In my seemingly endless quest for saddle comfort, I’ve gone and done it again. Every time James the Shouty Bike Fitter mentions the Selle Italia SLR Boost, I’m tempted to give it a try. And after watching a recent saddle comparison video, I pulled the trigger.

The Selle Italia is not vastly different at first look from the WTB Gravelier I’ve been riding less than two years now, since the Brooks went south. The Gravelier has been as comfortable as the Brooks, although a very different saddle, but I believe there’s room for improvement yet — short of actually losing some weight.

Compared to the WTB, the Selle Italia has a more pronounced pressure relief channel and more bulbous wings. It’s also slightly concave in the area where the pelvis will actually rest on it, and I’m hoping that will be significant.

I forgot to weigh the Selle Italia before putting it on the bike. The spec says 211g, so we’ll go with that.

Shifty bastard

As mentioned after my previous ride, the shifting is mostly sorted out but not perfect. While I had Kuroko up in the Workshop in the Sky, I decided to have a look at the cogs. One in particular — the seventh when counting from the largest to smallest — was making noise. Had I possible mounted that one cog backwards? (Is that even possible?)

While inspecting the cog in question, I thought I detected some minute damage to a couple of teeth. But after cleaning it up, all the teeth looked fine — I must have just seen something in the grime.

I’d started cleaning by disassembling the cassette in a bucket and spraying it quite liberally with the Muc-Off bike detergent. That didn’t yield good results, so I thought I’d add water and let the thing soak. It was only after I’d filled the bucket with water that I realized I should be using the degreaser, not the detergent. After pouring out the soapy water and spraying the cogs liberally with degreaser, work proceeded quickly.

In the end I didn’t find any good reason for the No. 7 cog to be causing any noise. I reinstalled the clean cogs and put the wheel back on the bike, after making sure the derailleur hanger hadn’t come loose again. I ran through the gears a few times. As always, it shifts fine on the stand.

I’ve got a ride set with José tomorrow morning, before it gets too hot (I hope!), so I’ll report back after that on the saddle and the shifting.