Saddle wear on only one side?
 

I have a Brooks B17 with about 700 miles on it. It's been moderately comfortable all along but I'm noticing that my left sit bone is holding the majority of my weight and the left side of the saddle is obviously more broken in. I'm going to just keep riding for now, but I'm curious if it's my anatomy or if I perhaps should use a narrower saddle. If the saddle is too wide, would it cause me to shift my weight to one side or another? My sit-bones are about 11cm apart. In the past, narrower saddles have always been more comfortable to me. Curious to hear other commuter's thoughts, especially since I know a lot of people here ride with a B17.

Sounds like it's your anatomy. Oh noes! Yer lopsided! :-)

Sounds like anatomy. One leg could be longer than the other, changing your sitting position, which is somewhat common.

Mine does this on the right side as well. I have a diagnosed leg length discrepancy of about 1.5cm. My right is shorter than my left.

After doing a little research when I had that issue, I found it to be a result of the seat being slightly too high. I made the change, and now both sides are dimpled, after some miles of course.

I would drop one side more, causing the sitbones on one side to be more to the outside, causing it to not dimple the seat.

I have a similar leg length discrepancy. I find that the saddle of my commuter bike is rotated a few degrees clockwise every time I ride it. It's a folding bike, so I'm adjusting it several times a day, but the result is always the same. The seatpost clamp is tight enough that the saddle doesn't drop. I'm assuming the leg length difference somehow puts torque on the saddle. Not a problem; just interesting.
Steve

Ah! I'm just now realizing that even my short-lived Selle Anatomica saddle had more wear on the left, which is more pronounced because of the cut-out. (I noticed this after mindlessly looking at old pictures of my bike--does any one else do that?)

I'm also going to try dropping the saddle a bit more and see what happens. A rider in my club noticed a few months ago that it seemed like my saddle was too high--and I had been riding it like that for about 400 miles--so that could have been an issue too. I always used Sheldon Brown's method for determining saddle height--raising it too high intentionally and then dropping it incrementally until you no longer have to weave back and forth as you pedal--and have heard that this can result in a too-high saddle position.

And it's nice to know I'm in good company in the leg discrepancy club!

You may want to read this article as well. I got a lot out of Steve Hogg's website. https://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com...ard-can-it-be/

Also remember, if you went from a modern saddle to the B17, and did not lower the seatpost, it most likely is too high. The B17 sits higher above its rails than many other seats, so you generally, not always, need to drop it when switching from another seat.

I am already so far down the rabbit hole with this site! Many thanks, phughes!

lol I understand, easy to do.

Yeah, leg length discrepancy is not unusal, no big deal.

Is the B17 too wide? That depends on how high the handlebar is. With a higher handlebar, your pelvis is more upright, so a wider part of the "sit bones" comes to bear. If you like a fairly low handlebar, you'd probably prefer a narrower saddle.

What happened to your "short-lived Selle Anatomica saddle"?

My handlebar is a bit below saddle level I think. See the picture below. I generally ride 1-2cm below the saddle but I have one of those adjustable stems that come stock on a lot of Jamises, so I'm constantly fiddling with it. I like how it is now, though.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/mO...=w1362-h766-no

As for the Selle Anatomica, it was very comfortable from the get-go but I was worried about longevity. Every one of them I see in the wild just seem totally bedraggled. In retrospect, I would try one again, but at the time I was spooked by a few I'd seen that had stretching problems. I'm 145lb, so who knows if that would realistically be an issue, though.