Mountain Biking - Padding Against Bike Seats

Help! I need to prevent bike seat pain. Anyone have suggestions on biking pants vs. gel seat cover (or both!). Or (for mountain biking, casual riding around town), baggy bike pants vs. regular bike pants with shorts?

Thanks, Mike

How long have you been riding? It takes a few days to a couple of weeks of regular riding for your seat to get used to the saddle. Even when you get used to it, if you change saddles there will be a couple of days of acclimatization. Padded shorts are important for longer rides, but you will have seat pain initially with the most padded saddle and short. Your muscles just have to get used to the new pressure. Padded saddles can actually cause discomfort, by the way. A good firm, even hard, saddle is more comfortable if it is shaped properly. I like good old Brooks Team Professionals which are just a leather shell, hard as wood. And I'm a heavy guy.

If you only ride once a week or less, it will be hard to ever get comfortable because your seat never has a chance to get used to the saddle.

It would help to know what kind of pain you're talking about.

But in general, some tips:


Level your saddle. If you absolutely must tilt it, do so in the smallest possible increments and then ride for a while to test the new position.
Too-wide saddles are always painful, although they may seem comfortable for the first few minutes.
Too-soft saddles are not only possibly painful, but can also cause compression on soft tissue and nerves that could lead to numbess and severe chafing.
Padding should be in your shorts, not on the saddle.
The appearance of what you wear is just style, and who cares? But if you wear shorts that put seams or folds next to your skin you'll chafe, and if you wear shorts that don't wick and dissipate moisture, you'll chafe.
The width of the wide part of a saddle should match the distance between your "sit bones." If you sit on something soft, like wet sand, you can measure this distance in the depressions you leave. These two points should be the only part of your body that puts significant weight on the saddle.
Chafing or numbess in the perineal area can sometimes be solved by saddles with a cutout down the center.


But before you do anything else, check the position of your saddle. It should be level, or very nearly so. If you have to tilt it for reasons relating to fit, know that there's always a better way to solve fitting problems than to tilt the saddle.

RichC

Well I got a better, more comfy seat (not a cover). I got mine from Nashbar.com-- pretty good price. It has an open channel and is gender specific as well. I notice some improvement, although my old seat wasn' t horrible. You may just want to go to a bike store and look at the gel seats they have...ask for suggestions. If you bring in your bike a good shop will let you try a couple out on your bike and ride around a little. This way you can see for yourself which you like best. I see that serfas brand a lot in bike shops. I decided on the nashbar seat because it looked like a good design and it was red and black like my old seat. (matching the bike is a bonus!)

I also got these awesome gel padded shorts. They were not cheap ($50) but they were the most comfortable and seemed to offer the best protection. I think they are Trico brand.... most stores didn't have them. Just try on several pairs at a shop and see which ones you feel more comfortable in. I wanted the baggy shorts, but found the padding seemed insufficient. I have a seriously bony arse apparently! I don't wear the shorts all the time since they are plenty hot. After awhile I think you get used to the pain....you toughen that butt up! Although as I write this, I realize my tail bone does hurt when I move on the chair here (I rode yesterday) The difference is that I guess my foot is in so much pain from the biking accident I had 2 months ago that any bum pain is cake now!! The corisone seems to be helping though... I don't limp so badly in my sandles anyway.

-xta

DOH! Well I'll try something different.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid26/pce9ba4d980b9ab9605cfbe27ca643a0f/fddc0b8e.jpg

Go here if that doesn't work...

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291964529

Just so there is no misunderstanding....I do not advocate using a bearded dragon as a cushion!! :p The above is the Nashbar seat I was talking about. The model's name is Flapjack!

-xta

Hi Xta,

I enjoyed the photography!! Good job. :)

cheers,

heh hee Thanks! :D

I moved from a padded saddle to a Selle Italia Nitrox - which is narrow and initially extremely firm, eventually (100 miles odd) softening to just very firm. Once you get used to them firm saddles are far better in my opinion. Shorts wise, go for somethingclose fitting, or at least wear close fitting shorts under looser ones, your butt will thank you for it.

Richard

For crusing around town you dont need any particular type of shorts. Most evenings I am on the bike for 1hr with no padded shorts, on a Brooks leather saddle, on tracks and roads. You get used to it pretty quickly. If you are going to be in the saddle more than 1hr, then you should get padded bike shorts (without any underwear) or padded underwear. You can wear baggy shorts on top for a fashion statement if you want.
Your body will get used to longer rides, but dont go on a really long ride without building up slowly or you will get "charity ride syndrome" and think that cycling hurts your butt.

Saddle choice is a personal matter and you cant really go on other peoples recomendations.
You need to position your saddle properly, and pay attention to the whole fit of the bike and your total riding position.
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm