Road Cycling - New rider needs advice

I purchased a Trek 1500 on 7-24 and I rode around 9 miles. I bought a pair of padded shorts with the bike, but I am getting numbness in my crotch. The LBS I purchased the bike from fitted me and set everything up and let me test ride at the store. Will a seat adjustment help? I am also getting some numbness in the fingers on my right hand. Thanks for any help.

Could be the seat adjustment and/or the seat itself.

A seat adjustment may help. Original equipment seats often aren't the greatest anyway. Frankly, the best advice that I can give you is to resist the temptation to buy a big, wide thickly padded seat. They don't seem to work for anybody.

Nothing takes the place of experience on the bike. Keep working with it and it'll get better.

If you are new too riding, limit your rides too 1/2hr for the first few times. A lot of problems are due to your butt not being conditioned to sitting on a saddle.
You also need to ensure the saddle is comfortable and the whole riding position is suitable. An aerodynamic racing position is not always appropriate for a beginner.

I bought a new Lemond recently and the saddle KILLED me!

I tried to change the angle and it didn't help. So, I swapped for a different one and things are better but not perfect. If you'r ehaving numbness issues you might try pointing it down a MM or two and see if that helps.

However, changing saddles even for short "test" rides (5-10 miles, etc.) will tell you alot about what exactly is wrong. I found I like the saddles with the cutout in them, although I have a 20-year-old Bianchi Selle Italia saddle (sans cutout) that fits me very well.

As was stated earlier, you need to condition your a$$ too.

Small changes will help make a difference. Don't make drastic changes all at once or you'll never figure out what helped.

Talk with your LBS and see what they recommend. A lot of shops will swap saddles for you to try.

Good luck,

PJ

Thanks for the replies. My bottom sure is sore today, but my main concern is that I don't want to damage anything. Maybe I will point the front of the seat down a little and see if that helps.

As little as you can,really.

Thanks for the replies. My bottom sure is sore today, but my main concern is that I don't want to damage anything. Maybe I will point the front of the seat down a little and see if that helps.

Another thing that you might look at is your shorts, I had problems with some cycling shorts where the padding in the front was very uncomfortable in the crotch area, to fix it I would completely rip off that part of the padding and leave the butt area intact.

I now ride in Pearl Lizumi Attack Shorts, and I found them to be just pefect in the croch area, no need
for my modifications :)

Bibs will do wonders.

As a 53 year old rider I find my crotch gets numb now when I never had a problem when I was younger. Same bike and position with the same seat but now I have numb nuts, got a new seat and shorts (helped but still numb). Have come to the conclusion my handle bars are too low, since they are as high as they will go I will be buying a new stem to see if that help.

Bibs will do wonders.
I will be trying bibs also-a lot of people on this forum swear by them.

If you guys are going numb, your not sitting on your sitz bones. may need a differant kind of saddle but it is usaly an adjustment. set the saddle postition using a level.

I'm pretty sure my handle bars are too low because if I get on the drops and push up a little bit I can feel a big differance plus it doesn't do it on my mountain bike.

If you guys are going numb, your not sitting on your sitz bones. may need a differant kind of saddle but it is usaly an adjustment. set the saddle postition using a level.


If I set the saddle using a level do I need to get it level or should it lean forward?

Level first and see how it is,then if you need to lean it forward the least amount you can.

I bought a Trek 1500 about a week ago. I have the same problem. The dealer I bought the bike from told me this would happen and I would need to get another seat.I have also talked to a lot of other Trek 1500 riders and they have told me to get another seat and the problem would go away.