting to wonder if I needed to check out the Specialized Riva sooner rather than later.

Also on the first test ride I could tell that the nose was tilted up a bit. So I adjusted that before the second ride. I also thought that maybe the nose was skewed left yet again, since that seems to always happen when a new saddle is put on my bike. So I nudged the nose to the right a tiny bit. During the second ride I could tell that leveling the saddle had made things better. But there was still chafing and I also felt like I was sitting too far back. Hmmm.

After I returned home I dug the old saddle out of the closet. While it was still on the bike, I had put blue painter's tape on the rails just behind the clamp, to have a record of the fore/aft position. I put the old saddle on top of the new one and aha! the new one is definitely too far forward. I think the guy on the LBS who had put the new saddle on the bike had misunderstood what the position of the blue tape was indicating, and I foolishly did not pay enough attention to note the problem sooner.

So I will move the new saddle back and try it again. Hopefully this will resolve the chafing issue on the short rides. In fact I might position it tiny bit farther back than the old one was to see if I can reduce the chafing on longer rides, too.

This is so typical of me -- switching out an old saddle with a new one that is exactly the same should be the kind of thing that you get right on the first try. I really should have paid more attention.