First of all, I just logged in, what the heck happened to our nice little forum??? shrinking nuts and hemmorhoids??? I guess my question is not that far off but geez.
OK, I have seen these QR gel seat covers that claim to be used by 79% of the Ironman Kona participants. Does anyone use these things and do they work???
I have a 1/2 coming up and am again in the quandary around what to do on the bike. I have tried it all. I have done races all in tri shorts which makes for a pretty uncomfortable bike ride. Three hours or so with that tiny thin chamois. I have put regular cycling shorts over my trishorts, that’s a bit much. I have also thrown a towel around my waist and changed into bike shorts for the bike, then running shorts for the run. That plays hell with the transition times.
My plan is to suck it up and suffer with the tri shorts but curious about whether $22 for one of those seat covers does anything worth while or not? What do other people do?
thanks for getting serious for a minute for me. I checked one out at a bike shop today and found it really hard to get on the saddles they had there. Basically, I couldn’t get the nose of the saddle in the cover. At the risk of this thread turning south with the rest of the forum right now, do you lubricate or do something to make it easier to get on? Do you just pull harder?
I use my QR neoprene cover all the time. It increases my comfort. It can be tough to get the cover on your saddle. As you insinuated, you have to sort of roll it on like…
"I couldn’t get the nose of the saddle in the cover. At the risk of this thread turning south with the rest of the forum right now, do you lubricate or do something to make it easier to get on? Do you just pull harder? "
Turn it inside out and rollit on like a condom. Seriously,it works.
Turn it inside and and start rolling back from the sadlle nose like a …well…a condom. There I said it. Sorry for the turning the thread south but that’s the best way to explain it.
I’ve used one for over a year now and thought I’d try a ride without it on. That’s the last time. It really does make a difference.
**I’ve used one for over a year now and thought I’d try a ride without it on. That’s the last time. It really does make a difference. **
Did the same thing a few weeks ago—took the cover off after riding with it for the last 8 years or so, thinking that by now my ass* is tough enough to handle it. My ass* objected royally.
I won’t leave home without my QR saddle cover ever again.
*figured I would keep with the tone of the day and use the word “ass” instead of something less objectionable, like rear, tush, derrierre, butt, etc. So “ass” it is.
just like what everyone else has said - turn it inside out and then roll it on like a condom. DanE managed to get a QR pad on his Azoto, so if that is possible then you should be able to get it on any road saddle.
I dont use it for the road bike but on the tri bike with the same saddle and wearing tri shorts I need the extra padding. Same saddle for both bike - SLR.
Thanks everyone. I had to figure I wasn’t the only one whose a$$ complained after multiple hours on my saddle in tri shorts. For $22, it seemed worth a shot, and thanks to everyone for keeping the thread “relatively” clean If anyone else out there is doing Pac Crest in Oregon, you might see my QR with a QR saddle cover… if I can muster the skills to get the damn thing on.
Question - If saddles are purposefully made hard, to support “sit bones” and not contact extraneous muscle/fat, does a soft cover not negate this? Why not buy a padded saddle to begin with? Maybe there are advantages/considerations I have not read about? Thanks.
To amswer your question about how do you get the saddle cover on the saddle, I use the wetsuit trick and spray Pam Vegetable spray on the inside of the saddle cover and the cover slides right on with little effort. By the way, my saddle is the Selle Italia Flite Gel. Good luck! I haven’t raced with mine on but it does seem to help when I do CompuTrainer work-outs.
If anyone else out there is doing Pac Crest in Oregon, you might see my QR with a QR saddle cover… if I can muster the skills to get the damn thing on.