Thanks Andy for connecting me with your friends at ISM. They kind of made my X-US ride in July. Basically the trip was 32 days from Seattle to Rye Beach, NH with an average 115 miles a day. As you know, I alternated two ISM saddles the whole trip to ease the pain and enjoy the ride.
Tour operators instructed us: Bring two bike saddles for our 32-day, cross-country trek in July. Honestly, I thought it was overkill.
On 250-mile training rides, my ISM recreational saddle offered a cushion, variety of seat positions and fork design that saved me. Saddle pains had reduced friends to tears on some of these same rides.
But because PAC Tour operators had pioneered Race Across America and organized cross-country rides for decades, I decided to listen to their advice. The second saddle I brought was an ISM Performance from my carbon-fiber Look bike, which is a faster ride but less forgiving than my titanium Seven endurance bike.
The organizers were right. After a few days riding the more-cushioned ISM, my ISM Performance became a welcome change with its added stiffness. I traded the two out every few days as we made our way across the Rockies, Tetons, Badlands and Adirondacks. The longer nose let me inch up for mountain climbs and stretch back for more aero descents.
Everyone had issues while riding an average 115 miles daily. At SAG stops, riders lathered on Buttar in hopes of preventing blisters. The most punishing sections were in Minnesota, where the road presented raised expansion cracks every 10 feet. For me, I had to break into the rhythm but I did not suffer the crippling pain I used to feel years ago using traditional saddles on 100-plus milers.
As you can imagine, I needed a break from the road when I got back home to Orlando, Fla. And so I climbed onto my GT carbon fiber mountain bike and its ISM saddle.