i dont know what im looking for in a bike. i need recommendations please

[g00se]

To be honest - the only evidence is what I read here too.
With hard, narrow saddles, the two bones on the bottom of your pelvis are supported on the back part of the saddle - but can be a bit painful on the muscle between the bones and the saddle until you get used to it. The nose of the saddle is to help you 'grip' and balance the bike going round corners and such.

With the padded saddles, your sit bones push down through the padding to the bottom but the padding is compressed around them and the padding around that is pushed down a little bit by the other parts of your bum.

Think of it like putting your hand down fingers-first onto a hard wet surface - only the tips of your fingers get wet. Now if you were to do that onto a sponge, your fingers would disappear into the sponge and the whole of your hand would come into contact with the sponge and get wet.

It's this padding comping into contact wit the other parts of your undercarriage that causes the bloody circulation probs etc.

 

[g00se]

more here:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html

 

[Arch]

The right saddle is related to the sort of bike, and the sort of riding you do. A big soft saddle is ok on a very upright sedate bike for around town, because you're putting most of your weight straight down through your spine to the sit-bones, and you're probably stopping and starting a fair bit and shifting your weight on and off the saddle. Any degree of leaning forward, or cycling for hours on end, and the soft bits start to chafe and exert pressure where they shouldn't.

 

[matthewnunn]

well ive gone in and picked two bikes with my gf. she wants the claud butler explorer 100 and i liked the urban 300. nice looking bikes. problem is i just spoke to pedel revolutions and there saying claud butler is no good. is this because they dont sell them and they can only sell what they have i.e trek and giant. or are they actually no good?
can i have some help on that please. cheers

 

[matthewnunn]

ive also spoken to anothe company who say specialized are the better brand. do i stick with claud butler or look at something different like a trek or giant?

 

[g00se]

Well, I wouldn't say they were bad - my other half has a Claud Butler Urban 400 (it's an older one that had front suspension - the current 400s don't). It's a reasonable bike but she got it before I got back into cycling and now I would have recommended something else as it's quite heavy. for a similar bike now, I would have recommended the crosstrail if she still wanted front suspension. I don't think they are as good a brand as they used to be. Give me 10 mins and I'll look up the specs of the two bikes (procrastinating from work moi?)

 

[g00se]

Have you tried Streetlife or John Borwell yet (the Norwich Specialized shops)?

 

[colinr]

The Specialized, Giant and Trek bikes you'd be looking at are all very similar. They're mid market decent stuff. Claud Butler appear to be a bit more budget, the internet isn't overly forthcoming with reviews of their recent bikes.

For my money, I'd spend a bit more on one of the bigger brands because I know from experience that saving £50-£100 now will be something I regret in a years time. But it's not my money is it

Bah, g00se beat me to it. I couldn't find a weight for the Urban 300, the Specialized Crosstrail was around 13.6kg.

 

[matthewnunn]

right ok, so you would recommend going to a trek, giant or specialized instead?

 

[matthewnunn]

or shall i just stick with the bikes ive found as i did like them? im getting confused now

 

[g00se]

Go with the bikes you like, it's your money But try out some of the alternatives just to make sure you've got the right ones. I looked at the specs for the Urban 300 and they look similar to the bottom of the range Specialized - the CB has better gears (8-speed Acera vs 7-speed Altus) but a worse fork by the look of it.

Also, try to acertain the weights of them - the lighter the better.

BTW. Which shop has the CBs?

 

[g00se]

Just to add - take your time choosing the bikes, you'll be using them for years so make sure you've tried as many as you can.

 

[matthewnunn]

right ok, its maderin cycles on aylsham road in norwich.

 

[g00se]

(deleted)

 

[g00se]

Sorry - belay that last message - I was mixing up the shop with another. Never been in Mandarin so can't say what it's like. What makes of bike did they have in there?