Day 6 - laying down on the job.
Ok, it's time to install the seat. I'm using the Cruzbike carbon seat for this build—first, some basic info. I have 20k+ miles on the stock seat and have one event on it. I like the seat for all things, excluding going uphill. After that, I have two full seasons on the Thor Sport Carbon seat, and that's the seat I have on the V20 permanently mounted on the trainer; I have enough miles on that seat that it's starting to fall apart. That seat is great for going uphill with the better ability to breathe from being more upright; however, the Thor seat leaves much to be desired from the Areo standpoint. There's a decided amount of more drag for bigger people on the Thor. Enter the new Cruzbike seat; I've only got about 400 miles on it this fall before I had to part it for travel. Early results are that this seat hits the sweet spot between Power and Aero, the best of both worlds. It did, however, take a bunch of testing to get it set to the correct length and the headrest to the right position. Since I was doing this on two bikes for 2 riders, I was able to see that, yes, getting it right makes a difference, and it did for both of us. In both case setting the seat longer than I suspected was the better choice so that the rider could sink deeper into the seat.
So with that. Grab the two halves and the mounting bolts and shim (The Carbon Seat is a separate purchase item so it will have a big C-Bracket that you won't use as that's for other frames)
Hold the shime in the frame -
Then lay the bottom seat pan inplace and install the screw. As always use grease unless you want squeaks.
If you look closely, you will see the sticky side of Velcro. I have done enough of these seats over the years to know that the space alien wonder locking hooks known as velcro is our friend when it comes to these seats.
So, I peeled the velcro off the stock seat and installed it on the carbon seat. The CB-supplied velcro on the stock seat has great adhesive, and this can be done easily. I advise doing this and not removing the velcro from the frame; the weight hit is negligible, and you get a much more solid installation. The velcro keeps the seat and frame interface nice and quiet on the road while dampening out some vibrations.
With that done, could you bolt the front of the seat to the support wing? You want these bolts installed. With the stock seat, it was always possible to skip these due to how it was shaped. (Remember, Silvio 2.0 didn't even have these holes) but with the carbon seat, it won't stay under power if you don't install them. Also, don't add washers. Just use the pan head screws as supplied with the nylon lock nuts. If the bolts are any bigger, you will feel them through the seat pad (I don't know why, but you will. It's a princess and the pea thing, apparently).
After the base is installed, install the top half, make your best guess sizewise and don't over tighten as you'll be adjusting that later
Next up is the headrest. When you first grab the headrest that comes with the seat you will be surprised. It looks flimsy, and it feels like it's not going to hold up, but once installed, it's really solid, surprisingly so, and so far on the road, it's holding up as well as the now out-of-business ADEM headrests of years past.
The headrest comes with a foam pad and cover. If you like those types of headrests, you'll like this one. However, I can't stand a wet, sweaty headrest, so I've never been partial to phone ones. I prefer a Ventisit material, so I ordered a neck roll pad (The ADEM version ) for this build.
To accommodate the installation of that neck roll, I had to drill four holes into the included plastic plate, as shown here.
After that, it's a simple matter of bolting everything to the bike. Use red locktite for this installation, not grease. For the neck roll simply zipp time it in place.