At the end of January I called Russell Cycle Products for a ride-in appointment for a custom butt-fitting at their shop in the city of Shasta Lake, which is about a 3 and a half hour ride from my home in the Bay Area. Overnighted six miles south of there in Redding, and showed up just as they opened up last Friday morning.
Where I was greeted my their office manager, Kim, "the voice of Day-Long".
She took a picture of me poised on my stock saddle, while trusty assistants held the bike upright as I smiled for the camera. They gave me a loaner saddle to use for the morning and said, "That's it! Come back at 11:00 am for a trial fitting."
After receiving some suggestions for seeing some of the local sites, I headed 20 minutes west to arrive at Shasta Dam. This is a view of the approach:
Shasta Dam dams the Sacramento River at the north end of the valley of that same name, and forms Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in California. It was constructed as a public works project by the Bureau of Reclamation as one of Roosevelt's New Deal civil engineering projects during the great depression, and it's construction continued until almost the end of WW II. Today it's hard to appreciate the scale of these massive projects, particularly as they came in ahead of schedule and within budget. When does that ever happen these days?
The dam is one of the largest concrete dams. The first bucket of concrete was poured in July 1940, and the pour continued uninterrupted in three shifts, 24 hours a day, every day for 4 and a half years. To create this concrete, they constructed the largest conveyor belt system in the world, 9.5 miles, to transport sand and gravel from Redding to the construction site. My hat's off to the men who could envision this project and execute its construction.
Dam wildlife:
Power generation plant:
I wandered around the visitor's center for a time, then headed back to Russell for the trial fitting, and then a tour of the facilities.
Purchasers of Day Long saddles, trustingly send their stock seats into Russell, where they are shelved here until their build date. That is, when they are not being used as "loaners" to ride-in customers (thank you anonymous FJR owner for the temporary loan).
At which time, construction of the custom saddle begins. The heart of their system is the spring steel that reinforces their foam seats. They used to order these springs from another company, but that company went out of business some years back, so now they construct them in custom sizes on site from raw stock.
On the shelf in the background, you can see the various sizes and densities of foam blanks that they use to construct their saddles. At one time they also purchased the blanks, now they make them in house.
This is Matt Bradford, who built my saddle that day. Matt joined the company just after high school and has been at Russell for 12 years now. I take this claim with a grain of salt. I suspect that he actually leaves and goes home every day, so his cumulative time there is quite a bit less.
The build process starts with selecting a foam blank, based on the weight of the rider or passenger. They then carve out the stock seat to position the blank suitably per the customer's photos. They then reinforce the seat pan to provide needed support for the blank, and split the blank to widen or narrow it to achieve a more accurate fit (notice the black filler in this blank).
At a separate temperature controlled room, they have their "Foaminator" machine, part of their process to create their custom saddle blanks. The device combines the two-part chemical components for the foam as it is poured into molds. The pouring room, the component, the machine and the molds are all carefully ramped in temperature throughout the pour and cure process.
For the past several years, they've been using aluminum molds that they had machined for them. Prior to this, they used the original "hand made" molds. The black containers against the back wall are the raw foam components.
After the saddle innards are completed, comes the really hard work - constructing the cover from the material selected by the customer. It takes several different, specialized skill sets to create their products.
At the end of this process are finished, custom saddles all ready to be boxed and shipped back their owners.
During the trial fitting, Matt trimmed the saddle slightly, and then sent it on to be covered. "Be back around 2:30 pm, and your saddle should be ready."
With a couple of hours to kill, and a fine stock loaner seat, I wandered off northwards to discover what was at the end of I-5 exits that I'd always bypassed these many years.
Here's a view of Turntable Bay (an arm of Shasta Lake) at the end of a road leading to a facility maintained by the Department of Agriculture, of all things.
Found a great little restaurant about 11 miles north in Lakehead. Cheryl is the artist-in-resident, chef, proprietor and owner. Had the salmon burger, which was wonderful, and the best-by-far clam chowder that I've ever had. She bakes delicious cookies, too. The art work hung on all of the walls was notable and created a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere. No food porn. The meal was gone before I remembered to snap a photo.
But, in honor of Señior Black, I have a picture of "pie" from another time:
The final Russell product below.
Matt was conservative about shaving too much off of the saddle during the trial fitting, with the explanation that the edges will sag about 5 percent during the course of the break-in period, which they suggested would take somewhere between 500 and a 1000 miles. My impressions to date:
Cheers
Where I was greeted my their office manager, Kim, "the voice of Day-Long".
She took a picture of me poised on my stock saddle, while trusty assistants held the bike upright as I smiled for the camera. They gave me a loaner saddle to use for the morning and said, "That's it! Come back at 11:00 am for a trial fitting."
