The skin is not supposed to feel slippery. All the cream is supposed to do it to reinforce the top layer of skin in conditions when it might be particularly fragile (i.e. long/hot/wet rides).

If your bicycle is set up correctly; if you have a good saddle; if you have the proper pair of shorts for you with seams in a location where you are not sitting on them; and if the weather conditions are not desperately hot or pouring rain .... you should be able to ride 15 miles or 30 miles without even a hint of saddle sores ... without using any creams at all.



Think of it like this .....

You know how if you've been soaking in the bath for a long time, or swimming for a long time, your hands go all wrinkly and the skin around your finger nails tears easier ... well, if you're riding in hot conditions where you sweat a lot, or rainy conditions where your shorts are soaked with rain, your skin gets all wrinkly and can tear easier ... it's more fragile then.

Same thing if you've been swimming at the beach for a while, and then you stay in your wet/damp swim suit for the rest of the day ... you can often experience chafing around the legs of the swim suit.

But you can wear your dry swimsuit all day with no chafing.

Bicycle shorts are designed to wick away most moisture and it is like wearing a dry swimsuit ... but on long/hot/wet rides, sometimes the job can become too much for the shorts, and they become like a wet swimsuit ... and that's when you need some additional protection.