Thread: Saddle
View Single Post
Old 01-03-14 | 06:32 PM
  #14  
Brian Ratliff's Avatar
Brian Ratliff
Senior Member
20 Anniversary
 
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 10,123
Likes: 4
From: Near Portland, OR

Bikes: Three road bikes. Two track bikes.

Sounds counterintuitive, but it is likely the nose of your saddle is too soft or the middle is too flexible. What happens is your body start sliding down the saddle because of the soft nose or the flexible middle and you put pressure where pressure ain't supposed to be.

Those cutouts don't do jack, other than to cause some people to chafe. This is from personal experience.

Find a saddle that is stiff. Any padding should be sewn in over the top of a hard shell and be positioned under your "sit bones" (look it up) and there shouldn't be padding in the middle or nose of the saddle. If you are looking for a recommendation, try a Selle Italia Flite for starters. Some saddles come with a soft, rubbery flexible shell. Don't buy these. The saddle shell should be of hard plastic from nose to tail or thick rigid leather (if you fancy old-style Brooks saddles). After that, shape and padding are highly individualistic.

Also, just a warning, a good saddle will cost you in the range of $100. I was shocked at the price when I started riding seriously, but it is something worth investing in. Bicycle manufacturers know that most cyclists have their own preferences in saddles, so they purposely include the cheapest saddle that'll look good in their ad copy to sell with the bike. Pretty much everyone changes the saddle once they get the bike home.

A hard saddle might make your sit bones bruise when you first ride, if you are not used to it. This is a good sign. It means you are sitting on your sit bones like God intended. If you are chafing or pinching, then the saddle is the wrong shape for you. If you are feeling sharp pains in your crotch or numbness, then the saddle construction is wrong and you are sitting on the nerves and blood vessels that run to your sexy bits.

Lastly, if you don't know what you want, find a bike shop which will let you return the saddle after a few rides if it's not right for you. This is pretty common with most shops as they know that saddles are largely a trial and error sort of thing. Don't buy off the internet unless you are good at reselling things.
__________________
Cat 2 Track, Cat 3 Road.
"If you’re new enough [to racing] that you would ask such question, then i would hazard a guess that if you just made up a workout that sounded hard to do, and did it, you’d probably get faster." --the tiniest sprinter

Last edited by Brian Ratliff; 01-03-14 at 07:25 PM.
Brian Ratliff is offline  
Reply