112km Weekend Solo Ride
The Masher group was assembled ready to do this route on Saturday crazy hour morning but this was not be. It rained the whole Saturday, literally. For me it was mostly a sleepy Saturday. So I just made myself wake up at 4.30am the following morning and hit the road by 5.05am from my place. Target is to complete the 112km Singapore Loop...my personal 'back by 9am' route.
This is the first long ride with the Fulcrum Zero and just installed Specialized Romin saddle. 2 firsts on a single ride. For the saddle, I was a bit too ambitious to bring this out for such a long ride....as I discovered in the shower after the ride.
Anyway, started out decent. The saddle felt very firm and I had the niggling feeling that it was not well setup. Felt that I should have perhaps not lowered the saddle that much and should have move the fore aft a bit to the rear. The tilt also could do some adjusting. I was determined to complete the ride anyway and did not make these changes while on the road. Only wanted to complete and get myself back by 9am. Decent average speed until Jalan Buroh hitting 31.3km/h thereafter, got caught by too many traffic lights and this dropped a lot. Right after the LCK straight, saw a huge JR group riding the opposite direction.....soon after spotted KL on the same trail. Not sure if he caught up though. By the time I hit Mandai, I was wriggling uncomfortably. I felt that I was rolling to the front and had to prop myself back to the rear quite frequently.
There was a trifactor cycling event going on and though the road was blocked I managed to wriggle my way into coastal road along with the competitors. No drafting here as the field was sparse with them. However, this caused a little delay and slowed down my overall speed. My thighs felt like they were burning at this point and it was just terrible labouring my way back home. Still ok average though at 30.2km/h......once I get use to the saddle and tweak the position a little bit, should do better.
The damage : saddle sores. Blister on the right cheek where the sit bone meets the saddle. I don't blame the saddle. I blame my rushed installation and the over-ambitious inaugural first ride on the saddle.
This is the first long ride with the Fulcrum Zero and just installed Specialized Romin saddle. 2 firsts on a single ride. For the saddle, I was a bit too ambitious to bring this out for such a long ride....as I discovered in the shower after the ride.
Anyway, started out decent. The saddle felt very firm and I had the niggling feeling that it was not well setup. Felt that I should have perhaps not lowered the saddle that much and should have move the fore aft a bit to the rear. The tilt also could do some adjusting. I was determined to complete the ride anyway and did not make these changes while on the road. Only wanted to complete and get myself back by 9am. Decent average speed until Jalan Buroh hitting 31.3km/h thereafter, got caught by too many traffic lights and this dropped a lot. Right after the LCK straight, saw a huge JR group riding the opposite direction.....soon after spotted KL on the same trail. Not sure if he caught up though. By the time I hit Mandai, I was wriggling uncomfortably. I felt that I was rolling to the front and had to prop myself back to the rear quite frequently.
There was a trifactor cycling event going on and though the road was blocked I managed to wriggle my way into coastal road along with the competitors. No drafting here as the field was sparse with them. However, this caused a little delay and slowed down my overall speed. My thighs felt like they were burning at this point and it was just terrible labouring my way back home. Still ok average though at 30.2km/h......once I get use to the saddle and tweak the position a little bit, should do better.
The damage : saddle sores. Blister on the right cheek where the sit bone meets the saddle. I don't blame the saddle. I blame my rushed installation and the over-ambitious inaugural first ride on the saddle.
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