In Which a New Seat is Installed

I have installed new seat, and placed old one on it for contrast.

Have you ever swapped out a bike seat?

There are lots of fiddly bits, in my experience. The device that attaches the seat to the bike is separate from the seat itself, and comes in many parts—a central post, two clips on each side, a doohickey that rests on the seat post and several nuts. It drives me nuts.

Anyway, we purchased a used Tab-A-Long seat. Best $20 we ever spent (they are about 20 times that new). I use it with grandchildren a lot.

A Tag-A-Long is sort of a half bike that attaches to the back of another bike. The one we purchased had a worn seat that is continuing to fall apart. So, my wife and I recently picked up a new child-sized bicycle seat. And I decided to install it today.

I could invent some tale of woe at this point. It certainly taxed my patience a bit and had me speaking “French.” But, all-in-all, the job probably only took 20 minutes, and although the darn thing fell apart several times before I was able to get the nuts back on, it seems OK.

A 4-year-old grandchild was visiting today, and the plan was, after I replaced the seat, we (my wife, the granddaughter and I) would go on a bike ride. Audrey would ride her bike, and the grandchild would ride the Tag-A-Long attached to my bike.

But, the possible passenger was feeling a little under the weather after lunch, so we decided nap time would come first. And when naps ended, Mother Nature intervened in the form of late afternoon showers.

Well, that’s OK. I got the seat installed, and we’ll test it soon. And I did get several short, dry rides in today.

I also had hoped to get Argent out, but that didn’t work due to rain. Still, I rode Clarence to get to Cost Cutters for a hair trim, and climbed the Brentwood Drive hill just for fun.

All in all, despite no test ride on the new seat, it was a good biking Friday.

The new seat all alone, awaiting its first ride.