Cycle Alaska

Taking a poll to determine which seat to purchase for cold temps. My current Serfas gel saddle gets rock hard. What do you recommend?

Rhodabike

Anything without gel? I'm guessing it's possible to get away with squishier padding just because the cold will make it firmer.
I'm wondering how my SMP will feel, as it's very ventilated.

rumrunn6

and maybe slightly wider? since you'll be wearing more clothing

bikemig 

I've been using a brooks b72 one one commuter and a team pro on another; so far so good.

erig007

Maybe the rear should be wider but the nose should be narrower because of the extra layers that increase shaffing in the inner legs

ThermionicScott 

The bike I use for winter riding sports the same B17 year-round.

erig007

^ If you can wear the same saddle year-round without increasing shaffing it means that you live in a place where you don't need much layering in winter or your B17 nose is not wide enough part of the year
Since the OP live in Alaska, we can assume that the OP will wear some thick layers during winter. So unless it is a noseless saddle, a year-round saddle doesn't apply well to the OP situation unless there is something that i don't know that could make it works well. Here is why:

(comparison of saddle pressure)
https://www.sq-lab.com/en/sqlaborator...ontact-en.html

Pressure = Force / surface.
When surface increase pressure decrease.
Which means that to minimize inner legs pressure you have to maximize the surface where you sat.
Maximizing the surface means that your nose will have to be as wide (and flat) as possible without generating shaffing at the inner legs area.
During (alaskan) cold winter, the extra layers reduce the room for the saddle nose. So that it creates shaffing unless your nose is already narrow. In summer you will have removed your extra layers so that there will have extra room for a wider nose. Since saddles usually don't change shape, the extra room available will become unecessary extra pressure on your inner legs area that could generate health problems and/or discomfort during warmer days.

To sum up, in cold weather areas summer saddles should have a wider nose than winter saddles to minimize inner legs pressure.

fietsbob

how about this one? https://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...&category=4954.

I have old saddles they live in a plastic Bag, this one doesn't need the bag.





I've got 2 Fizik Vitesse saddles I got thru Brompton, atop Thud-buster posts,
which are probably not good to use sub zero..
as the suspension elastomer may not like those temperatures .

OR/WA NW Pacific coast rarely freezes ..

GriddleCakes

Ditto.

I've been riding on a B-17 year round for two years now, and it's worked wonderfully for me. The leather doesn't lose any spring in the cold, and I've ridden it in temps down to -30ºF, for up to an hour. As to layering, I personally never wear more than two layers down low, although I certainly can't vouch for other Alaskans; anyway, chafing has never come up, and nose width seems adequate for all seasons, as I've never really thought about it.

FWIW, my wife has a gel Serfas saddle that she rides year round (thing is so squishy, it's softer than my couch), and she says she's never noticed it hardening in the cold, but she thinks that it's because her behind is so hot.

erig007

By layering it wasn't about the number of layers. A layer can be thin or thick, with very different levels of density, surface roughness, breathability etc..
As a rule of thumb it would be probably better to look at the overall thickness of the winter layering system vs summer layering system.

As i said before if you can use the same saddle all year-round it means that you are missing some pressure relieve ability during summer as pressure = force / surface.
If you could find another brooks saddle for summer that is nearly identical to the one you've got with only a slightly wider nose as difference i bet you could gain some comfort during summer.

As far as i'm concerned I have some medical saddles that don't have nose so that i can ride with them year-round without any problem.

Jimbob68

Fizik Aliante.

prooftheory

This kind of sentence marks you as the type of rider who likes to go their own way, which is cool but most bike seats aren't designed to distribute pressure evenly across the entire surface of your rear because freedom of leg motion is a more important consideration even in the summer with the determining factor for width being the width of the sit bones.

Sheldon Brown:

erig007

This doesn't contradict what i've said. All of this works provided that there is no shafing. Read my post #7

Furthermore, Sheldon Brown is basing his explanation more on the rear part of the saddle when i'm dealing more with the nose of the saddle. We reunite in the middle though.

https://www.sq-lab.com/en/sqlaborator...ontact-en.html

prooftheory

Have it your way, dude.

erig007

It's not my way it is the scientific from SQlab way (which i'm not part of) and simple physics pressure = force / surface
surface max ==> pressure min for the same force applied

+ plenty of other variables that make a saddle comfy to a specific one.


Anyway, we're arguing about peanuts since whatever the choice it remains that conventional saddles don't reach the 100% perineum pressure relief level.
True different ways should be conventional saddles vs medical saddles vs unconventional bicycle designs like recumbents vs??

Conventional saddle seems to remain below 100% pressure relief of the perineum

cf: entlastung dammbereich/ pressure relief of the perineum

storckm

I read about a woman who was cycling across Antarctica, and she was using a leather saddle--plastic, apparently, would have shattered in the cold. I've always found my Brooks to work well in the winter (and summer).

ThermionicScott 

WTF is "shaffing" or "shafing"? It's amusing how someone who keeps throwing out pseudo-scientific arguments for noseless saddles cannot spell or conjugate the word "chafe." But don't worry, there are plenty of other BFers who can't either.

erig007

I'm french speaking by the way that explain something. If you want to write in french i don't mind.
Attacking the author is a well known fallacy technique but it doesn't change the facts.

Your argument : I can't write chaffing properly therefore what i say is false ==> fallacy

By the way, i'm using a conventional saddle but on a medical standpoint from what i know noseless saddles are above and beyond conventional one unless you know something that i don't.

prooftheory

Clearly the narrow noses of most bike saddles is a conspiracy to give cyclists numb nuts, thus enabling a devious plot for world domination.

erig007

No babies no more bike enthusiast

Anyway, i brought my thought if you don't agree then don't.
As far as i'm concerned i'm going on my narrow nose saddle this winter and will switch back to a wider nose one next spring.

ThermionicScott 

I said it amuses me. Your claim that different saddles are needed for winter and summer wouldn't stand even if you could spell the word.

Above and beyond in terms of what... noselessness?

erig007

Then you're ignoring simple physics. Don't tell me there isn't any inner leg gap difference between those 2 pics:






I thought i said that already: pressure relief of the perineum.

ThermionicScott 

The snowpants have thicker material, but a saddle that works with that much padding will work in the summer with less clothing. If you like swapping saddles twice a year, knock yourself out, but you haven't yet made a case that this is necessary for anyone.

The nose of a saddle should never be in contact with the perineum. Try again.

erig007

Then you haven't read my previous posts. It wasn't about if you could use your saddle year-round only but about always having the maximum pressure relief since you can ride year-round with a saddle having a nose as thin as a knife but it won't mean max pressure relief.

Hypothetically yes in reality though it isn't the case most of the time for conventional saddles.

Different studies on the subject
https://www.sq-lab.com/images/sqlab/l...udien-2008.pdf

If i take a random one on the list and i check on pubmed...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=16422818
Only the nose knows: penile hemodynamic study of the perineum-saddle interface in men with erectile dysfunction utilizing bicycle saddles and seats with and without nose extensions.

CONCLUSIONS:

I typed nose + bicycle on pubmed and found an interesting study

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15179177
Effect of bicycle saddle designs on the pressure to the perineum of the bicyclist.

RESULTS:

prooftheory

There is another thing that doesn't seem obvious to me because I have never experienced the problem. Is it really the case that having the thick snow pants over bibs actually creates significantly more chafing? I think this would be a reason to avoid them if possible.