Posterior crisis

When it gets right down to it, I'm not very fond of my butt. I recognize that it serves a needed function. But were I to list my own favorite parts of the anatomical mess that is me, my butt wouldn't make the top ten. And, no, I'm not going to list the ten I would choose. Shout out to my ears!

Bottom line (har!), my butt has been hurting me lately. I was blaming my newish chair, which is a mesh deal rip-off of a Herman Miller Aeron chair.



My very smart Honey pointed out that the chair was probably not to blame. Rather, the most likely culprit was the Gunnar. No, not the twin son of Rick Nelson. Nor is Gunnar Peterson, the work-out guru, to blame. Instead it's my new-to-me Gunnar Rockhound.

What, you ask, is a Gunnar Rockhound? Why, it's a bicycle. A fancy green bicycle.



I often use my mountain bike to get around campus. My old mountain bike, a Cannondale F400, was aluminium. Here's the thing about aluminum. It's light. It's strong. It's rigid. It makes your teeth fall out rigid. Plus, the C'dale was too big for me. So, after months of obsessing on ebay, I bought the Gunnar and sold the Cannondale.

The Gunnar? She's steel. Flexy, comfy steel. And a blast to ride.

Since the picture above was taken, I've swapped out the seat to this:



My biggest change to the bike, though, courtesy of a conspiracy of the best kind--a birthday conspiracy--was an upgrade the the front fork. Forks are the shocks on the front of mountain bikes. They make riding more fun. I asked for high end in the fork department. I got it. Everybody say woo-whee.



So, now that my bike is everything I want to be and more, I've been riding it. And my butt hurts. Leave it to Honey to see the connection.

It's a hardtail, which means it has no shock on the back end. I am not a hardtail, which means I do have cushioning. But not so much a swingarm or 100mm of travel (that's about 4 inches). That and I'm not a good mountain biker. I gather I should ride out of the saddle more.

I have my bike with me today. My butt's here, too. How much more sore can it get? Maybe I don't want the answer to that question. I might get it anyway.