Hello all. I’ve been lurking on the boards for months but I’m just now getting around to posting a specific question.

I’ve recently begun commuting to work in order to participate in the Bike to Work Week events here in Columbus. My commute is a relatively flat 25 mile one way affair through some fairly lovely countryside. I’m a newish rider, but my general fitness could probably be considered slightly above average for an American. (6 foot tall male who weighs 173 lbs.)

I’ve made my round trip commute to and from Lancaster 4 times now and I’m running into some problems with pain. I find that on my return trip I’m so butt sprung that I have a hard time making the last few miles home. I attempted to ride 2 days in a row and encountered excruciating hand and back pain that forced me to take an involuntary 5 day sabbatical away from the bike. There is also this patch of skin on my upper right thigh that has lost sensation. I was slowly getting sensation back until I rode in again on Monday… For now I’m going to attempt the trip about twice a week with two days rest between each 50 mile round trip. I hope to work my way up to 3 days a week and then eventually every day, but the various pains are holding me back.

My current commuter setup is a 1999 Gary Fisher hard tail mountain bike with road slicks. I have a steerer-tube extender that I use to get the handlebars almost level with the seat. My saddle is an older Serfas RX set about level. I use a backpack on my way into work to haul my clothing and lunch and ride home without it. (Surprisingly enough, the backpack doesn’t seem to impact my general comfort much at all.) I’ve tried the trip in traditional padded biking shorts and loose fitting gym shorts and boxers. The gym shorts seem to leave me slightly more butt sprung, but the bike shorts give me this wonderful diaper rash sensation at the end of the day.

I want to know which of these pains are just my body getting used to being on the bike again and which should be addressed sooner rather than latter with adjustments to my setup. I suspect that I’ll need to try a variety of saddles until one stops causing numbness. Can anybody think of other changes I can make? Thanks in advance for your help.