Bike seats and the wet ass

Nobody should have a wet ass from biking. Ever. The bike seat on the bike I leave outside got ripped from sun and use and old age and started absorbing water. I would get a wet butt after it rained. Not acceptable.

So I went to my bike store and bought another seat (and it wasn’t cheap). The seat looked waterproof but wasn’t, as water would get in (and out) at the seams. And wet bike seats never really dry out. And putting all your weight on a seat is a pretty good way to squeeze out another few drops of water onto the ass of your pants.

While biking by the bike store on 28th Ave, I thought what the hell, I haven’t been in there in ages, maybe they have a seat that doesn’t suck up water. They don’t. Not one! At least not in the non-racing-hard-and-skinny variety.

[A note on seat size: Here’s the thing with seat width most people don’t get. In generally, wider is more comfortable. That’s what you would expect. But the lower your handlebars are, the less comfortable wide seats are. You can have a wider seat if you sit upright and don’t peddle too aggressively. Racers use skinny seats because when you sit on a wide seat, you’re actually sitting on butt muscles you could be using for peddling hard and fast. Skinny seats rest under the butt bone, and they’re not actually uncomfortable at all if you’re hunched over drop handlebars.]

The end of the story is that I went back to the better bike store on 35th Ave and he had one seat that doesn’t suck up water (it’s also a wide as a tractor seat–looks cool, but it’s actually too wide). Next time I’m in Amsterdam, I’m picking up their standard $10 seat. Works great. Waterproof. Comfortable. Why they’re not sold here, I don’t know. I guess they’re too inexpensive.

What does it say about the health of our bike “culture” if you can’t buy a bike seat that doesn’t act as a sponge? Biking with a wet ass is not an option. No fucking wonder people don’t want to bike!