I went on a longish ride today to test out this setup: a Brooks b 72 with noodle bars.
In the interest of scientific inquiry, I did not wear any sort of padded bicycle shorts. Just regular underwear.
I had to stop a couple of times to fiddle with the tilt, but it seems to work.
I rode from the Elizabethtown trail head of the Conewago/LVRT trail to Cornwall and back. It was about 31 miles in all.
I found these raspberries growing along the trail.
I ate some. They were good.
A few miles later, I had to stop to pee, and suddenly realized that I was going to pee on raspberry bushes if I wasn’t careful. Hopefully, the berries I ate were not peed on by somebody else, but I guess I’ll never know.
Thoughts like this occupied my mind until I got to Mt. Gretna, where I stopped to indulge in narcissistic self-photography.
I marveled at my rugged good looks for a good long while, and continued onward to Cornwall.
At the turn-around point in Cornwall, they have this ridiculous gigantic root beer barrel thing in the parking lot.
I stopped here and had a lovely chat with one of the volunteer trail patrol guys. He had a really thick Pennsylvania Dutch accent (said he was a Brethren), and so it’s possible that I misheard him, but I think he said that the Stony Creek rail trail has been extended eastward all the way to Pine Grove, and that this part is paved.
I’ll have to go check it out sometime.
He was a very talkative fellow, and I probably spent an hour hearing stories about his time as a sniper in Vietnam, his political opinions, and many other such matters.
It was starting to look like rain, so I took my leave of my new friend, and headed back the way I came.
I stopped in Colebrook for some refreshment.
This is the world famous Colebrook Twin-Kiss maple and walnut sundae. Guaranteed to cancel out all the calories you burn on your bike ride.
After my ice cream break, the rain held off, and so I stopped to say hello to these ladies.
By the end of the ride, my butt hurt. But, it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it did with the B17. I was able to ride in the drops with no problems.
I’ll have to give it a try with my padded breeches on and see how that works out.
That’s quite a saddle!
I think my B17 is generally more comfortable *without* padded shorts. I’ve done rides up to about 70 miles on it that way. That seems to be about my limit, though. Too muchh beyond that the padded shorts become a necessity.
But … lately it has sagged and changed shape. I’ve done the lacing thing, and the tension thing, and it results in some improvement, but it’s still not quite right. Pretty frustrating!
It’s interesting that we both seem to be going through similar Brooks difficulties. I hope we both get them figured out.
Haha. Very witty writeup. Well done. And it is a nice section of trail, though parts are surprisingly steep, well at least tilted…..at least for a rail trail. Curious about the paved trail into Pine Grove. Please enlighten your readers if you hear more about that.
mmm… There might be a Stony Creek ride in the near future, and I need to get in another S24O before long.
My Champion Flyer is much more comfortable since I reshaped it using some clamps and a sponge. Basically, I took the center ridge that had formed and flattened it where my sit-bones contact. I then laced it and retensioned. After about twenty miles, I noticed that it felt much better. Your experience with the 67 is a good omen – I’m curious how the big saddle will work out.
And if those raspberries have a slightly salted taste…
I think he must have been talking about the Swatara Rail Trail. That runs from Lickdale to Pine Grove, and the first part of it is on an abandoned paved road.
I know the LVRT people are trying to raise funds to extend the LVRT to lickdale, so there would be a continuous trail from E-town to Pine Grove.
There a little donation boxes at just about every trail head now.
The Swatara RT is withing spitting distance to Stony Creek, you just have to ride over the mountain 🙂
“I marveled at my rugged good looks for a good long while”. As a matter of fact, I’m still doing so myself. As for refreshments, well, if you must.