Hi there,

I've been a casual cyclist for several years now; rarely do I ride more than 400 kilometers in a month. Since I live in beautiful Taiwan, I like to go touring as often as I can; my longest tour was a 1200-km trip around the island in April 2008. Next month I'm taking my bike to Hokkaido for a 26-day vacation, but I'm worried it might not be much fun because recently I've been having some pain down below, if you know what I mean.

I'm a 6'2", 180-pound 29-year-old guy, and I ride a fairly inexpensive Giant mb/hybrid that looks like this. Usually I ride 40-70 kilometers per ride, although when I'm touring I sometimes break 120 km per day. My saddle is more padded than the saddles of most serious cyclists; in fact, on my old bike (which got stolen in October 2008) I had a gel pad I put over the saddle to make it more comfortable. My butt would hurt after a day or two of 100-km rides, but it was nothing serious.

Lately, however, I've been having some nasty pain in both front and back. When I peed after the 45-km ride I did tonight, it hurt a lot, and I noticed that the area around the pee-hole was red and inflamed, which has never happened before. Also, even though I wear high-end Santini bib shorts to protect my rear end, my anus feels slightly torn after rides to the point that it hurts when I shower. Sorry for being graphic, but there it is.

I can't imagine this is normal. Has anyone out there ever had similar problems? What did you do about it? I suppose I could buy another gel pad to put over the saddle, but everything I've read about this says that firmer saddles are actually better for longer rides. Or I could get a saddle with a bigger center cut (like the San Marco Mantra, unfortunately out of my price range at the moment), or even a noseless saddle, although I don't know where I could find one in Taiwan. I'll do just about anything to fix this problem before my big Hokkaido tour! Thanks so much for reading this.

I'd recommend a pair of bike shorts. They hold the bits out of the way, so that the piston-like movement of your legs don't squish them. I also suspect that your regular shorts are rubbing on your sensitive bits. That could cause inflammation (but I'm not a doctor, so I'm just assuming). I would also recommend seeing a doctor.

Have you ridden tours on your bike with the current saddle and your current pair of bibs?

It sounds like your skin might be getting chafed. Sweating a lot can make the problem worse. Shorts that feel fine in cooler weather can cause irritation when you get very sweaty. You might want to try some chamois butter. And wash or shower right after you finish your ride, get out of your sweaty shorts as soon as you can.

Thanks, but I do have bike shorts, rather nice ones actually. Back when I started doing longer rides about six years ago, I quickly learned that the importance of preventing chafing outweighed my aversion toward spandex. Now I think they actually look rather dashing, but apparently they're not enough to protect my whatsits from whatever my bike has been doing to them lately.

Also, I went to see a urologist (for the first time in my life--I feel like I'm officially an old man now) a few weeks ago. He looked at my equipment and had me pee in a cup. There were no red blood cells in my urine, but there were a few white blood cells, which he took to mean that I might be getting over some kind of infection. He gave me some medicine that turned my pee orange; I took it for five days, the pain subsided, and that was that. But now it's worse than before.

1) check to see if your seat is nose up. I can't tell from the photo.

2) IMO firmer is much better for a distance seat. However, alot of the firmer seats are really intended for an aggressive road bike geometry with less weight on your butt. My Specialized Romin Saddle is unbearable on a bike with handlebars higher than the seat but comfy once the bars drop and more weight moves forward. If you look for less padding, don't go crazy.

3) Center cutout seats are great. I got one from Nashbar that was very nice and very affordable, but a bit narrow. Realize that seats come in widths, and a seat that is too narrow will compromise your junk. Specialized dealers can measure your sit bone width to help get the right width.

4) I have never tried chamy butter, but I use Gold Bond powder on the backside, and it cuts down on the irritation and chaffing.

Good Luck

Just to eliminate the obvious, have you been hanging out in any seedy bars picking up girls of questionable background and having unprotected 'relations' with them? Cause many of those things you mention can also be the result of an 'encounter' with an infected partner.

Because to be completely honest, if my dick turned red and hurt when I took a piss, I'd be on the phone to my doctor immediately.

Thanks. When I was researching bike saddles online a couple weeks ago, I discovered that Specialized has an "assometer" to measure the width of your sit bones. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a Specialized dealer in Taiwan. So I sat down on a hard surface and measured the width myself: 11-12 cm. A lot of the road bike seats I see are barely any wider than that, so I'm leery of buying them. My current saddle is almost 15 cm wide.

The nose and rear of my saddle are level, but the middle seems to drop down slightly. Should I try dropping the nose a hair?

I like the Gold Bond and chamois butter ideas. I'll have to go buy some later today and see if that helps. Thanks!

Fair enough. To be honest, before I went to see the urologist, I was worried that that was the problem because I had recently met a new girl (not in a seedy bar, though!). But he ruled that out. Now peeing only hurts after I ride my bike. And I think it turned red because it got chafed somehow. Even so, if the problem persists even after getting chamois cream, back to the urologist I go.

All the assometer is is a stiff pc of foam that indents under your sit bones, and leaves the indents long enough to measure between. A memory foam pillow may do the same thing, or it may be a bit too squishy.

I used to set my seat so the back to front was level, with the middle lower. Found it to be a tad nose up that way, so I made a slight correction to drop the nose. Feels better, but haven't hit any long length rides to know if its lasting improvement.

Hey, sorry I didn't see your reply before! I've had this saddle for a couple years now and gone on a few 2-to-3-day trips with it, but I just got the bib shorts this month. They're designed for hot weather, but I still sweat a lot in them--Taiwan is hot in August, even at night! I think you may be right about the chafing. If chamois butter doesn't fix it, I'll explore other options.