This is the bike I bought recently to get a little exercise and see some interesting places in NYC.
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-US/...ad/2268/32200/
I love the bike, but I am about 300 miles into the ownership and my butt is not holding up very well. I went through some of the normal tenderness issues you might expect from someone that hasn't ridden a bike in 20 years. And also the numb hands and sore elbow tendons. But I think I worked through a lot of that. The thing that stands out to me the most now is my tail bone. I ride about twice a week (about 24 miles on a weeknight, and try to do a 30 mile ride on the weekend). I'd like to ride more but the weather and my sore butt has been holding me back. I've talked to a few biking friends and they have never heard of a sore tail bone before. It is so bad that at about the 15 mile mark, I am shifting around trying to get off the sore spot or just limp to the end of the ride. But I can't even sit down on the edge of my bed to take off my shoes after the ride. I have to roll onto one cheek or the other. That's how bruised it feels right on the end of the bone. That lasts/subsides for a couple days and then I ride again and start the whole thing over again. But I am getting to the point where I dread the thought of trying to ride at all. Maybe I am developing a deep bone bruise that is going to be more of a chronic problem if I can't make some change.
The bike came with a Giant Unity SuperSoft Venture seat (if that means anything!). The seat seems to be mounted horizontally and in relative terms seems to have a decent amount of padding (but no real channel per se). I must confess that I ride in cargo shorts and underwear. I first thought the seam would be my problem and a pair of bike shorts would help. But I tried to see where the indentations from my sit bones were a couple times (after reading that you should pick a seat this way ...the bones being centered in the padding of the seat), but I couldn't see any indentations in the seat at all and gave up. Also, I did this in underwear in my apartment and even with no seam, it hurt my tail bone just to sit in the saddle. So maybe there is some other issue with the seat? Or I am an anatomical freak of nature?? Incidentally, I don't know exactly where a sit bone is but my perception is that my weight is resting on a bone a lot closer to my centerline than out toward the bones that are under the butt cheeks. Maybe that is why I am not seeing the seat indentations like I am supposed to.
So I don't know what to do. I imagined I would buy some bike shorts and stop riding in the cargo shorts to rule that out. But I am not sure that will actually solve the problem. So my questions I guess are what do you guys think about my situation. And is there a non-spandex bike short that would be good for me. I absolutely will not wear classic bike shorts unless I cover them, but the over-shorts are likely to have a center-seam and offset a lot of the benefit I might have gotten from the bike shorts themselves. I looked at some Fox MB shorts on-line, but they don't really discuss the seam issue or construction of the shorts, so I hate to spend the money just to try them. And I don't know if the removable liner is going to be as effective as a spandex/chamois short.
So can anyone pick through this and offer some patient advice to a low-timer??? I really don't think my bike shop is going to do much for me other than suggest a new seat, which seems to be a lot of expensive trial and error anyway.
Thanks!! Andy