Time to Replace a Well Worn, Well Loved Terry Liberator Saddle
A customer reached out to us recently with a not-too-unusual request: “I need to replace this old saddle. The leather is starting to pull away from the frame. What model do you recommend?”
We had to find out a little more about this long-lived saddle, and this is what Doug told us.
Contributed by Doug Peterson
I was a 2x Olympic Nordic skier in 1976 (Innsbruck) and Lake Placid (1980) and cycled a lot as part of my training. Sorry to say, back then I did not use a Terry saddle.
After retiring from the US Ski Team in 1988, having coached the Team at the 1984 (Sarajevo) and 1988 (Calgary) Olympics, I moved to Maui, Hawaii for a job opportunity.
Got married and raised my family, which didn’t leave time for cycling.
Once the kids were out of the nest, I finally had some time to get back in the saddle in 2014 (mostly to get in shape for an upcoming demanding elk hunt in Wyoming) and bought a used carbon race bike from a friend that was leaving the Island and needed to sell his bike to buy his ticket to the mainland.
The Joys of Finding the Right Bike Saddle
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That old Liberator was on that bike and had been “ridden hard and put away wet” many times before I owned it. Not sure when it was originally purchased but guessing probably around 2002 or 2003. The saddle was in good shape when I started riding it and has served me well ever since, climbing many, many times up to the top of Haleakala (10,025’) on Maui.
I moved back to my roots of Minnesota in 2017 to take care of an aging mother, and still climb into that saddle 3-4 times per week when there is no snow on the roads, to stay in shape for the winter months of nordic skiing.
Love the saddle, but just like our bodies, things do wear out, and it is time to replace that old workhorse. It has served me well with so many wonderful and comfortable rides.
Sure wished I had a Terry Saddle on my bike way back in the days when I was training for the Olympics.
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