As mentioned in the New Zealand Alps to Ocean write up, I was impressed by the cushy Serfas Dual Density saddle on the original Merida rental bike and back home tracked one down for just £25. It’s really like one of those naff gel covers of old, bonded into a saddle and probably scoffed at by hard-arsed pros. But it sure was comfy when combined with bike shorts and some creme derriere. Maybe it’s not all gimmick; they do say that dual density foam in cycling shorts is what sets the better ones apart.

The ‘Silk-Tech’ lycra cover is branded with various other technical slogans like Automatic Pressure Release, Dual Density and even ICS or Infinite Control System, but might as well have been International Cpace Station. The fact is, on my full-sus Tero it adds up to unobtrusive day-long comfort, providing you release the pressure (manually) by getting off once in a while. At over 500g, it’s not light, but I don’t begrudge that weight on comfort. I bought a women’s one for the Mrs’ Lapierre too (below right).

So far so good and long may it last. But the other day pulling out onto the road from the house the saddle came, like literally, off the rails.WTJoF? I’ve never had this before. I tried various ways to shoehorn the rail back into the saddle’s nose with my bare hands – no chance. Online they was talk of clamping on two seat posts and prying them apart like a Bullworker® to bend the rail back into the saddle nose.
It looked like the sort of thing that might take a couple of hours faffing about in the garage, so instead I bought another very similar looking but Serfas saddle (below left) from Veloman UK, the same ebay vendor, but this time just 15 quid.

That’s a lot of gel for the price of a pizza and this one had E-gel (30% more) as well as ‘HSS’ or Hybrid Suspension System. What will they think of next? But after a day around Purbeck it didn’t quite have the support of my original lycra DD and seemed to sag in the middle. Too much gel?

So, before heading back to Wales to catch a freak dry spell, I had another go at repairing the Dual Density. I fitted the seat post off the Mrs’ old Pinnacle now lying unused in the back shed. I tried a bit of levering with various metal bars with no luck, then hooked end of my much loved Buzzetti 360mm moto tyre lever to shoehorn it in. After a couple of tries the rail popped back in.
It’s odd that it came off in the first place. It wasn’t like I’d been blasting downhill and landed hard after a 120-foot jump. I’m not convinced it won’t happen again so I screwed in a self taper (below) to keep the rail in place, and might take a spare (or the tyre lever) on the next trip.