Specialized Phenom Comp Saddle Review

I've been riding my bike a lot. As the weather got cold, I put my bike on a turbo trainer and subscribed to Zwift so I could stay in shape over the winter. It took about 2 months to figure out that the stock saddle is not working for me. That saddle was fine when I rode outside. The occasional stops for traffic and the odd hill climb got me out of the saddle enough to hide the problems with that stock saddle. But riding on Zwift is another matter.

Indoor riding means my butt is planted on the saddle, sometimes for a couple of hours. I could ride outdoors on that saddle for four hours. But 90 minutes indoors, after riding 6-7 days a week, was definitely uncomfortable.

OK, time for a new saddle. It should be simple, right? Wrong.

There are TOO many options. But the first problem: what size should I get?

It turns out there are standard widths. It felt like the stock saddle that I have is just a little small. I went to the bike shop and the salesman had me sit on a memory foam cushion. Then she put two ball bearings into the depressions that my sit bones made. Then she measured. Yep. My saddle is too small.

Their selection was pretty limited. My choice: shop around more, or just try something. All of my reading about this topic showed that there's no science to this, no easy guide. You just have to try saddles until you find something that works. I saw no point in looking around for anything else when I would have no reason to believe that anything else is easier to decide is right for me. So I bought a Specialized Phenom Comp saddle.

Installation was quick work. I tried it today. It already feels better. I have 14 days from the date of purchase to return it. I'm going to ride a lot in the meantime to see if I want to keep it.

Update: it's now 4 months later and this saddle has worked well for me. The ultimate test is to see how it works for me when I go to RAGBRAI.

Cicadas

 Here in Virginia we are in the middle of the Brood X periodic cicada emergence. Every 17 years the insects which make this brood up emerge from the ground, try to climb a tree (or fence, or house, or car, or whatever they can find). Upon emergence, they have no wings. Shortly after they exit the soil, their exoskeleton hardens, often while they're grasping a tree or fence. Then the exoskeleton splits open as they molt and the cicada emerges with stubby wings, leaving the exoskeleton behind, often still attached to a tree or fence. The wings grow quickly, the insects darken in color, then they try to fly/climb to the tops of the trees. Then they make an awful racket as they attempt to mate. Then the females cut slits in tree/shrub branches, and the adult cicadas die. Eventually the eggs hatch, the hatched nymphs fall to the ground, they dig into the soil, and they live there for 17 years, when they emerge from the ground and the cycle starts again.

This is the second time I've seen the emergence in Virginia. Just like last time, these insects are everywhere for a few weeks. They're on the sidewalks, in the air, and sometimes they land on me. They are all over my yard, roses, fence, and trees. The bugs are everywhere. The empty shells are everywhere. No bird or rat is going hungry right now. Cicadas emerge in such enormous numbers that it does not matter to the population that many of them die before procreating.

Why am I writing about this? Because I tried my hand at macro photography, using them as the subject. They're slow-moving and easy to find right now. I used a tripod, a 70-200 f2.8 lens, and an extension tube for close focusing. This makes the focal plane extremely thin, which makes it hard to get a sharp shot. So there's the challenge. Here are some results.

On my roses

On my roses

Climbing

Just emerged from the exoskeleton

Bulging red eyes