Saddle Pressure

[cacyclingfan]

Hello,

I recently purchased a triathlon bike and haven’t found an adjustment yet that relieves the pressure I feel from the saddle in “the area” that a guy doesn’t want significant pressure. Could it maybe be something I can’t adjust like incorrect bike size or need a new saddle (using an Arione) or should I keep tweaking my set-up?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[phinney]

FWIW, IMHO, YMMV:

A padded seat allows you to sink into it and distributes pressure to areas that will cause discomfort. Might be part of the problem but I'm not at all familiar with that seat.

If you're leaning forward too far you'll get pressure where it doesn't belong. How much forward lean is too much is determined by your hip/lower back flexibility.

If you're sitting too far forward on the saddle or it's just too narrow too much load will get carried in the wrong spot.

[^*^BATMAN^*^]

What saddle are you on now? I find that for longer triathlons or road rides, i use a specialized padded saddle. But for TT's or shorter tri's i am on a Selle Italia SLR.

[cacyclingfan]

I am currently on a Fizik Arione. I have one on my road bike and it works great. However, I do have a Specialized BG Sport on my touring bike that I really like. I once tried a BG sport on my road bike but it seemed to be too wide when riding in my drops. Maybe one of the higher-end BG saddled from Specialized would work. I see they now come in 3 widths.

[TriBob]

Do you have the Tri version of the saddle? I just started using it this year and love it.

[cacyclingfan]

I don't. I got the same one that is on my road bike. The packaging had a little circle that covered both tri and road. I will give the tri only one a shot.

[racergirl]

I had problems with this recently (although I'm a girl, so anatomy is slightly different) and have been swapping saddle around for a few weeks. I finally concluded that shape matters more than padding. The absolute worst saddles seem to be the ones that have the center line raised to fit the anatomy -they just makes things feel squashed. Look for something with a pressure relieving channel in the middle to take pressure off the key nerves. Also, for tris its good to find a saddle with limited seams to prevent rashing during competition.

Even for short tris, I go for the slightly heavier, substantially more comfortable saddles. It makes a huge difference in the efficiency of my pedal stroke to have the saddle comfortable.