When I ride, I slide forward on the saddle. I start by perching my sit bones on the wide area of the saddle (old style Fizik Aliante) and rolling forward onto my pubic rami(?) to reach the handlebars. As I ride, I pretty quickly slide forward to a point where I feel as if I’m riding on the saddle’s nose, which leads to perineal numbness. I push myself back, and the cycle starts again.

This occurs with an Avocet Touring I, a Specialized Toupe, and the Aliante. I rode the Avocet without any problems for years, but when I got back to cycling last year after a 10 year layoff, I started to have this problem.

My saddle height seems good – no knee pain, slight bend in the knee with heel on the pedal at 6 o’clock.

My handlebars obscure the front hub when I’m on the drops. The stem, which is both long and deep, is about 2 cm higher than my saddle. I used to ride the drops and the hoods, but now I ride the bend in the bars. I turned 70 six weeks ago, so I don’t expect to get back to the drops much in the future.

Since this happens with 3 very different saddles, I suspect it’s my setup.

My first thought was that my saddle was too far back, but I feel like I slide forward earlier if I place the saddle in a more forward position. I wonder if my stem is too long or too high, but it’s not easy to experiment with a shorter stem. Also, the stem has been in so long that I can’t loosen it to lower it.

Any thoughts on what to change first?

Thanks.