Some of the self-respecting Texans I have known would try the
thing once, let it sit in the house until they stubbed their toes on
it twice, then put it curbside and order pizza and beer to celebrate
their good sense! ;)

I used a gel seat when I put the 600 miles on my bike.  But I haven't lacked
for my own padding since I was about 10 years old.  I also really loved my
gloves with the gel palms.

Jo

What Monique said about saddle fit is absolutely correct. I've always had to
replace the saddle on a bike from what came on the bike to one that fits me.
Example - when I got Luigi, my race bike, it came with a general 'unisex'
saddle. I am not joking when I say that after I'd done ten miles on the
bike, I could hardly sit on the bike or walk when I dismounted the bike.
That saddle was *agony*.

The saddles that fit me are: - on Luigi, my race bike, I have a Terry's
RaceLite with titanium rails and on Gino, my tourer, I have a Terry's
Liberator TiLite. Different saddles as slightly different geometry on each
bike, and as such, both work well my the respective bike geometries & my
rear end. Both are the sort whith with what I call a 'farthole' ;-) Terry's
web site is at

http://www.terrybicycles.com/

The other thing you need to seriously consider investing in is a pair of
Lycra cycle shorts with padded nether regions. The padding on the shorts is
designed to give a small amount of padding where it's needed without putting
pressure on nether regions and with seams that do not rub the delicate
nether regions :-) Wear once, wash immediately - as they are best worn
'commando-stylee' ;-)

If you don't want to announce to the world you have a Lycra fetish, wear
them under something such as a pair of RonHill Bikesters, as I do :-) Which
brings to mind the WeightWatchers meeting I was at where I was sat clad in
full Lycra cycling kit... woman says, "Oh, you've come on your bike?" To
which I responded, "No, I just have a thing about brightly coloured Lycra"

Soft padding, to be effective, needt to be on your netehr regions and *not*
on the saddle - honest. Soft saddles are seriously not good for anything
other than a short cycle ride - the bit about soft gel saddles being just
the jobbie is mostly marketing hype as they are really only of use on very,
very short journeys.

Cheers, helen s