infecto

So I rode around 28miles on Saturday and come Tuesday Night I am still feeling numb in my penis. Should I seriously concerned about this or will it pass. Everything still functions but the numbness has not let up. To add I have not rode since then. Obviously I am concerned about it and I realize my seat needs adjustment which I am in the process of. I was fine with numbness the first day or two but now I am even more concerned. How long have some of you guys been numb?

TCR

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ships smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I cant hear what youre sayin.
When I was a child I had a fever.
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I got that feeling once again.
I cant explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.


Seriously - you shouldn't be getting numbness from riding and to have it that long after a ride is definitely not good. Go see a doc.

z415

My roommate has told me before, and posted on here (search "frank and beans" thread by eddo456), that he has been numb at least 24 hours, to the point of where he was unable to "perform" and this was with a normal length ride with his usual saddle. Problem was solved with swapping out saddles - he went from SI Flite to the Specialized Alias or Avatar or one of those in 143mm in a BF saddle swap.

As for me, I have not been numb for more than an hour or so after a ride be it 14 miles or a metric century. My saddle? A SI TT saddle pushed relatively forward and angled up. Granted I fooled around with positioning for a long time. I would suggest have a tool with you and when you start feeling numb, change it a little. That is how I did it and it worked. That feeling of immediately relief after you adjust a saddle on the fly feels like just standing up out of the saddle and for me, it worked great to find my optimal position.

Make sure to find a position where your put your weight on your sit bones. Now, if you aren't used to that, that will hurt a *lot* after the first long ride, but at least there aren't any sensitive tissues there that can lead to medical problems.

And yes, I would worry about that. I would bet that no active BFers are urologists or what not and frankly, IMO and experience, numbness for that long seems way off the chart so I would suggest getting a check-up from a doctor.

Good luck and I hope you are able to ride comfortably soon.

pharding

That sounds like a long time to be numb. When I raised my seat up 1 inch Mr. Happy was generally numb during my 48 mile ride today for the first time in a long time. You should shift positions in the saddle and peddle standing up periodically. You may wish to lower your seat a quarter of an inch. You should check to see if your seat is level using a level. If it isn't level you may wish to level it or tip it ever slightly down by by a few degrees. If you haven't had kids, you may wish to see a urologist.

ripperj 

If you give up on your present saddle try the ISM Adamo-looks kinda weird, and takes a bit to get used to, but eliminated pressure/numbness.
I did note that if you have it set wrong the front of the "double nose" will put enough pressure on the inside of my thighs to make my toes tingle from loss of blood flow, so make sure you try tweaking the saddle in all directions.

Daytrip

Look at the bright side: After a long ride, that might be the only part of your body that doesn't hurt.

Seriously, I get numbness, too, but it usually goes away within 24 hours. But at age 50, it's disconcerting. I'm playing around with my seat position and slowly making it better.

I think what happens is that you put pressure on the nerves that run through the place where the seat contacts your body, and it can take awhile for them to recover. I'm not sure if you build protective muscle around the nerves over time and the problem goes away, or if that's always going to be a vulnerable spot. In any event, I'm sure it's best to avoid messing with them altogether.

RonH

About 2 minutes and that's after a really long ride on bad roads.

Sounds like you need to see the doc, adjust the saddle (is it pointed up? should be level), and maybe get a new saddle. What saddle do you have? Got pics?

flipflop

Make sure you are sitting on the back of the saddle, and not slipping forward sitting on the tip/middle. Weight needs to be carried on your bones... the nose of the saddle is just there to help you steer.

Keep your hips rotated back a touch... If you don't think about it, you'll be sitting on your taint, and not your bones. (Might get a cramp or two till ya get used to it...)

Consider a Specialized Toupe, or an E3 from Performance bike. With the Toupe, its almost impossible to go numb, though you might literally bruise your ass till you get used to it... E3 has more padding and gets my vote. If you are riding a WTB brand or something that isn't flat, and curves down into the middle, you'll like the change. Those style I end up sliding down hill till i'm sitting on my taint, and have to point it up hill.

Also... are you wearing bike shorts, or trying to get by with jeans? The doubled up seam running right through there is what did it to me.

infecto

For some reason I have this feeling that since I was not wearing bike shorts and had boxers on as well that this might be a side effect of some chaffing but I will not sweat to it. I currently have a cheap bontrager seat on.

George

New saddle.

Booger

Get a fit. Get a new saddle. It ain't nothing to play with (so to speak).

alanbikehouston

Raise your bars an inch. Lower your saddle an inch. Doing so will shift your pelvis upright, and put your weight on the wide portion of the sitbones. The "perfect" fit is when the highest portion of the bars is level with the top of the saddle...sadly, most modern road bikes are too poorly designed to allow the bars that high without a special stem or stem adaptors.

Ride OUT of the saddle for at least one minute out of every ten or fifteen minutes. Raise your weight off the saddle whenever you are not pedaling...just half an inch to let your blood flow return to normal.

The Specialized road bike saddles, from the "BG series" on up, are very well designed to increase blood flow...most cyclists buy saddles that are too narrow, because they want the model the 140 pound pro riders use. If you weigh 200 pounds, need a wider saddle than that.

DScott

You shouldn't be that numb for that long, ever.

"Seat fit" is about a good saddle and good shorts. One without the other isn't going to work real well. All that weired looking bike gear exists for a reason.

Get decent bibs/shorts, a basic fitting on your current saddle, and see what happens. My guess is it'll improve things considereably.

tntyz

I swtiched over to a noseless saddle this year and have had no problem since. Did hurt my sit bones on the first few rides, but well worth it.