General Cycling Discussion - Long rides, Saddles, shorts and your Comfort.

When you ride much more than 85 miles, the rear gets a little tender. Seems to recover quickly- but gets pretty achy before you hit the 100 mile mark.. Taking 15 minute breaks once in awhile helps a lot..
What best works to keep your rear end's pain minimal? I had liked hydro shorts. Gel saddles seem to add little in terms of comfort. The saddle on my road bike seems less comfortable. I leave it on, because it is a saddle for race bikes and racing. Even though I am not much of a racer.
What do you think works best to minimize butt pain..? What piece of gear do you insist upon for long rides?

Chamois shorts- no cloth pads- chamois or syntheic chamois ( otherwise known as ultra-suede) Sugoi and Blackbottom have 'em.

Ride Comfy
Pat

Not so much a bit of gear as a technique. Every so often I like to get out of the saddle, even if just for a few seconds. It allows some blood flow to certain areas and helps reduce the problems described above.

Cycling shorts and Brooks saddle, + standing on the pedals at regular intervals.

Chamois Butt'r. Discovered it on day 4 of a 7 day tour and now use it everytime I ride. It does a great job of softening the chamois and makes the t'aint much happier at the end of the day.

good quality cycling shorts with a good fit and a properly adjusted saddle. my most comfortable long distance shorts are voler bibs, and my saddle is a si flite transam. i can ride with minimal pain or numbness for 7-8 hours.

I don't think enough can be said for having the saddle adjusted properly. Bike fit in general becomes increasingly more important as your rides get longer. Some experimentation may be in order as to saddle height, angle fore/aft position and bar height. These are a lot of variables to deal with, so make changes in small increments one at a time.

As others mentioned, I try to stand up for 30 sec every 20 minutes. However, this is more to restore blood flow to the soft and cushy parts and doesn't do much to relieve soreness on the sit bones.

In a word, Brooks, All day every day, once you break it in it's good for comfy 12 hour days.