Well I never …. I didn’t expect that!

About six weeks ago Beasthonda pointed me in the direction of a Rally-Raid rider saddle up for grabs – brand new from Greece. Well, a couple of weeks ago it arrived and I gave it a quick once over. Since then it has sat in the corner looking pretty. Until today.

I took it to the garage and was just about to put the box away, when I glanced at the saddle on the shelf waiting to go back on the bike.Something wasn’t quite right, so out of the box came the new saddle, and voila ….. it turn out it’s a low-saddle. Yes, AP8793685 – what a surprise! I’ve always been on tipie-toe on the Raid, so I’m looking forward to at least trying the low saddle just to see what the trade off is. My guess, better foot-to-floor feel but knees getting bent more when riding, which will be the killer as my knees don’t do so well these days even with the standard seat. But for local/commuter riding it might be just perfect, the swap saddles for the long-haul rides.

 

Saddle up and ride out …..

No hour of life is wasted
that is spent in the saddle.
                                     Winston Churchill
 

Bless him I never had old Winnie down as a biker, but hey if the cap fits …… 😀

Yes the humble saddle, that piece of plastic/metal and foam that can feel like an armchair or a razor blade, or in fact morph from one to the other over the duration of a few hours or minutes depending on the bike! To be fair the Rally-Raid seat is pretty good, if anything just a bit soft for my weight and could probably benefit from a stiffer foam to stop me sinking into it and putting too much weight on the old coccyx.

After 11 years of wear and tear I was thinking about getting them recovered/padded but didn’t much fancy being without the bike for several weeks while the job was done – step into the limelight Stanleybobly, who just happened to pop-up on the AF1 radar with a near-new set of Raid saddles for a painfully decent price. It would have been plain rude not to have bought them!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid. Doesn't she look splendid with new saddles!So now the Capo has a spanking new pair of saddles and I can work out where I want to send/take the old ones for refurb at my leisure – any advice about UK upholsterers always appreciated.

…… and thanks again to Stanley for selling them to me! 😉