in the years when i inadvertently found myself as lead drummer in the original incarnation of islay pipe band, our annual trip to the cowal highland games at the end of august was considered the equivalent of a sunday school trip. we'd take the ferry to kennacraig and disembark to the cossetted comfort of a west coast motors coach, ready and willing to transport us to our overnight accommodation, then onto the games come saturday morning. any new pipe band comprised predominantly of adults and without a recognisable palmares was generally allocated a place at grade four. however, the individal ranking began to get a tad oversubscribed and was subsequently divided into grade four a and grade four b.
due to the large number of bands in those sections, as we arrived at cowal, the competitions would already be underway, allowing us the luxury of listening to those we would later compete against on the same grass field. naively arrogant and confident to the last, we would stand and patiently listen to our peers, the sound of several convincing us that we, at least, would not come in last overall. you can perhaps share our dismay when more than just one band we had casually discarded from the competitive milieu, received second or third prize at the end of a long day.
it's the very reason why, to this day, i have no truck with the competive realm being applied to either music or art.
at the end of last week, i received a copy of 'modernists and mavericks' by martin gayford, a series of conversations with francis bacon, david hockney, frank auerbach and others in the group often referred to under the misnomer of 'the school of london'. though i cannot admit to being inspired by either francis bacon or lucian freud, i do admire the works of auerbach, leon kossoff, dennis creffield and others who owe at least partial allegiance to david bomberg. i am, nonetheless, more than aware that my taste in art does not corroborate with the majority; my appreciation doesn't make me wrong, but then nor does it make others right.
and to be perfectly frank, pretty much the same can be said about reviewers. like me. because in the specific case under consideration, i have put in not far short of 700 kilometres on rapha's new carbon railed saddle and (spoiler alert) it's definitely one of the most comfortable saddles on which my bum has had the pleasure of sitting. and i've not just taken rapha's word for it that their saddle has been built with their pro-team and classic bibshorts in mind; i have ridden quite a number of those kilometres wearing bibshorts from competing brands.
and it's still one of the most comfortable saddles on which my bum has had the pleasure of sitting.
there is, of course, one caveat, one that may either increase the cost of sitting on imperial works (if you catch my drift), or exclude it altogether. though it's a tribulation that affects other carbon-railed saddles, the girth of the latter may well be incompatible with your seatpost clamp. in my case, the rapha saddle was fitted to my ritchey logic road bike, one which featured a ritchey branded wcs seatpost. this comprises a novel, two-sided clamping system, utilising an allen bolt running at right angles to the saddle, holding the separate clamps in place, both of which hook under the angle adjuster and over the top of the saddle rails at each side.
or rather, they don't.
in point of fact, those clamps were insufficiently 'deep' to deal with the carbon. for the period of review, i'd to replace the ritchey post with an 'oval concepts' model, one which offered a compatible clamp. you have been advised and forewarned.
the classic, yet still subjective means of reviewing a saddle of any weight or flavour, is to make use of galeforce headwinds. i can guarantee that if the saddle has any flaws in the comfort stakes, riding hard into a headwind for 15km or more will find them. and you'll be in no doubt as to which part of your anatomy they are affecting.
though i never doubted for a minute that rapha would offer up a saddle into such a competitive market, without first ensuring that the comfort factor was at least on a par with the best of its peers, it's hard to conceive that there are many shapes and/or profiles that haven't already been employed. however, it seems that on that score, i may be wrong. the sitting bit consists of a rounded, perforated, minimally padded top, one that developed a couple of creases on each side after it had been ridden only a matter of kilometres. these are cosmetically irritating, but highly unlikely to affect the saddle's performance.
as explained above, saddle choice is entirely subjective, with a healthy degree of ergonomics thrown in for good measure. i have previously ridden saddles that half the professional peloton seems to find more than amenable, yet i have found considerably less than compatible with my own physique. that's what subjectivity (and a pipe band competition) is all about.
there are two versions available: road and race (or pro-team and classic, if you prefer) and two widths available for both. though the classic version, as reviewed, was bereft of a central cutout, the race version features this as an option. there's also a rapha cycle club edition available of both variations. the race also differs from the classic in terms of construction: though both offer a one-piece carbon rail, the road edition is nylon-based, while the considerably more expensive and lighter race model features a carbon fibre base. whichever model you think you'd prefer, i seriously doubt that you'll be disappointed.
and even though i'm right, that's my subjective opinion.
the rapha classic edition saddle retails at £180 and is available in both black and white. the rapha pro-team saddle is available in black only, with an alternative cutout edition, retail cost of which is £295.
monday 14 may 2018
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