Originally Posted by
Kedosto
I’m gonna confess to not reading through the entire thread and hope you’ll forgive me for making some assumptions, but I get the impression you’re sitting mostly upright on your Vaya. The high stack and short reach encourage an upright position and when combined with a flat bar virtually guarantee as much.
In general, an upright position places the bulk of the riders weight on the saddle. Most people find wider saddles provide more support for upright riding positions. Unfortunately, most wide saddles are thickly padded in an effort to feel comfy right out of the box, but too thick padding brings a whole host of other problems (ie soft tissue pressure issues).
Anytime one starts riding a new saddle there’s an adjustment period. The saddle adjusts to the rider (not much with plastic/synth saddles) and the rider adjusts to the saddle. The challenge is to figure out when a saddle is worth spending the time and effort to get comfortable, or when it’s time to move on to a different shape or style.
I suspect you might do better with a wider saddle (based on my earlier upright position assumption). Something like a Brooks B67 or Rivet Loveland. These wide saddles are really under appreciated and deserve more credit. Their width provide broader support and the leather construction provide the benefit of breathability and shape conformation. It’s true that a wide saddle doesn’t have the cool, racer-boy look, but for upright riding comfort they’re almost always what works best.
Stick with it, or move on to something else? Plastic shell based saddles don’t really conform to individual fit. They’re either a winner or loser right out of the box. Any adjustment is really just acclimation on the part of the rider. With leather there’s a break-in period where the riders weight, motion, and sweat shape the saddle to the individual just like boots or a hat or a favorite pair of jeans.
As I said, I’ve made some assumptions about your situation. Maybe it’s a help (to you or anyone reading this far). Maybe not. Either way, good luck with your saddle search. It’s great when you finally find “the one.”
-Kedosto
I've removed the SA and am sending it back. I'm still within the 30 day trial. I had it covered the entire time, so it looks new. Here's the deal. Yes, I agree with you, my stance is more upright than most, at least when I'm on one section of the Jones Bar. Sometimes however I grasp the most forward part, and when doing that, my stance is as if I were "riding on the hoods."
I've come to suspect that the problem I'm having with the SA saddle is that it's too soft, too pliant, in part because of the split down the middle, the carve out. When I first get on the saddle, it feels like I'm riding on a cloud. I can hardly feel rough-ish spots on the gravel. But then after a while, I start to feel pressure, especially in the perineum area. My sit bones I think are just sinking in to the saddle.
In contrast...today I installed my old Cambrium, the regular one, not the one with the carve out that I've been using recently. When I sit on that saddle, I can clearly feel my sitbones perched on the surface. It's quite defined, and I have no pressure on the sensitive in-between area. The saddle feels firm though.
I did fix the fit issue. The 23mm setback on the Nitto helped, and I also slammed the Cambrium all the way back, right up against the stop. Hopefully the rail won't bend. I'm slightly behind KOPS now, about a cm or so, which feels comfortable. We'll see how the next ride goes.