I saw Jan struggling to remove his chamois after the bike leg of the Tribattle the other day. Makes me think that I should use on in my kit for the bike leg of my upcoming race- can anyone give me any info? Do you use an extra chamois? If so what kind? Thanks.
E
I cut mine out and replaced it with a removable one taken from a pair of cycling specific shorts. I found the tri chamois to thin for my butt, so now i have a plush ride and then in T2 i remove it and and run chamois free. With the one i replaced it with, i attach it with a few small bits of velcro to keep it in place. I was a bit of trail and error to get it right, but now im super happy.
I’m not FOP, so transition time is only somewhat important. I put on regular biking shorts over my tri suit in T1 and remove the shorts in T2. Takes 30 secs, for a 1 min total additional time and makes the ride much more enjoyable.
Oomph used to have tri shorts with a removable pad back in the aughts(they were bought by Bisaddle and claim to be restarting clothing production this fall).
Saw this: https://www.aerotechdesigns.com/rebishchpad.html
Haven’t tried it, so no idea how well it stays in place during the swim/bike (anyone who’s used it please chime in).
I saw Jan struggling to remove his chamois after the bike leg of the Tribattle the other day. Makes me think that I should use on in my kit for the bike leg of my upcoming race- can anyone give me any info? Do you use an extra chamois? If so what kind? Thanks.
E
in the old days, we made saddle covers. which pretty much solve this, but in my opinion it’s much easier to make the case for a saddle cover. the one advantage to a second insertable chamois is that you can use it on any saddle. and, jan doesn’t have easy access to anybody who can make a saddle cover for whatever his chosen saddle is.
nowadays we have a lot of new saddle silhouettes and shapes, and all this means is we need a number of new saddle cover shapes.
here’s what i think we know:
- saddles still aren’t right. we need more padding. jan is evidence.
- saddle covers make a lot more sense than an insertable chamois.
- we need new saddle cover shapes.
Saddle covers were basically trying to make a road saddle design more comfortable for nose riding by adding a lot of padding to the front (similar to the first gen of tri-specific saddles like the Aspide Tri, TriTip, etc.). Now that tri-specific, split nose saddles are the norm is there a need for covers, or does this indicate that the saddle padding design still needs to evolve?
De Soto Neoprene seat cover
Aspide Tri Saddle
i see some elite athletes moving away from split nose saddles to a kind of hybrid saddle, like the specialized sitero, and these need a cover imho. jan is using a split nose saddle, like a cobb if not a cobb, a 55 or something like that, and he needs that second chamois, which tells me that, yes, something else is needed. i’m pretty surprised nobody has done anything with this. if i still had a wetsuit factory, i’d be all over this.
I had a slightly different take. Have never seen him use one before (but then again, we don’t often see inside T2). Maybe it was added comfort for this race, specifically, as he wanted to stay seated almost the entire time, where as in a normal Ironman where he isn’t going for a WR time, he would stand up, or shift about on the saddle more (not to mention turn arounds where he could stand up and stretch out). Even when pacing with other athletes, he would be able to change up his seated posture.
Just a thought.
Would love to see quality saddle covers make a return. For those who train in cycling bibs a cover keeps relative saddle height the same when wearing a Tri suit or shorts.
We also don’t know it was a second chamois do we? It might have just been a removeable chamois so that he could run without one completely. If that was an option in a tri suit I’d buy it!
We also don’t know it was a second chamois do we? It might have just been a removeable chamois so that he could run without one completely. If that was an option in a tri suit I’d buy it!
I tend to think this is the more likely conclusion. I can’t imagine having MORE padding (under my junk in the aero position) during a long bike session. That extra padding will create more pressure and hot spots leading to a more uncomfortable ride rather than the smaller amount of padding you find in a speed suit or triathlon specific (unlike the massive pad in a cycling short where you are sitting straight up).
We also don’t know it was a second chamois do we? It might have just been a removeable chamois so that he could run without one completely. If that was an option in a tri suit I’d buy it!
i will see if i can find out.
Dan please do. I used to use a seat cover, but still find the chamois in my tri suits underperforming for an IM. I have just come to expect it to be an uncomfortable back half of the ride when things start to get soar.
Would love a second chamois insert if it did not chafe etc. Cool idea but probably hard to pull off.
I emailed RYZON who makes Jan’s Trisuit and got the below answer.
Hello Kevin,
so I just got more information on this. The Suit that Jan wears is almost the exact same suit as our Verge (except for the colour). It even has the same padding.
For some reason for this one race he just put an extra pad in for the biking part and took that out for the running, so he remained with the normal imbedded padding for the run.
I hope this answers your question!
Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Kind regards
Natalie
Customer Support
F 0221 95936072
info@ryzon.net
www.ryzon.net
Ryzon GmbH
Maastrichter Straße 45
50672 Köln
Steuernummer: 215/5837/2997
Geschäftsführung: Mario Konrad
USt-ID: DE815625045
HRB: 87124
I tried the one listed above on an hour ride earlier this week. Night and day vs the felt in the Zoot kits.