Dumped the sprung comfort stem and the gel saddle

As an experiment, I exchanged my sprung "comfort" stem with
a straight stem and a smaller/harder saddle. Seems to be a
very noticable difference in pedaling efficiency.

How much power was I losing? It feels like 10-20%.

Richard Tack wrote:

As an experiment, I exchanged my sprung "comfort" stem with
a straight stem and a smaller/harder saddle. Seems to be a
very noticable difference in pedaling efficiency.

How much power was I losing? It feels like 10-20%.

Naught. You may _feel_ faster, but for you to be _going_ any faster
after having opted out of your comfort features would imply there was
something very wrong with your technique. Who can use 10 to 20% of
their total riding effort just bouncing the stem and saddle to begin
with? Nobody I've seen, surely.

If you replace your car's shocks with solid struts and remove the seat
cushions, it will feel faster too.

Chalo Colina

Chalo wrote:

Richard Tack wrote:

As an experiment, I exchanged my sprung "comfort" stem with
a straight stem and a smaller/harder saddle. Seems to be a
very noticable difference in pedaling efficiency.

How much power was I losing? It feels like 10-20%.


Naught. You may _feel_ faster, but for you to be _going_ any faster
after having opted out of your comfort features would imply there was
something very wrong with your technique. Who can use 10 to 20% of
their total riding effort just bouncing the stem and saddle to begin
with? Nobody I've seen, surely.

If you replace your car's shocks with solid struts and remove the seat
cushions, it will feel faster too.

Chalo Colina

None? My base run is taking less time. BTW, I think I should
have said "seat post," not "stem."

On 5 Aug 2004 20:20:58 -0700,
(Chalo) wrote:

[snip]

with? NobodyI'veseen,surely.

[snip]

Dear Chalo,

Utterly irrelevant, but is this just one of a rash of odd
patches in posts from different people normal spaces appear
to have been stripped?

Carl Fogel

Richard Tack wrote:

None? My base run is taking less time. BTW, I think I should
have said "seat post," not "stem."

10-4. I must speculate that your previous saddle was interfering with
a proper pedal stroke. Might be worth the effort to put your new
saddle on your old seatpost and see whether your speed improvement
remains. If you are both adequately comfortable and faster, though,
perhaps there is no point in meddling.

Chalo Colina

Chalo wrote:

Richard Tack wrote:

None? My base run is taking less time. BTW, I think I should
have said "seat post," not "stem."


10-4. I must speculate that your previous saddle was interfering with
a proper pedal stroke. Might be worth the effort to put your new
saddle on your old seatpost and see whether your speed improvement
remains. If you are both adequately comfortable and faster, though,
perhaps there is no point in meddling.

Chalo Colina

One noticeable thing with this non-sprung post, the bike
jerks forward now when I mash down, not so before. I think
there was so much travel in the old post that it buffered
some of the energy out of the stroke.