Originally Posted by billdsd

Sheldon Brown wrote/collected a number of good articles for beginners. You may want to look them over:

Articles for New Cyclists

You may be particularly interested in Bicycling and Pain as well as Saddles

Sheldon's site is valuable to know about for any cyclist. Fortunately, John Allen and Harriet Fell have kept it going even though he's no longer with us:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/