You may not love the handle saddle, at first. Especially if you are used to riding “hands free”. The handle saddle seems to ride better with at least one hand on the handle. Also, the cushion and/or your body may need some time to “break in”. Lastly (if necessary), by focusing on firing your abdomen and lower back muscles, and pushing your pelvis forward a little bit, you will place more weight on your sit bones and less weight on your “crotch”.
And lastly lastly, it looks like you currently have the “high side” of your seat post facing the rear. If you reattach your saddle to the seat post 180 degrees in the opposite direction, the nose of the saddle may raise up, and you may like that better.
Event if you ride with the hands on the handle, you may not like it after hours on it
I have had a handle saddle a few years ago, but finally sold it because I couldn’t get used to it for road riding. It seems to be great for muni, though.
I have been slowly coming to the same conclusion. I love it for Muni and short/medium road rides. However, I still can’t see myself using the Handle Saddle for long road rides or races on the 36”. It does not allow me to “relax” my core like the Nimbus Gel, Nimbus Stadium, or a KH Freeride do.
Looks like it works fine (with that tire you generally don’t need extra clearance for mud). I would advocate shortening only if necessary, as some day you may want it higher (shorter cranks and maybe growing taller).
Growing taller is indeed a possible need for a longer seat post, given the OP‘s age. Shorter cranks on the other hand… They‘d need to be changed from being ultra long now to ultra short later. Not impossible, but improbable.
Also, considering the length of the portion of the frame that effectively guides and clamps the seat post of my Oregon, it‘s safe to say that there are many seat posts out there that could be shortened without inducing any noteworthy stability issues. It‘ll save a couple dozens grams. But in this case I would shorten it mostly for aesthetic reasons.
I did kinda consider shortening it, though I know I’ll get taller, which is why I did not. But now I am realizing that since I already have two other 200mm seatposts that fit in the frame, I could cut ne of them down a bit. Maybe I’ll try to do that tomorrow, though I’m not sure it’s necessary in the first place.
It‘s absolutely not unless you want the tire to grow as well, at some point. For me it‘s purely aesthetic. Such a nice uni, and then you have the seat post sticking out . Kinda like some people leave those sti…
Once you get used to the bigger wheel I’m sure you will absolutely love it
. Kinda like some people leave those sti…