Originally Posted by JTode
I'm thinking that the seat needs to be pretty wide at the back, with a goodly amount of surface area to contact, thus spreading the weight distribution as widely as possible, and more importantly, it needs to have springs on the bottom. I've seen such seats on some of the Schwinnesque reissues being sold lately, so this shouldn't be too hard to find, seems to me. My current seat is gel-based, and I'm sure it's heavenly for people about half my size, but at the moment it feels like a concrete post.
Saddles are a very personal thing so it's going to be hard for someone to recommend the right one for you. You really do have to try out a bunch. Also, the widest cushiest saddle might not actually be the best. In general they're the worst. What you want from a saddle is ones that will properly support your sitbones. For this to happen, the shape of the saddle is important and will be different from person to person. A cushy gel-like saddle in actuality can cause more discomfort for longer periods of riding as the cushy portion will displace under the rider's weight and begin to protrude into your butt in all the wrong places while your sitbones receive no support whatsoever. Another thing to keep in mind is how long you've been riding. If you've just returned to cycling after a long hiatus or are simply new to cycling, your nerve endings in your behind will be fairly sensitive for the first few rides. Eventually, they will deaden and you won't feel the discomfort so it's best you just rack up some mileage and give it some time at this point.
Originally Posted by JTode
For the pedals, I'm thinking that in the world of chopper bikes there's probably a set of especially wide ones being made by someone that I could probably adapt to my bike, but I wouldn't even know where to start looking. To give you an idea, my current set is about 4.5 inches wide - this doesn't seem overly narrow to me, I'm just not built for standard stuff at the moment. I was thinking, alternately, that there might be a way to add a spacer in between the pedals and crankarms to put them an extra 1/2-1 inch out, which would probably be about perfect.
Are you having a problem with the platform not being wide enough to accomodate your feet or are you having a problem with your legs being positioned too close to the cranks? If it's the former, then you may want to look at some platform pedals such as the
Speedplay Drilliums or the
Crank Brothers 5050. Note that those pedals are fairly pricey and if you don't like the profiles, there are also plenty of similar products out there. Just do a search for something like DH or freeride platform pedals. If it's the latter problem and you're having trouble with foot positioning then you can certainly get pedal spindle extenders such as the ones from
Knee Saver.