Some review-type notes to fill some space, waiting to go back home and finish off the Lev build (I was up til midnight and had to throw in the towel). Anxious.

Two new bits of gear made life easier last weekend, and thus get the 8+ hours of saddle time stamp of approval.

First, my fancy Specialized shoes.

They’re the high end carbon soled models, after a painful three hour ride weeks ago I decided that my cheapish Shimano’s needed to be bagged for good. I was looking for foot support, and got it. The shaped insole took a bit of getting used to, but it works and in conjunction with the carbon the power transfer is fantastic. A difference immediately noticeable. During the loooong and rough decents on Saturday I found that, provided that I switched foot-forward at regular intervals, my feet felt fine. Most evocatively, once I got the shoes off and sat down for 15 minutes after the ride, my feet were completely normal. No fatigue of any kind. Mission accomplished.

My beefs are with the durability of a few componenets, and the heel fit. I have a skinny heel, and during the multitude of hiking I did my heels rubbed a bit. This looseness is not at all noticable while riding, and I got no blisters, so thus far the issue is a mere nuisance. I hope to do few rides with more and steeper hiking, so I’m not concerned.

I did manage to break the plastic piece the holds the inside edge of the plastic strap on the right shoe, and the toe stitching was fraying a bit on both. I fixed each with SeamGrip, but especially with the former issue I’d like to see burlier fabrication for such an expensive, mountain specific shoe.

I also find the racheting buckles very difficult to work upon occasion. After last Friday’s ride I actually resorted to unscrewing the strap on one shoe and taking it off “backwards”. This may be a technical issue, or I simply may have not discovered the shoe’s mojo yet. Either is likely.

Next is the WTB Pure V saddle I picked up a month+ ago to replace the Brooks Swift.

One of my main issues with the Brooks was the essential inability to move around much on the saddle while maintaining comfort. The gentle “bucket” formed by the whale’s tail feature, a much gentler iteration of this feature than most WTB saddles, gives you a lot of lattitude to move around. I like.

All this and it fits me well, for $20 on sale. I like.