Road Cycling - Saddles & Testiclse & bike shorts

This is a follow up to the similarly titled thread from before.

I do occasionally get the numb gonad, but I didn't think it would be so serious. (or is it? I'm confused. Some say it may lead to permenant porblems and others say it's ol' wives tales)

I wear padded bike shorts, where the padding covers from the frontal crotch area to back. The stones don't appear to be in a position to be under any stress... so why am I still getting the numbness?

Gonna move my sit forward a bit and see how much it helps.

I opened up a thread today without looking to see in which forum it had been posted. It was about someone's "friend" stealing her energy. It turned out to be about her monthly visitor...you know...Aunt Flo. Well, I had nothing to say about the subject so I got out of there as quickly as I could.

This subject, on the other hand, I feel I can address knowledgably. The problem with numbness that many men get is from the compression of the pudendal nerve. Standing up for a short while to relieve pressure on that nerve will usually wake up the sleepy peepee. Permanent damage is unlikely. A saddle with a hole in it is one possible solution--it might prevent the numbness to begin with.

It is possible to damage the pudendal artery which may cause impotence, but riding a bike that is properly set up makes that unlikely. It takes a lot of miles on a bad bike to do permanent harm. The urologist who copped some headlines a few years ago by making alarmist statements about bicycling has since recanted. What was his name anyway?

Moving your seat forward a smidge may help. The main thing is to get your sit bones on the wide part of the saddle to keep pressure off the perineum. Raising your handlebars can help too.

If you are sitting on your testicles, you are leaning too far forward.

Originally posted by RegularGuy
I opened up a thread today without looking to see in which forum it had been posted. It was about someone's "friend" stealing her energy. It turned out to be about her monthly visitor...you know...Aunt Flo. Well, I had nothing to say about the subject so I got out of there as quickly as I could.

d.

Hey, I don't recall anyone in that thread ASKING for your opinion...:D

Originally posted by wabbit


Hey, I don't recall anyone in that thread ASKING for your opinion...:D

Wascally Wabbit!:p

I have a really good selle italia trans am saddle with a large slit/hole in the middle, and I guess that seems to help because I have not experienced any crotch or testicular pains. Ah yes, and sitting on your testicles is always a bad idea.

Hey RoadRager,
I too have the EXACT saddle you are talking about.

Today, I just brought it forward a bit, and tilted it down slightly. Pretty big difference now. The hole in the middle was helping before, but didn't solve the whole problem.

Now when I'm riding the only pressure I feel is on my ass cheecks. And my bike shorts are pretty quality and keep the whole "package" a good distance above the saddle and the cheecks well cushioned.

but I dunno if it's just me or what, but I think I have lost some performance because the new positioning slightly affects my power strokes.

no big deal. The discomfort is gone.

Hey Amir:

One small note of caution. Make sure that tilting your saddle down at the nose doesn't put undue pressure on your hands. If you are supporting your weight on your hands too much, level that saddle.

Hey Regular.

I'm not too fond of high accerlation, so when I go down the steep hills around here I clutch the brakes just to maintain my speed. The combination of tightly squeezing the brakes and the shifted weight of my upper body due to the down slope puts a lot of pressure on my hands.

But that has always been the case. I haven't noticed more weight on my hands since I fiddled with the saddle.

You have the same saddle has me? What type of bike ya got?

I usually don't wear bike shorts, but ive never experienced any discomfort with this saddle.

Here is my bike:

http://www.devinci.com/eng/famille/routeent/chicane.htm

The saddle is a SELLE ITALIA XO TRANS AM VINYL, as it says.
These saddles are pretty good. The rail (which allows you to bring it forward and back) is made up of FeC alloy. Not sure what that does exactly, but I just love exotic materials here and there, like my carbon fiber pedals :)

I find that different saddles require different angles to be comfortable. On one bike I have a Selle Italia San Marco. It is pretty much straight from end to end and is comfortable set pretty much perfectly level. On the other hand the Brooks Team Pros on my other two bikes kick up just at little at the rear. If I set them visually level, the rear sitting area actually leans forward a smidge. This becomes immediately obvious when I start riding because I feel myself pitched forward onto my hands. Once I get the angle right, the nose is actually a little raised and it feels as if there is little or no weight on my hands.

The Doctors name was Dr Goldstein.When did he recant on his
claims?
If he did change his mind ,why was there not more published
about his change of thought?,after all his claims were shouted
through the roof at the time.
I have emailed a few urologists on this subject,and their view
seems to be you are increasing your risk of impotence if you ride a bicycle.
But what about horse riding and motorcycling these must also pose a risk ,so why just attack bicycling?
:confused: ::beer:

i use the same bike for 2 things urban and xc, i stopped riding urban once i came to belgium and all i did was raise the seatpost and rode about 100km over the course of a week. the seat was still tilted for urban and djing..........my nuts were never numb but thier significant other had no sensation! seriously scared the crap outta me. after that i scooted the seat forward and tilted it down. then in about a week it went away. scary stuff:eek:

I ride a BROOKS leather saddle AND have the opposite problem...I don't know if its the saddle or the ride, but at 54 its a little embarassing. My wife thinks it is "cute" and .........

Three points addressing things Amir raised.

1. I had some numbness issues and I tried both the moving forward trick and the downward tilt trick. The first helped. But the downward tilt both put too much pressure on my hands and also put *more* pressure on my groin. (I tilted my saddle by just one notch--no more than 2 degrees).

Then I tried the opposite, and tilted the saddle backward, putting it one notch back of level (again less than 2 degrees). That solved the problem, because it gently encouraged me to ride more back on the sit-bones. No more numbness. I guess this corresponds to Rainman's comment.

2. As to losing power. Don't forget that when you move the saddle forward, you have to raise it just slightly to have the same height as before. It might be the slight loss height that contributes to the loss of power.

3. As to clutching the bar/hoods during a descent. I used to do this partly out of fear for the speed. I went riding with a guy one day. He said to me, you teach me how to climb, and I'll teach you how to descend. As we went up the canyon, I gave him my tips.

One of his tips to me was to ride with the hands very loosely on the bar/hoods. The idea was that you gotta let the bike go. Tension in the arms will both wear you out and make your reactions slower. Ditto with the butt, descend with lots flex in the legs, so that when you hit a bump the bike bounces underneath you, but you don't get jostled.

He gave me some other tips, but those are classified information. But, loose, not tight is the way to go.

Cheers,
Jamie