After receiving some suggestions for seeing some of the local sites, I headed 20 minutes west to arrive at Shasta Dam. This is a view of the approach:
Shasta Dam dams the Sacramento River at the north end of the valley of that same name, and forms Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in California. It was constructed as a public works project by the Bureau of Reclamation as one of Roosevelt's New Deal civil engineering projects during the great depression, and it's construction continued until almost the end of WW II. Today it's hard to appreciate the scale of these massive projects, particularly as they came in ahead of schedule and within budget. When does that ever happen these days?
The dam is one of the largest concrete dams. The first bucket of concrete was poured in July 1940, and the pour continued uninterrupted in three shifts, 24 hours a day, every day for 4 and a half years. To create this concrete, they constructed the largest conveyor belt system in the world, 9.5 miles, to transport sand and gravel from Redding to the construction site. My hat's off to the men who could envision this project and execute its construction.
Dam wildlife:
Power generation plant:
I wandered around the visitor's center for a time, then headed back to Russell for the trial fitting, and then a tour of the facilities.
Purchasers of Day Long saddles, trustingly send their stock seats into Russell, where they are shelved here until their build date. That is, when they are not being used as "loaners" to ride-in customers (thank you anonymous FJR owner for the temporary loan).
At which time, construction of the custom saddle begins. The heart of their system is the spring steel that reinforces their foam seats. They used to order these springs from another company, but that company went out of business some years back, so now they construct them in custom sizes on site from raw stock.
On the shelf in the background, you can see the various sizes and densities of foam blanks that they use to construct their saddles. At one time they also purchased the blanks, now they make them in house.
This is Matt Bradford, who built my saddle that day. Matt joined the company just after high school and has been at Russell for 12 years now. I take this claim with a grain of salt. I suspect that he actually leaves and goes home every day, so his cumulative time there is quite a bit less.
The build process starts with selecting a foam blank, based on the weight of the rider or passenger. They then carve out the stock seat to position the blank suitably per the customer's photos. They then reinforce the seat pan to provide needed support for the blank, and split the blank to widen or narrow it to achieve a more accurate fit (notice the black filler in this blank).
At a separate temperature controlled room, they have their "Foaminator" machine, part of their process to create their custom saddle blanks. The device combines the two-part chemical components for the foam as it is poured into molds. The pouring room, the component, the machine and the molds are all carefully ramped in temperature throughout the pour and cure process.
For the past several years, they've been using aluminum molds that they had machined for them. Prior to this, they used the original "hand made" molds. The black containers against the back wall are the raw foam components.
After the saddle innards are completed, comes the really hard work - constructing the cover from the material selected by the customer. It takes several different, specialized skill sets to create their products.
At the end of this process are finished, custom saddles all ready to be boxed and shipped back their owners.
During the trial fitting, Matt trimmed the saddle slightly, and then sent it on to be covered. "Be back around 2:30 pm, and your saddle should be ready."
With a couple of hours to kill, and a fine stock loaner seat, I wandered off northwards to discover what was at the end of I-5 exits that I'd always bypassed these many years.
Here's a view of Turntable Bay (an arm of Shasta Lake) at the end of a road leading to a facility maintained by the Department of Agriculture, of all things.
Found a great little restaurant about 11 miles north in Lakehead. Cheryl is the artist-in-resident, chef, proprietor and owner. Had the salmon burger, which was wonderful, and the best-by-far clam chowder that I've ever had. She bakes delicious cookies, too. The art work hung on all of the walls was notable and created a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere. No food porn. The meal was gone before I remembered to snap a photo.
But, in honor of Señior Black, I have a picture of "pie" from another time:
The final Russell product below.
Matt was conservative about shaving too much off of the saddle during the trial fitting, with the explanation that the edges will sag about 5 percent during the course of the break-in period, which they suggested would take somewhere between 500 and a 1000 miles. My impressions to date:
- The ride home was much more comfortable than the ride there. With the stock saddle, I was squirming after just a couple of hours on the road, but arriving home my derriere was fat (as it were), dumb and happy.
- The shape and width of the saddle raised my ride height noticeably, which I knew going into this, as that was my experience with the second-hand Russell I had on my Gen I. For the inseam challenged among us, that equates to sliding your butt forward out of the saddle's "pocket" at stops. Where I was solidly on the balls of my feet, I'm now less so. Backing up and balance must be done more carefully than before, as my muscle memory adjusts to the new geometry.
- The higher than stock seat, as others have noted, changes the ergonomics a bit. Where I had been putting off installing handle bar risers or setbacks, I'm now actively pursuing such accessories. What's this year's "hot" accessory of choice in this department?
Cheers
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