After months of dicking around with the Ionic, I had finally had enough. My junk went to sleep almost immediately on every ride and I had paid a pretty penny for my S-WORKS saddle, so I bit the bullet and got myself the Stylus post.
For 3T to call this thing "Stylus" just goes to show you that Italians have no idea about how to communicate with English speakers. Instead of having a flat plate with another plate on top to sandwich the rails of the saddle, 3T's engineers have decided to take a flat piece of metal and curve it backwards, then use the two metal pieces to sandwich the rails, but they then use a third, round metal piece that the two bolts screw into to hold the whole thing together. It's even more overly complex than the Ionic, and if I ever have to change saddles I will probably lose my shit, but it's all together and holding well at the moment.
I decided to give the Toupé saddle a try because I was starting to have discomfort with my Romin saddle. I had an original Toupé from when I bought my Tarmac, and I could just never get along with it. I ended up trying a Romin and it immediately felt perfect, so I bought three over the course of the next few years (one for the Tarmac, one for the Guru, then a carbon railed version for the Allez). The Romin works best for people who rotate their hips as they lean forward to grab the handlebar. The Toupé works for people who don't rotate their hips. After years of riding, my flexibility had improved so much that I wasn't rotating my hips anymore. Specialized changed the shape of the Toupé a while ago, and I rode the previous version of the S-WORKS Toupé for one ride, and I thought it was really comfortable, so I bought the new version.
So far, I haven't had any numbness, but the saddle is a bit more slippery than I'm used to and it feels really weird under me because I'm so used to how a Romin feels. It's not bad, just different. I'm hoping that after a few more rides I wont even notice it, but the lack of dingle-tingle has me pretty stoked.
Since I was ordering from Vittoria any way (3T, Vittoria, Selle Italia, Northwave, and Geax are all distributed by Vittoria, at least in the U.S.) I decided to give their Open Corsa SC open tubulars a try. Incase the phrase "open tubular" is giving you trouble, it's just the clincher version of their tubular tire. They're really supple to the touch, and kind of a pain in the ass to put a tube in once it's half on the rim, but I really enjoy they way the tires ride. Not as grippy and 20g heavier than the Pro4 tires I usually run, but Vittoria know how to make a smooth tire. I threw them on my PowerTap wheels and will use them this winter.
It's raining at the moment, so excuse the hallway photoshoot, but here are some other pictures I took because I was bored. I hope you enjoy them.
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