October word challenge; movement. On the rivet

A rider who is moving at maximum speed is said to be, in the parlance, ‘on the rivet’. More noticeable in a time trial than a road race, the rider will perch on the front of the saddle - this brings different muscles into play - and in the old days when saddles were made of leather, the covering was attached to the saddle frame with a rivet. A big one. Right where he would be sitting.

I have a new saddle for my bike. It’s made of leather. And it has rivets; fancy ones.

I’ve gone old skool, retro …. metro-man. I have a steel-framed bike, I have a beard, all that’s missing are the tweed trousers. I draw the line at tweed trousers.

Leather saddles are hard; but then old skool bike riders are hard. It’ll take about 500 miles to break it in - perhaps a bit optimistic in my case - and then it’ll be lovely and soft.

Modern synthetic saddles are usually filled with a foam or gel stuck to a hard plastic shell. Great on day 1. And probably day 2. But over time the foamy stuff disintegrates and then you find yourself bouncing along on a hard plastic shell; not nice.

If you think I exaggerate my claim that old skool bike riders are hard - that perhaps I am laying it on with a trowel - then consider Louison Bobet, first man to win the Tour de France three times in succession; 1953 - 55. In one particular race he had an extremely nasty saddle sore - so bad that it needed surgery. And so bad that he could not actually sit on his bike. So he rode the 40-odd mile race standing up - and won. I rest my case. And my seat.