Raleigh Banana lo-pro re-pro

[Allshownogo]

As I've said elsewhere you ride what works for you........that works for me.

Anytime I ride with the supposed 'proper' saddle angle of parallel to the ground I end up losing feeling in my undercarriage after less that two miles. My Adamo on my TT machine helps that, but it's still a slight issue even with that.

My wife and I have had two miscarriages in the last 3 and a half years, a molar pregnancy, a cancer scare, and next year will be moving onto IVF. Having my saddle like that stops me getting numb bits so if I chose to ride like that I will.

 

[Old Ned]

Well, if that isn't a good reason for riding in a non-conventional manner then I don't know what is! Sorry if my original post seemed a bit 'confrontational', it wasn't meant to be in the slightest and I suppose I could have worded it slightly better If nothing else you've hopefully made people aware of the potential problems associated with our sport. I reckon you should be commended for continuing to ride in such circumstances. Let's hope the situation improves for you both soon.

My comment was probably a reaction to some of the bike set-ups that can often be seen nowadays. Generally used by certain of the fashionable 'fixie' crowd where they use a 24" front wheel lo-pro frame and stick the saddle as high as possible and the 6" wide straight bars as low as possible and think it's clever. More often than not without a front brake too. Not only is the riding position unsafe and the handling diabolical but no brake = illegal. Not that they seem to care.

Are you going to race the bike next season? Is it any different/better/worse compared to your modern carbon machine?

 

[Mofofo]

Great bike !

 

[Carabo]

My wife and I have had two miscarriages in the last 3 and a half years, a molar pregnancy, a cancer scare, and next year will be moving onto IVF. Having my saddle like that stops me getting numb bits so if I chose to ride like that I will.

Ok, have you experimented using different saddles? Selle SMP comes to mind, but there are more. Sometimes saddle angles like this are also caused by having the seat set up too high (doubt that's the case btw).

I love the project and the fame respray came out really nice!

(I'd personally swap out the seatpost and headset for Dura Ace as icing on the cake)

 

[terryhfs]

Good luck with the IVF fella - we've had three kids that way. It's a trial but it's all worth it when it works.

My advice though - three months before you start, get off the bike. Cycling is not good for the quality or quantity of your, erm, output. It's too long, complicated and expensive a process to risk messing it up. I love cycling, but I wanted kids more.

 

[Allshownogo]

Well, if that isn't a good reason for riding in a non-conventional manner then I don't know what is! Sorry if my original post seemed a bit 'confrontational', it wasn't meant to be in the slightest and I suppose I could have worded it slightly better If nothing else you've hopefully made people aware of the potential problems associated with our sport. I reckon you should be commended for continuing to ride in such circumstances. Let's hope the situation improves for you both soon.

My comment was probably a reaction to some of the bike set-ups that can often be seen nowadays. Generally used by certain of the fashionable 'fixie' crowd where they use a 24" front wheel lo-pro frame and stick the saddle as high as possible and the 6" wide straight bars as low as possible and think it's clever. More often than not without a front brake too. Not only is the riding position unsafe and the handling diabolical but no brake = illegal. Not that they seem to care.

Are you going to race the bike next season? Is it any different/better/worse compared to your modern carbon machine?

No worries

I've tried so many different saddles and the best one I've come across is the Adamo that I have on my carbon TT machine, but at £140 it's a wee bit expensive to go buying one for every one of my bikes.
In the meantime I've found the Selle Italia anatomical cutout saddles at my 'impossible' angle to be very comfortable. I rode the Norwich 100 alongside my wife on the road bike banana without any undercarriage issues, or wrist and shoulder issues.

The Lo-Pro is actually going out racing next year, and its two mile test run does prove it to be quite a smooth ride. The power transfer is not as direct as the carbon frame, but once it's moving it's very nice. The riding position is going to take a wee bit of getting used to though.

And thanks for the IVF boost Terryhfs
To be honest I got told two years ago that cycling wasn't going to help our conception issues so I laid off the bike for a year, and got nothing but a stone heavier!
Went back to racing last year and my count was 40 million (and 75% swimming straight) whilst racing, so something was ok.
I will lay off the racing though before the IVF, but will still keep a bit of cycling going just to keep the fitness levels up which also helps.

 

[Old Ned]

You could always buy one of those 'stunt/bmx' bikes without a saddle :roll:

 

[kula]

Great looking project, well done.
I've got one of the off the peg dynatech low profiles, gotta say it's a fantastic ride, never got to TT in anger as picked up a lower back injury that forced me off any bike for a couple of years, let alone bending over for the uptuned bars!
Then when I get back into cycling, i find the rules changed :cry:

 

[Old Ned]

Then when I get back into cycling, i find the rules changed :cry:

What rules changed to stop you using it? CTT (or new RTTC if you prefer) don't go by the UCI dogma so you can virtually use anything provided it's road legal and doesn't have any 'add-on' aero devices.

 

[kula]

so can I use a low pro with 650c front wheel in an open time trial or even a club 10?

If so perhaps I have been mis-informed. However I'm in no shape to do even a '10' so won't be worrying about it too much.