Sitting uneven in the saddle?
 

Hi, Feels like I’m sitting on the saddle with uneven sit bones. My left sit bone is taking most of the pressure than the right in the saddle. I’ve tried rotating the hips forward, seems to help with the even-ness, but still seems off. Thankfully no saddle sores.

I’ve had the bike fitting done. I did explain the situation. He suggested a shoe insert in the left shoe (specialize -1.5mm valgue shim).

Anyone have this situation or have guidance?

Thanks

Two thoughts - are your legs the same length? My right is 1/2" (12mm) shorter. I was clueless until well into my 50s. And many of us find rotating the seat a degree or two to the side improves comfort a lot. (Most men who do this rotate their seatpost to the left. I go about 7mm to the left on my bikes.

If one leg is shorter, next question is uniformly? Ie both thigh and calf? Or more in just one of those. For uniform differences, like your entire right leg is a copy of the left only scaled (say) 97%, an insole or plate shim over the shorter leg's cleat of 1/2 the leg length difference works really well. I wear 1/2" lifts in my right shoe heels and 1/4" plate over my right cleats.

I don't sit upright enough for seatbone contact to be a big issue so I cannot help you there.

Edit: sorry, I didn't read your post very carefully. Sounds like leg length is an issue for you. Get that sorted first. Learn you leg length difference and whether that difference is uniform. Get the numbers so you can talk to others beside your fitter. (Fitters, even the best, come and go. You are stuck with that body for the long run.)

Perhaps you've gotten use to keeping your hips tilted to one side over many years. That might need a PT to fix.

You can do what the fitter suggested. But I'd want to find out what's really going on. A far back as I can remember, you are the first person to ever suggest their sit bones are uneven. So I'm going to assume that's not the issue until you can prove it with a medical diagnosis from a orthopedist. .

Something similar happened to me and was the reason that I was sitting unevenly in the saddle.

For a good while, I had my seat height too high. I had thought that hip rocking would be the tell to let me know if I was too high but that was not the case. Rather, my body responded with a permanent lean to the right.

In my contorted state, I'm not sure that it would have been possible to professionally fit me properly other than to fit me to accommodate that lean.

I solved the issue by lowering my seat nearer to the bottom of my fit window than the top and then gradually working my way back up. That process took about three months of riding several times each week.

I don't know how old the OP is or how he leads his life. But it is entirely possible that he has spent 10s of thousands of hours sitting on hard flat surfaces on those sitbones. I went to an old school. Every chair was hard wood. Benches. Just suggesting that the OP might actually know what he is talking about.

I really don't understand how that makes the OP any more qualified for self diagnosis than the very many others of us that have the same history with un-cushioned wooden chair and benches growing up in school and even today in my retirement.

Maybe that's why my butt is so tough and I'd probably be comfortable riding with a 2x4 as a saddle on my bike.

That seems a reasonable thing to do. Essentially setting the saddle height for the leg that can't reach the pedal as easily.

However I'd still ask your GP or someone at your next wellness exam about it. The GP can recommend you to someone that can better diagnose it or send you to a PT. It can be just skeletal and/or muscular trauma from some silly little accident or such from as far back as when you were very young. Or poor posture habits that got you this way. And PT can re-adjust you to a better alignment on the saddle. PT is Physical Therapist. not a Personal Trainer! <grin>

If indeed it is ischial tuberosity asymmetry (which is not that uncommon -- my wife has it), how is a PT or anyone other than a surgeon, going to re-adjust the OP?

A flat saddle, like a Brooks B17, or Ergon All-Road saddle, can help.

Another easy experiment that might be worthwhile is to rotate you saddle a few degrees to the right and see how that feels. And then a few degrees to the left.

As much as we all desperately want to be symmetrical, most of us are not. I don't ride a perfectly straight saddle. I also have a touch of scoliosis. Basically, I'm a monster other than my FTP which is not monstrous at all.

But what if it isn't? Applying fixes for such might alleviate the issue in the short term. Not addressing the real cause might just be letting the real issue not get fixed and might become a bigger issue years later in life.

Hmmm, hundreds of dollars for the visit to the professional and the needed X-rays or other scans vs 3 minutes with the wrench for the seatpin, a small twist, going for a ride with that wrench in a pocket ...

Yes, maybe the OP will be incapacitated years from now from this ill chosen cheap fix for comfort. (I'm 71 and should be cringing that in the next 20 years ago, a similar ailment may strike me. I did what I am suggesting.) I bet the vast majority of the askew seat riders also did not seek out professional help. Health crisis in the making?

If nothing else, playing with the twisted seat and perhaps a few other seats may give the OP more information to give that professional.

