Originally Posted by
jim p
Thanks for all the input. I did measure my sit bones by taking a piece of paper and placing it on about 1/2" of foam rubber. I then sat on the paper like shown in the above diagram and then measured from the center of the impressions. This gave a measure of 110mm one time and 120 mm another time. It is difficult to determine the exact center of the impressions.
From the scale above and my riding position it looks like the 143 mm saddle would be a good starting point. My saddle is around 170mm edge to edge but it has soft foam on it which is probably causing my discomfort after about 1 hour of riding.
Thanks again.
Soft foam and gel both cause pain. As your sit bones sink down into the foam, you place some of your weight on the foam that is not under the sit bones, and is actually under your sensitive bits. The saddle actually does exactly what you don't want it to do, place pressure on your sensitive bits. Having support at the sit bones by a hard relatively unyielding surface does not put any pressure on those areas, if the design and setup are right for you. It can still be done wrong, but this is why we say hard saddles are better than soft ones. Three hours spend on a feather pillow can become grueling.