What Size is your A**?

United Cycle was holding a "Bike Expo" the other day and for someone interested in bikes, it was the place to be.  Several exhibition tables were set up and after chatting with a street planner from the city about proposed bike lanes and then meeting the new MS Bike Tour coordinator and discussing the 2011 Bike tours, I made my way to the parts area to snag a replacement tube.  Then it was upstairs to try to find (and see) the TREK series of "Gary Fisher" bikes.

 Upstairs, after talking at great length to a Specialized rep and learning all kinds of things about MTB's that I never knew, the guy offered to measure my behind on the Ass-O-Meter.  A simple device that I had read about in Nick Lees column recently and someday hoped |I'd get a chance to have my ass measured.  It's just a matter of sitting on two soft foam pads that are calibrated and hold a "memory" of your sit bones and that calibration will determine what size seat would be best for you.  Like most evrything else for a man my size, I fell in between small and medium.  A reporter that I used to work with used to tease me that I did all my clothes shopping in the "Boys" department.

As an aside, I recently was measured for a suit and discovered that since I was last measured, my chest size has expanded from 38 inches to 40.  Something I attribute to all the aerobic activity on my two wheeled steed.

The knowledgeable rep from Specialized did show me a seat that would fit.  I had no idea that seats came in different sizes.  Probably because I've been using my "Spiderflex" seat for almost all my riding except mountain biking.

What I really wanted to see was the TREK "Gary Fisher" line of bikes.  The Rumblefish 29er had caught my fancy and at 2,400 beans strikes me as being reasonably priced.  REASONABLY PRICED?*%$#@!  My first car was only 900.00!   That is four months of groceries!  A couple of weeks pay! 

I'll probably get it.