Your first response to the OP was that perhaps there was a leg length discrepancy. And the OP thought he had a sit bone discrepancy.

If this was just a thread about finding a comfortable saddle height, I wouldn't be suggestiing they spend hundreds of dollars to find out why they have a leg length issue or find out for a fact that there is a sit bone height difference. Not to mention another seems to think that I shouldn't have questioned the OP's self diagnosis.

Some that think they have a leg length issue really don't have a physical difference in their leg bone lengths. It's from other things, sometimes injury or simply bad posture habits that have them holding their hips askew and they don't realize it.

For me, it'd be money well spent to know for certain one way or the other. If you think that's a waste of money, then I'm okay with that. However I don't think that you should insist everyone else have the same view as you. Or fault others for simply having a different view.

How do you address "the real cause"? Surgery, or have a prosthetic saddle made?

If you are talking to me. Then that depends on the real cause.

I've already suggested that if a leg length discrepancy was due to posture, then likely a physical therapist will be needed. If it does turn out that something is wrong and the doctors recommend surgery, then I'd probably have the surgery. I don't believe doctors recommend surgery for physical differences in leg length that only affect cycling.

The whole jist of the arguments others seem to have with what I've said is that they want to tell the OP what to do for a shorter leg or accept the self-diagnosis of the OP for a discrepancy of sit bone height.

I'm just saying the OP should find out if either of those actually exist for them. As without those being in the mix, the OP probably just has the wrong saddle or incorrect saddle height. Maybe both. And perhaps from when they had the saddle way too high, they got use to sitting at a angle.

However we've not been able to get there yet since everyone seems to want to talk to me instead of the OP.

I'm going to assume it is a gigantic extraterrestrial genital lice infection unless you can prove it otherwise with documentation from a qualified entomologist.

The OP didn't say he thought he had uneven sit bones. He said he was sitting unevenly on them. Then he got a fit, and the fitter determined that a shim would help, as if his legs were different lengths.

You don't need Xrays to determine if leg length is off - that's something a fitter can check on an exam table.


I just think you're complicating something that is pretty simple - if one leg appears short, and treating it like it's short makes cycling good; what's the problem? Asymmetry isn't cancerous, so why does the OP need to absolutely find the underlying mechanism if a bike adjustment solves the riding problem?

I just don't see the jeopardy. If someone is fine everywhere but on their bike, and a shim solves that problem - is there still a problem?

Curious if OP has history of carrying wallet in back pocket which could have had an impact. Google. It’s a thing.

1.5 mm isn't a whole lot of leg length difference. Is that really something that a bike fitter can ascertain? Anybody know how that's done?

I would certainly want to know with some certainty that a leg length difference was the issue before taking measures to correct the issue under that assumption. Otherwise, the shim seams like inviting another asymmetry needlessly.

Thanks for all the feedback and insight. I think I’m going to lower my seat a bit.

I did measure the length of legs, pretty close, essentially identical.

However, I suspect my body is compensating due to broken color bone some 20 years ago (about a half an inch narrower on my left side), sciatica issue also on my left side, tight hamstring and glutes. Doing lots of PT!

Before leaving for today’s ride, did a number of glute stretches and inserted the shoe shim.

Upon return home, The left sit bone area is a bit tender vs the right after a 3.5 hour ride. Thus thinking of dropping the seat post a mm or two.

makes sense?

To clarify, this is carrying the wallet in the back pocket normally, ie., when not on the bike, right?

If so, it definitely messed me up a bit.

Sure! Saddle height setting is not just about leg length, but also about the whole musculature and flexibility... (back/torso,all...)
small incremental changes ... no problem... but also expect that your quad muscle group might let you know of their pleasure/dis in your change... LOL!
I haven't been paying as much attention to my flexibility as I normally do. Mid-Nov ,my left Hamstring started complaining... I dropped the saddle 2mm - much better, but the quads are also now into the party.... make one happy and the other starts complaining... LOL!
also paying attention to the root cause, will quiet all involved, down the road... LOL!
Ride On
Yuri

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4f8f63b9e2.jpg

TTron I would suggest trying the shim and seeing if that works. Your fitter likely recommended that for a reason and might help quite a bit and for $20-30 it isn't a big investment but if it works it will pay off in dividends.

Dropped the seat post 1.5mm. Seemed much more even in the saddle, much better distribution between the sit bones. Gonna keep it at this height for a few more rides before claiming success. Today’s ride was four hours, ~60 miles, good test.

Yes, did feel the quads ever so slightly, but all good.

the fitter suggested the shim to alleviate rocking in the seat. This makes me believe the seat was a tad high in the first play.

thanks!!!

Had a similar issue. Had to fix my body, more than fix the fit and bike. Did physical therapy and targeted exercises.