I have a friend who is borderline OCD. He’ll sometimes wash his hands dozens of times a day, doesn’t like sticky stuff, cats drive him to antihistamine hell and there is a place for everything, with everything in its place. This can be annoying, not only for those around him, but especially for himself. It’s not a great place to be.
The upside is his bikes are always meticulously maintained, fully Rule compliant, or they are in a state of tear-down having last week’s grease freshened up and each ball bearing individually polished. He’s gotten it under control quite admirably these days, and while a chip in the duco of his beautiful steel frame will still understandably piss him off, there’s not the slightest hint of sending it back to Italy to be re-sprayed by the 78 year old artisan who originally painted it, who inconveniently happened to retire in 1984. But you can rest assured the touch-up job he’ll do himself is of paintshop standard.
But I’ve never seen him muck around with his seatpost height. Not once it’s set, anyway.
This poses the question: did The Prophet have OCD? To this observer it seems so, if numerous viewings of Le Course En Tete and A Sunday in Hell are any reliable indicator. The guy was constantly fiddling with his seatpost height. His mechanic must’ve been ready to throw his hands in the air proclaiming “Merde, Eddy! I’ve measured it three times already! Why do you not trust me?”
It seemed to matter little to Eddy that poor Charly had adhered to the numbers scribbled on the lid of his toolbox, taken the slide rule and spirit level to every possible surface and angle, and used his impeccable line of sight to position the saddle just right, exactly where it was requested to be. “How’s that Eddy?” “Is perfect.” “Then why are you borrowing a spanner from RDV’s team car? Hmmm?”
If he wasn’t adjusting his saddle, he was adjusting his stem. If he wasn’t adjusting his stem, he was squirting water from his bidon onto his brakes. If he wasn’t doing that, he was simply laying down the law. The law of The Prophet.
Obsessive? Yes. Compulsive? For sure. Did it affect his ability to waste all comers? Not likely.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/brettok@velominati.com/merckx terryn/”/]
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
That lead photo has me thinking I need a classier watch for riding my bike!
Do all of you set the saddle height exactly the same on all of your road bikes? Or, do you vary it a bit depending on the bike? Also, do you take into account crank length? I have some bikes with 170mm crank arms, some with 172.5mm. I've gotten a lot of different answers on this. Just curious.
And, do you set the height by feel, knee extension, an equation?
@Ron
I set my seat height/position by feel/knee extension. I'm sure it's different on each bike I have.
@silkrider
You might be on the wrong website.
Y'all may not be able to abide by the following statement, but my experience tells me that guys who constantly adjust their kit have a confidence problem. Often they win because they drive themselves to inhuman levels of pain during training and in the main event to win. Guys with confidence say "fuck it as long as it has a bloody seat I can win." Those who second guess themselves measure and adjust multiple times in a given day. So The Prophet was always questioning himself... maybe that's why he is the Master.
I mean, really, let's admit it, this site is really just a support group for most of us anyways, right?
@Buck Rogers
+1. My VMH agrees. Step one is admitting that you have a problem... My reply is that I could spend all of my spare time and money on activities that are much worse than cycling. Little does she know that I am just waiting to pursue those other activities until I am physically incapable of throwing a leg over the top tube...
Since this is a support group, I'm going to vent about the bitch who couldn't wait the extra 1.5 seconds to pull into her driveway, nearly killing me in the process. Two babies in car seats in the back seat, she ended up almost driving into her neighbor's mailbox... For literally 1.5 seconds that she tried to save.
@Buck Rogers @Anjin-san:
Sob! I love you guys!
My name is RedRanger and I have a problem...
@Calmante
Ugh, I've had one of those recently too. And I pass that same house often. And the car has a personalized license plate that makes them seem like the jerk they acted like. I just love the Must Pass Damn Cyclist pass, then turn or stop at a light immediately move. Why oh why?
It's even better when they have kids in the car. I like to say to those folks, "Um, don't you think I have a mother as well? And don't you think she'd be sad if you ran me over?"
Gotta just try and stay positive & not get run over!
silkrider - Got it! I try to have mine pretty close, but I do ride differently on my different bikes - Sunday cruiser, heavy KM bike, race bike.