bobotech

What to do? It is the inside back of my groin area. The skin appears to be getting rubbed raw and is hurting bad. I'm not sure if its the skin or not though. This is after only 2 very short rides (first time rides).

If you missed my intro post, I'm a very overweight man of about 370 pounds.

contango 

As an overweight rider you may just find it's a sweat rash that then causes further problems as your legs rub together. One thing I've often found helps that is to rub a little Vaseline in the area before you go riding.

Also check the fit of your underwear, if the leg bands of your underwear soak up sweat and then rub it's not going to be much fun.

the reformation

definitely pants. i get the same thing with 1 pair of my pants (i'm english, i mean underwear) it would seem, but not the others. unfortunately i only buy 1 pair of pants style ever, and after much detective work i identified the problem. the inside leg of close fitting briefs had stretched and the give caused it to move about a lot more than my other identical pants. vaseline helped but what helped more was throwing away the offending pair so i never accidentally put it on ever again.

keep buying new pants, all the time. (i even remember how i stretched them... taking them off and going to pick them up but my toe snagged them and they stretched when i pulled them up)

Neil_B

I don't want to spend too much time talking about your groin, but is it chafing on the inside of your legs? Or behind your 'equipment?' If the former, the petroleum jelly suggested might work the trick. If the latter, adjusting the saddle position might help.

bassjones

Cycling shorts with chamois butter - NO underwear. If you're worried about appearance, wear regular shorts over top.

Neil_B

A good move eventually, but the OP currently hasn't ridden any further than 8 blocks. That leads me to think it's a fit problem.

indyfabz

And for the love of Pete no petroleum-based lubes if you are wearing padded shorts. Chamois butter, Butt Butter or whatever, as long as it's water soluable.

Juan Foote

There are liners made specific for wearing with shorts. The tighteness of the shorts helps keep everything from rubbing (most of the time), and the chamois pad helps with the comfort factor.
What Neil was talking about on the saddle fit was this. When you are sitting on the bike it is important that you are actually sitting on your butt bones. Lots of new riders will adjust the saddle in such a way that you put too much weight on your perineum. Just a small amount of pressure there can be very uncomfortable.

Push

I am just slightly lighter than you are and had this happen to me too when I bought a new saddle, if you're talking about your taint I am with Neil and say its an adjustment in addition to you just need to let the area get use to riding, we are after all supporting a lot of weight on a small seat.

I adjusted the new saddle and no more pain in that region, Last spring/summer/fall I was riding 20-25 mile rides on trails (not on the road) pretty often (more than a couple times per week) and I don't own a pair of cycling specific shorts, I ride in basketball shorts pretty much exclusively and don't think that any of my issues were/are because of what I am wearing.

I would play with the seat adjustments and give yourself some time to get use to being on a bike again, the area will toughen up with time.

just my $0.02, and I am not against cycling shorts and gooping the nether region, its just not something that I want to do and never needed to in order to get a comfy ride.

bobotech

OKay, I had my wife look at it. It is a bad rash about 2 inches long and very red and inflamed. Hurts like HELL!! I'm not having any muscle or back pain, just this rash burning. It burns so bad that I can't even get back on the saddle right now. Ugh.

It is a 2 inch long rash about the spot where my tighty whiteys stretchy strap lies. I bet it was the underpants.

CraigB

You may well be right, though it's hard to imagine it happening from such a short time on the saddle. Nevertheless, you'll be doing yourself a big favor by getting some cycling shorts and wearing them as intended - without underwear.

contango 

If your short ride was enough to make you sweat profusely (which is possible for those of us carrying surplus weight) it could just be sweat combined with elastic rubbing. If you've recently changed your washing detergent that might be exacerbating things. I've found I'm sensitive to some types of detergent and I'd imagine if I combined one of those with tight elastic rubbing up and down repeatedly in an area that was damp with sweat it would be pretty unpleasant.