I heard that riding horses alot decreases your chances of having kids in the future do to the position of the rider when his on the horse. So i was wondering about same thing for moutain biking. Try not to laugh at me to badly, just curious.

Biking leading to impotence was a myth started by Bicycling Magazine based on a flawed study, and recanted sometime in the past 2 years by the same magazine. I wouldn't worry too much, but if you are worried get a seat with a "love channel" or cutout.

Why does everybody talk about being sterile like it's cancer? Personally, I wouldn't mind not being able to have kids...

Do a search in the "Roadie" or "General discussion" sections, there are a lot of posts on this.

I can attest to it not being true (at least it does not affect me) since in the last 2 1/2 yrs I have had 2 children and I have been cycling AND riding horses for 33 yrs

well if it does, thank goodness my seat is slammed and I don't set on it much.

if your scared of losing your manhood to biking.. then just pack up and go somewhere else..

Now it is not true. It's an urban myth. As a matter of fact it does improve your sexual performance.

Ricardo

Are we talking about ED? There are many drugs to fix that... You would be making the same amount of sperm wether you ride or not...

You would have to completly destroy the family jewels in a terrible accident for this statement to be true.

there have been all kinds of studies and "headline eye-catching" stories about this as it DOES attract the reader...

bascially it goes like this:
1) LOTs and LOTs of riding appears to cause some damage from continual compression of the blood vessels in the area (like say a 6 hours ride). most of this appears to be short-term and go away 10-30 minutes after riding, but long-term is still not quite clear... (this affects the blood flow and ability to have and sustain an erection) --- note: road cycling is here worse than mountain biking as more time is spent ON the saddle and the sit position is more forward with more weight on the frontal area)
2) forcefull blows to the area like crashing and landing with the xbar between your legs has shown to potentially damage the sperm (this genrally does not affect your erection -capability but rather your "potency" or sperm-quality) ---- this is the basically same as getting a kick in the crotch in soccer or a baseball in the nuts so it's not limited to cycling (some earlier studies showed a higher incidence among MOUNTAIN BIKERS and not road bikers and the "supposition" was that it was due to off-road crashes where the crotch is receives a hard blow)
3) most studies have shown that cyclists have FEWER sexual disfunctions as they are generally healthier and have better blood-flow --- e.g. most studies of pros show general higher fertility than in similar compare groups and lots of pros are also fathers

-->>
#1 IF you get numbness in the area you should do something about it
#2 you should avoid hard blows to your genitals (duh! and most people do anyway as they're not fun)
#3 otherwise, If you ride less than say an average of 2 hours a day you pretty much have NOTHING to worry about...
#4 If you ride A LOT then you should get your sit position and your saddle and all checked out - not only for "this region" but also for comfort, back-considerations and to maximize performance (if you're riding so much then it's worth it)

bascially it's just a good mechanism to sell magazines and newspapers!

"decreases your chances of having kids"

Of course it does!! If you are out playing with the boys all the time on your bike, how are you going to make kids?

unless you really righteously rack your sack, nahhh

How large of a dose are we talking about?

Like Loon said - drop it and stay on your feet, you have to when going over rough stuff anyway.

o/w angle the seat to your specifications - such that the larger padded bits at the rear support your weight via the cheeks rather than the crotch.

I can't believe you let the obvious go by without comment. No amount of mountain biking is going to affect any guys chances of having kids. It still comes down to the women having them, last I checked. Or is there something new in the states I don't know about?

not sure, but i think significant enough that it really HURTS! (i.e. in general the severe pain tells you if it is potentially harmfull)

there was some study a while back where they attempted to show that the small shakes and rattles that you get from "normal" riding of a mountain bike off road (imagine a wash-board section of dirt road going downhill) caused "trauma" signficant enough to cause infertility problems but if i remember right the study was not re-produced by data from anyone else...

--->the last 5 years or so i have riden about 5000-8000 miles a year, mostly on the mountain bike. while i pay attention to my sit-position and saddle choice (i spend a lot of time on it) and i try and come out of the saddle evey once and a while on a long climb, i don't have any major concerns here (i once had a saddle where i experienced some numbness i the area, so i changed my saddle) --- i do have a foam pad over the top-tube of my mountain bike which could reduce the severity of a crotch-buster but it is really more there to reduce knee injuries when i do technical riding and jumping (i also wear knee/leg-pads but the top-tube pad adds additional protection and it is always there even when i don't have the pads on)

2) Forceful blows to the area like crashing and landing with the xbar between you legs has been shown to potentially damage the sperm


Is advocating crashing as a form of birth control going too far?

No, and here's why: Those stupid enough to use crashing as birth control don't need to be in the ******* gene pool to begin with

I think it depends on how hard you land on your head as to whether any woman will cooperate in your endeavours. So you should always wear a hat