Cucaracha76

Gonna have to respectfully disagree with some things and agree with one or two. Carrying a lot of weight with your legs is indeed an inexact term. So let me clarify. What i mean is that racers have a very aero, forward facing position on the bike. I think we can agree that someone sitting like that will carry more of their body weight on their legs and arms than someone sitting a lot more of upright and more far away from the front wheel, this type of rider will be putting the majority of their weight on their sit bones/butt/saddle.. do you concur? A lot of people who are not racers and buy a race bike with race saddle will adjust their handlebars so they sit quite a lot more upright and back than any true race cyclist. So my point was and remains that if you rest 60% to 85% of your bodymass on your saddle as opposed to say 30% to 50% (and of course these are total estimates!) while you ride... who do you think is more likely to have sore soft tissues? Especially if they are not a trained individual and riding a rock hard saddle made for racers? Chamoises and padded shorts. Never ever used them. Not even in my messenger days. Don't need them. I ride brooks. A big percentage of people who ride 150km per day (Word Tourers) often ride brooks and do just fine without shorts. Hell i can do 50k in Jeans! on my Brooks and feel 0 pain or discomfort. I do agree 100% that you have to ride a saddle that fits, but with Brooks there are basically (not quite) two sizes. Narrow, for racing. And wide, for comfort and more upright style cycling. Almost everyone who picks one of those to suit his individual cycling style seems to be perfectly happy. If you are not riding a leather "hammock" style saddle like Brooks, then i agree the width, material and finish becomes more important, but yeh, i am not a pro racer, i do not see any reason to ride hard saddles with little give. Lastly the brooks literally form to your sit bones which leads to a steep reduction or even removal of pressure points.

Silly ass influence from racing. Everyone seems to think that they need to ride similarly hard and light seats as the pros. But the pros train for a decade, have insane physical attributes and carry a lot of their weight with their legs since they are putting so much effort in all the time. If you want supreme comfort, buy a Brooks or if you are a woman, perhaps a Terry.

Fair play man! I do not even pretend to always be right, much less always right for every situation and for everyone! I would consider myself a truly experienced mechanic and truly knowledgeable if i had worked full time for 30+ years in the field and in a big and varied bikeshop plus raced at a very, very high level. I have not done either and am not likely too ha ha, so i must remain humble. Favorite bike i have build. Perhaps my first one, it was a simple Peugeot MTB frame, but under the guidance of my Jedi Master at the time i cleaned and build up and refurbished every part of that bike, build a 3 speed Sturmey Archer hub into a very nice new rim with butted spokes, overhauled and greased everything and since that experience... i never looked back! Fell in love with the field and learning to learn and learning to teach. I felt back then it was a duty to pass on the skills my older friend taught me to more people than he did and that i must surpass him in knowledge. I am glad that i managed both. :)

I do, sorta. :) I just finished building it. It is a red Specialized Hard Rock, steel, small 90s frame i bought for 30 euros with papers (not stolen!) Then i put amazing parts on it that i got for free or super cheap. Some of the parts: A comfy 170 gramm saddle. Shimano V-brakes i got off a wreck. A 880 gramms Mavic wheel with DEORE hub i got for 0,50cts etc. I might post a pic if i got some time. I ghetto single speeded it by cutting the rear derailleur cable down to 10 cm and locking the der. with it in one position. I love! this bike. It is light, super fast, reliable, very easy to work on and and nobody is going to steal it. I can take a chick or big box on the back, jump of curbs and still do 30km+ an hour if i want.

EDIT: This is the bike: "OP Delivers. :) http://imgur.com/a/IRLJL Pic 1. How i got it for 30 euros. 2 & 3 Quick and dirty build. 4. Added some convenience parts, uglified/stealthified. Not shown but right after 4. i added the rear brake and bel. Will add quick remove mudguards when summer is over and nice pedals, have some little lights for nighttime. Some details: Rack i got off a wreck, is a bit high but very strong and convenient with the spring loaded clamp. Saddle is superlight, 10 euros ish online, since i have a quick release in order that anyone can fit on this purposefully small frame bike. It is also my beater/loaner. I have chained the saddle with an old piece of drivetrain chain in an old tube. I am happy with it! But i am sure it will continue to evolve."

Bamboo is an amazing material! But, perhaps not for frames. I looked into it's use in bikes fairly extensively. I concluded it is not for me, YMMV. I just spend 6 month in SE Asia and i looked at various locally produced bamboo frames. Basically every one i saw joins the bamboo tubes and attaches the metal dropouts with a big gob of resin type material, i find it very unsightly, looks almost like a tumor and i have heard that it sometimes fails/tubes come lose, but this is hearsay. Other problems i see: Bikes generally live outside. It is soooo easy to saw through bamboo to steal your bike for parts,.. also, moisture, rain, critters and wood, not the best mix IMHO. Very uncommon in EU, i see more Titanium bikes than bamboo. I would say 1 in a 3000 to 10000 bikes here might be bamboo, maybe less..