After crossing the finish line, I proceeded to the shower area to wash up a bit and change clothes. While taking a shower, I felt the need to pee and instinctively held my “junior”. I felt nothing. It was as if there was nothing hanging there!

The numbness I felt lasted for several days, in fact, more than a week. I was so worried about it that from time to time, I would try to feel it and check if some sort of sensitivity was back.

I’ve asked friends around and felt some relief that most of them experienced it before, telling me it would come back in no time. For as long as I was out of the saddle and let the circulation of the blood in my perineum area flowing, I was on my way to recovery.

I never wanted to experience the same again!

I’ve heard of Adamo Saddles, or saddles that has a revolutionary design that was getting popular among my triathlete-friends. It had no nose and claimed to have solved the “numbness” issue with cyclists. The saddle was beyond my budget though. So instead of buying one, I tweaked my bike’s configuration to allow for a more relaxed seating position: pointing up, pointing down, leveled, lower seatpost, higher seatpost, saddle set back, saddle set forward, etc. I never thought there were more than one saddle position in a bike!

My knee ached. The relaxed seating position’s trade off was shorter leg pedaling length which meant prolonged curled knee and more pressure on the forefoot causing numbness.

I ordered an Adamo saddle from Ebay right away!

There are two models of multi-sport Adamo saddles in the ISM line-up: The Adamo Racing and the Adamo Road. The Adamo RACING is lighter but more expensive and is tri-specific. The Adamo ROAD is heavier but with more gel and has a wider base for road position. I ordered the ROAD.

Adamo saddles are odd-looking and does not conform to traditional saddle designs. It has no nose and has a cut-away from where the nose should have been, up to the middle of the saddle body. Its rails also are higher than traditional saddles. These differences are actually what makes the Adamo better saddles than the others.

It being without a nose and with a cut away makes it gentler on the perineum area. By letting blood flow through the perineum, numbness is drastically minimized.

Its wider tip, though, warrants some getting used to. After riding the saddle for 20kms for the first time, I felt some soreness on my sit bones. Using the saddle regularly enables the sit bone muscles, which is very seldom used, memorize being on the Adamo thereby minimizing or eliminating the soreness. I rode with the Adamo yesterday for more than 100kms and have no sit bones soreness as I write this. Felt like magic!

The Adamo is easy to install. It follows the same installation procedure as other traditional saddles. However, in order to get the full benefit of the product, you need to tweak the position a bit so you’d feel its claimed “therapeutic” effect immediately. If ever you purchase one, try to visit their site www.ismseat.com and view the installation video. Since it has no nose and has a cut-away, configuring it on your bike takes a bit of trial and error.

There are two ways to ride the Adamo: either by seating on a forward position and let the rear-most part of your butt touch the saddle, or, you may want to sit via the sitbones and leave a small distance between the saddles and your “nuts”. I prefer the latter.

The Adamo Road also enabled me to bike faster as I’m in the aero position more. Before, I would go aero for a kilometer then use the hoods after. I needed to stand up on the bike to avoid “numbing up”. This has been taken cared of by the Adamo. There isn’t any worry now that I’d be numb in the private area no matter how long the ride distance is. Now, if that’s not enough reason to buy one, I don’t know any reason anymore.

Thank you Steve Toll for coming out with this excellent saddle!

In summary:

- eliminates numbness in the private area during and after bike rides

- gel-padded and seems really durable

- easy to install

- transition hook on the rear enables easier racking up at transition area

- enables you to stay on the aero position longer

- not easily configure-”able”, requires some tweaking before maximum benefit is achieved

- soreness on the sit bones during initial use

- heavier than some saddles

If I have been using 5 stars to rate a product, Adamo Road saddle would get 4.5 from me. Great product!

Deo P.

My tri-bike is fitted with only one bottle cage. Not because I don’t want to put another, but, because there’s no more space in the triangle of the frame to put another one into. This posed a problem with my long rides before, and I’ve resorted to using a hydration backpack to address it. However, riding on a tribike with a hydration pack is not a good sight to see. Other rider friends would smile, or even laugh, at me at the start of the ride. I was in racing gear except for the hydration pack normally used in MTB rides. Yeah, funny.

I have seen rear aqua racks in races before, but when I inquired about it from the owner of the bikes I’ve seen it on, I would be disappointed to learn that these were seatpost mounted. My Kinesis KT610 TT bike has an aero seatpost which makes it, well, aero and not rounded like the traditional seatposts.

But then, I found the Profile Design RM1 saddle mounted bottle holder.

This bottle holder mounts to the rail of the saddle and can be installed on all saddles, whether road, MTB or even the cruiser type. For as long as the saddle has rails, the RM1 can stick on it.

Getting the RM1 a day before a century ride was perfect timing. I would get to test the rack in real life and in real conditions where it was needed.

The RM1 comes in a plastic package which probably has become Profile Design’s trademark by now. The package included the RM1 frame, two lightweight Profile Design Kages and CO2 mounting brackets.

Installation was quite easy. I just screwed the clamps on the rails using Allen wrench, then adjusted the angle of the rack to my taste. Once adjusted , I tightened the bolt of the rack to make sure it didn’t loosen up during my ride.

In testing the fit of my water bottles with the Kages, I filled up two of my bottles and inserted it in the rack. The Kages were tight, and I had to twist each of the bottle just to get it inside. Eack Kage was wrapped in a rubber band to ensure a tight grip on the bottle. A loose grip will launch the bottle out of the Kage when or if I hit a bump.

During the actual ride, the rack proved to be very useful. I had enough hydration to last me three-quarters of a century ride, replenishing only on km 80.

The bottles were easy to reach even on aero position, much more when riding on the hoods of the basebar.

Putting the bottles back in the rack needed some learning curve. In my case, I had to feel the mouth of the Kages first then try to insert the bottles once I found it. In twisting the bottles, I was able to put these back easily. However, the pressure from pushing and twisting the bottles down took its toll on the frame of the aqua rack, it loosened.

I had to remove one of the Kages first before I was able to tighten the bolt back on the rack’s frame, it wasn’t as easy as 1-2-3.

At the end of the ride, the RM1 held up quite nicely. It performed its duties with flying colors and in great aesthetics too. No wonder even the pros in Kona for the World Ironman Championships use these wonderful piece of accesory. Liquid at the front and at the back, what else do you need?

In summary:

- Light and durable

- Easy to install

- Does not come into contact with the body even if its installed close

- Well thought of design

- Includes CO2 mounts in the package

- Cheap

- Does not launch the bottles even if you hit some bumps

- Supplied Kages too tight for water bottles

- Rack frame loosens due to pressure when inserting the bottles back in

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. A necessity for long rides.