Originally Posted by
no1mad
Just curious here, but what are you wearing while you ride?
Usually denim jeans or shorts. No I don't have bicycle shorts, and no I don't plan to purchase them in the future.
Unfortunately, to ride a recumbent also means a reduction in reading comprehension. Even I could see in your first post where you stated specifically you could only afford $100 for a new saddle; not several thousand dollars for a recumbent. Oh well, fundamentalists will always push their points of view on people who don't want them.
OP, the issue with saddles has nothing to do with blood flow. I read this too many times. If you were cutting off the blood supply to your willy, it would go black.
The issue that you are suffering is a compression of the nerves through the perineum which supply your penis. That will cause it to go numb.
You have to understand that the most desirable part about sitting on a saddle is positioning your sit bones in the right place. That means the saddle has to be of a width that suits your sitbone width. Avoid squishy, foamy saddles, as they will likely continue causing compression of the nerves in the perineum and the flesh in the adjacent area.
By the way, how much do you weigh?
Lol. I can see that we already have a line drawn in the sand here. bent riders on one side and DF bikes on the other. Jesus is going "guys I never meant for this"
I already have irritation there. Any sort of compression at all down there wreaks havoc nowadays. If that saddle has a horn, I guarantee its going to cause problems for me. Even sitting forward in an office chair can cause problems.
I am about 190 lbs, 86 kg
Originally Posted by
BlazingPedals 
Most folks here will tell you that you have to find the correct size saddle and adjust it properly so you sit on the fatter rear vs. the narrow nose. And from most accounts, that usually works. I'm apparently one of the few who never finds comfort with any saddle, so I went the other route. If you're
that worried about it, maybe you want to go that route too. But fair warning: it's a 'road less taken,' it's relatively expensive, and people inevitably think you're either disabled or just plain weird.
I don't think a recumbent is anything I'd be in to now, but I do want to try one sometime and that is a cool-looking one. It looks like the chain is going through like 2 feet of tube ahead of the seat, is it? why? is that noisy or is it a plastic tube or something?
Those are called chain tubes. They keep the chain from swinging from side to side and bouncing around, or getting oil all over your leg. Thats a pretty big distance and/or strange route for the chain to go, so they usually have a chain tube fixed to the frame to direct the chain through. The friction is negligible, and they don't usually make much noise.
Most lower-to-the-ground recumbents need those because you have to run the chain really low or under the seat. But there are some without them, or Front wheel drive recumbent's that don't need them.