Have you thought about having a bike fit done?
I had one done 10 years ago and I set all my bikes up the same now, including my mountain bike.
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Saddles! Now there’s a subject. If you have a favorite, let us know. Currently, a relief channel seems to be a necessity, but I haven’t found one that I couldn’t live without.
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I’m considering it, even though the bike is already custom built for me. Curse my weird body geometry. If I could set the saddle a few cm more forward, I’d be golden.
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Currently I only have a nemesis. 
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I have weird body geometry as well. My legs are very long, but short body. If you can get someone to bike fit who understands body mechanics, I guarantee you’ll feel better about your saddle.
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Something positive for a change, I mounted the GP4s today and they feel very nice (thx for the pointer @Derbysieger). At 4.5-5.5 bar they are definitely harder than the Marathons were at 3.5, but they are much more comfortable. If I had to express it in terms of a transmission characteristic, they feel much more lowpass-like, where the Marathons at minimum rated pressure (4.5 bar) had a really sharp bounce. Feels much more like a roadbike now too, which I like.
Also I am still experimenting with the saddle position and contrary to what the SQLab manual suggests, I tried adjusting the nose of the saddle slightly down and it’s starting to feel better. I haven’t had the time to take a proper ride with the new position, but on short rides it feels ok. I’m still considering seeing a fitter if I can’t find a comfortable position myself, but at least I still have options.
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Getting a proper bike fit is probably the best thing you can do.
Also, if you can try a few different saddles that’s what I would do. I have a Selle Italia SLR Superflow that I am very happy with but of course everyone is different and it might not be the right one for you.
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I got the repair bill for my bike.
$1 for the replaced spoke.
$20 for true’ing the wheel and a tune up.
I love my LBS.
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I haven’t had a bike since leaving Finland in 2010. Helsinki is a great city for getting around on a bike, unfortunately you can’t say the same about Auckland, especially the North Shore where I live.
I am happy to report that my cycling hiatus has recently ended, though.
In summary, my wife got a big step up at her work in January and I knew that I’d have to dig deep because I was about to become a de facto working solo dad - so I figured the best way to keep the wheels on and stretch my energy further would be to get fit again, after 7-8 years of no real focus on fitness.
I started running, and a month or so into running I decided to pick up a bike to use as a recovery tool / alternative form of cardio that’s lower impact than running, to avoid injury as I increased my running kms / intensity.
Auckland Transport has a cool community program called Community Bike Hubs where you can pick up old bikes on the cheap - bike shops donate them, the Hub fixes them up & sell to the public, with the idea to get more people on bikes.
The first bike I bought was an old Wheeler road bike:
That was my first-ever foray into road bikes, so it was a learning journey. I put in about 70kms a week for a couple of months, most of it as short lunch time rides from work. I bought a few things, helmet, repair kit, pump, front and rear lights and a cell phone holder, kind of thing.
My longest ride with this bike was a trip home after work - 37kms or so (you have to go all around the city because, stupidly, you can’t cycle over the harbour bridge):
As I got used to cycling, I started to realise that the Wheeler was too big for me - it is a 60cm frame and I’m 180cm tall - so I did another round of community bike hubs and found a slightly smaller and newer Specialized. I had bought the Wheeler for NZ$300 and the hub was happy to take the Wheeler and NZ$100 as a swap.
The replacement is a 2010 Specialized Allez Elite, in speedy red:
I’ve put about 500kms to the clock on her now, and felt ready to start learning to ride with cleats, too. I also took the leap to swap into cycling shorts and jersey - still don’t love the look but it is much more comfortable than cycling in running gear. I got some nice new Continental GP5000 tires and put them on and she rolls really nicely now.
I’ve made a connection with the local bike shop (who incidentally were the ones that had donated the bike to the hub in the first place!) and got a few things fixed - the front derailleur had a crack and they put a new second hand one in, and swapped the tired chain rings to slightly less tired ones.
They have a guy who does bike fits of different levels - I am not at a level where it needs to be perfect, but I am planning to book one in next week to try to at least get in the right ballpark so as to be as comfortable as I can be while still getting used to increasing the mileage.
I really like running, and having the cycling on the side has meant that I’ve had to manage my weekly aerobic loading and recovery, which in turn has meant that my running pace has suffered a bit…but I feel like having the two combined is a way to have more well rounded exercise. I know I need to incorporate gym on the side in due course, but baby steps. Getting fit in one’s 40s is different to one’s 20s! Still, it is nice to have the early fast gains in fitness going - my running VO2max went from 45 to 51 in 3 months, and I definitely feel more fit.
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To echo @Derbysieger points, I found this comparison between the Continental Gatorskin and Grand Prix 4 Season tires. I’ll definitely be trying the GP 4 S when the Gatorskins need replacing. I wish that the comparison would have been on 28mm or larger size, but it is a good reference point regardless.
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