crichard

Hey guys... Last week I purchased my first road bike (Specialized Allez Sport) and I love it. Far better than Mountain biking so far. With that said, I've gone a whopping 44 miles. haha... My first day out, last Friday, I did 22 miles on a local bike path (pretty flat). Seemed to go good aside from the expected sit bone pain.

Well, during the 4 days of rain that followed I did lots of reading and moved my seat up about a 1/2" tonight and moved it forward quite a bit. Tonight's ride went MUCH better.. my time was much faster, pedaling was much easier (more leg extension is great).. however, about 10 miles into the ride I noticed Mr. Happy had become completely numb. Scared the crap out of me. I shifted around and got comfortable and got some feeling back, but periodically I'd go numb again. Not good.

So what should I do? The first 22 miles I did last week I had absolutely no numbness. However, I moved the seat up and forward and I'm thinking now I should have only done one or the other. Does it make sense to slide the seat back a little and still leave it up? The thing is, I would think sliding the seat back would increase the numbness as my sit bones end up a bit further on the seat.

I also have the option of exchanging the bike if it's not fitting right.. It's a 56cm. I tried a 54 and 56, and the 56 felt far more comfortable to me. However, if I'm going numb could that mean I'm unknowingly sitting too far up on the seat, thus meaning the bike is too big?

Not sure what to do...... Guess I should make a small adjustment to the seat and try again.

Thanks for reading all this.

johnny99

Try explaining your problem to someone at the bike shop. Ask them to watch you ride and figure out if there is a problem with your riding position. Too high a saddle position can cause your problem. So can too low handlebars for your fitness level.

barba

Congratulations on the new bike. It could be a lot of things. I think the advice of having the shop where you bought it have a look is very good. Saddle hight and the tilt of the saddle are places to look first.

Not all saddles work for everyone, and the ones that come stock on new bikes are often really just aweful. Be prepared to spend some time (and unfortunately money) looking for the right saddle.

crichard

OK.. I'll take it over to the LBS tomorrow and have them look at it.

Barba - says your location is "Western Mass" - thats where I am too. I'm in Berkshire County (Pittsfield to be precise).

SilentShifter

Could be position - Check with bike shop to make sure you are setup properly.

Could be that the saddle doesn't agree with your body - may have to try different saddles until you find the one that makes you go 'Ahhhh, that's nice'

Could be you are getting used to a different type of riding - mountain saddles are more comfortable sometimes than road saddles. Road stuff takes much longer getting used to.

crichard

Yeah - I'm hoping it's just because it's only been my second ride since last fall and I'm just not adjusted to it. The numb feeling made me a little nervous though because I've seen on the forums multiple times that going numb is "very very bad". I suppose I'll hit the LBS and see what they say since I'm still in the "trial" period and can trade it in for a different size if I needed to.

Doggus

You just need to quit being so cheap and get one of these