Wal-parts

During the winter when it's too cold to let my 3-year-old kid go outside and ride his bike, I will sometimes take him to a nearby department store, pull a bike off the shelf, and let him tear through the aisles for awhile. We were at Wal-Mart last night, and while he was MASHing around (yes, he does skid and leave marks all over the floor), I happened to spot something in the bike parts section that, for some completely inexplicable reason, caught my eye. It was this seat...



...an ESPN X-games seat, on clearance for $7. I have no idea why I picked it up, no one over the age of 10 would EVER touch one of these things, but I did. Probably because I was born with a gene that makes me attracted to clearance items, no matter how stupid they may be. When I turned it over, I was met with an interesting surprise...



The seat had hand grips on both the nose and the tail! And pretty good ones, too!

Now, when I'm doing trackstand crapola, I spend much more time holding my seat than actually sitting on it. So, I always get some sort of flatland specific saddle, like my beloved (and discontinued) Odyssey 99er. Seats with good, comfortable grips make certain things much easier and/or less painful, but unfortunately they can be very difficult to find. As I stood there holding this thing, something came over me and I knew that I just had to get it.

The first thing I did when I got home, of course, was to scratch off the idiotic "X-Games" decal as best I could...



After I was done, I stuck it on one of my spare bikes and went to work. It didn't feel as good or as solid (or as light) as my 99er of course, and it looks pretty damn clunky, but functionally speaking it felt very good and is definitely worth the $$$ I paid for it.

I realize that I very well may be the only person on the planet who is concerned with having a seat with grips on his fg, so I doubt any of you are going to run out to Wal-Mart to look for one of these things. However, the moral of this story is that probably 95% of all bike parts, regardless of the brand, are made in the same factories in China and Taiwan, so keep your eyes open because you never know where you may be able to find serviceable equipment on the cheap!