IN GENERAL.
It is practically impossible to construct a bicycle saddle which will meet the views and requirements of all riders. The style of riding and the rider determine the pattern of saddle best suited to each individual. Care should be taken in the adjustment and tilt of the saddle. It will often be found that a slight change in the tilt will render comfortable a saddle which has been the cause of much complaint. For average riders and riding a nearly horizontal position is advised. For racing and fast road riding, however, lower the nose of the saddle in order that the weight of the rider may be thrown more on the pedals.
LA TULIP.
To get perfect comfort the saddle must be properly adjusted. It all depends on whether you want a seat or a saddle. A seat is to sit on. A saddle is simply a support. If you put your weight all on your seat you lose the power of your weight. It is harder work to go fast, but perhaps it is easier for those who do not want to ride far and fast. With a saddle it is best to tip up the cantle and put more weight on the pedals. You can ride fast this way, but it involves more muscular exertion. As a general rule ladies prefer the seat; gentlemen, the saddle. The saddle must not be placed too far back or front, but well toward the pedals, to give more weight to the stroke. As to height, the right height is when the rider, sitting on the saddle and his foot parallel with the ground, can just rest the heel on the pedal at its lowest position. This leaves room for the necessary ankle play.
The rider of the bicycle must remember that not only are the legs affected by riding, but the exercise benefits nearly every portion of the human body. This seems at first to be rather odd, but at the same time it is perfectly true, and has been proven by the best experiments. The new rider, after taking a ten-mile jaunt, expects to feel tired in the legs, and is considerably, not to say disagreeably, surprised to find himself aching all over. Probably he has more discomfort in the thighs than anywhere else, or maybe the ache is in the loins, back or between the shoulder blades. A number of muscles in the arms, shoulders and chest begin to ache, and he is quite unable to explain it. In fact, the thought that his fatigue is due to the character of the saddle of his wheel is probably the last thing to enter his mind. To ride a bicycle and avoid the discomforts mentioned, you want a saddle which conforms to the shape of the body and prevents pressure on the sensitive parts.
As a rule, sufficient care is not taken in selecting a saddle suited to the rider. Many people in purchasing a bicycle accept unquestioned the saddle found on the cycle at the time of purchase without stopping to determine whether or not it is adapted to their use. Some actual trial of a saddle should be insisted upon, for a saddle that “fits anybody” is really a saddle that fits nobody.
No saddle is perfect. The perfect saddle, as the public looks at it, is the saddle that fits everybody. It will never be made, for “people are different.” The true wisdom of saddle buying is to get one that will fit you. Choose a saddle as you choose a pair of shoes. Wrong shoes cause corns. So do wrong saddles. Saddle corns are decidedly uncomfortable.
During the season of 1898 the rider will, more than ever before, be allowed the privilege of stipulating the make of saddle he will have furnished on the cycle he buys, because competition in the cycle trade has reached such a stage that only cycles with exceptional advantages in the way of equipment will sell easily. With the reduction in price of bicycles has come a reduction in the price of saddles, so that at present the difference in price between saddles of recognized merit and inferior imitations is not so great as the difference in actual value.