Hard to sit on the trainer for long...
 

There are lots of reasons why it's hard to stay on the trainer for long periods of time, boredom and exhaustion being two important examples, but what I mean is that it becomes painful for me to sit in the saddle for that long. Towards the end of my hour of torture, my groin/prostate/hips become the biggest source of aggravation. I don't have any trouble with the same bike outside for much longer periods of time. It's sitting on the trainer that is hard.

The problem is that on the trainer, there is essentially no variation in riding position, as there is outside and I shift my weight around on climbs vs. descents, curves, traffic stops, standing on the pedals, etc. On the trainer, I'm sitting nearly still in the same position continuously. And after a while, that hurts.

I try modest variations - moving my hands from the hoods to the drops and shifting my butt fore and aft on the saddle a little. These help, but not much.

I seldom stand on the pedals on the trainer - I find that it's almost impossible to do that without rocking the trainer side to side a little, and I worry about the stress this puts on the chain and seat stays of my carbon bike frame, locked into position on the trainer. And it just feels wrong.

Do others have similar problems, and if so, how do you deal with them?

Zwift has been crowded recently - with the cold weather in the eastern US, I think there are a lot more people than usual resorting to trainers.

Sorry, but I guess its part of the price you pay for choosing to live in such a cold place.

I stand for 30 seconds every 5 min starting at 2:30. My normal ride is 2x20 with a 10 min WU and CD. No issues with saddle pain. I have a Kurt Kinetic trainer and don't see any issues with the bike rocking. I keep the power the same while standing but shift up few gears so my cadence drops to 70RPM or so from 95 during intervals.

just stand and/or hover every few mins.

I have the same issue that at about an hour, I'm getting mighty uncomfortable on the saddle. I ride both a CycleOps Pro300 stationary and one of my road bikes on a trainer, but it's really mainly the saddle I have on the Cycleops is ill suited. The real bike has a saddle I selected for road riding, an SMP Dynamic, and it's much more comfy than either of the three saddles I've had on the Cycleops, all of which were selected for being cheap to buy, primarily.

I find I have to use a saddle that is slightly wider than my outdoor saddle on the trainer.

Also, if I'm riding for more than an hour, it is good to get off the bicycle about once an hour to stretch.

And I have aerobars on my trainer ... they give me some extra hand positions.

Hello,

I spend a lot of time fine tuning my seat position variables. I've gotten very good at finding my sweet spot. I'll also try different things as a test to see if I can gain comfort at all of my contact points. I have improved things but as you say, it is more difficult on the trainer. It makes me perfect my relaxation techniques as I do longer and longer workouts as butt building. :)

I am not done looking for the perfect seat. Outdoors will so easy this spring!

Try a set of resistance rollers instead, like Sportcrafters. They feel totally natural. I move my hand position every 5 minutes by the clock and stand every 20 as long as I'm not in the middle of an interval or something. No butt problems though I limit myself to 1.5 hours. Don't want to burn out on it.

They take a little getting used to, but it's worth it in the long run. They're a lot easier to learn to ride if you have a still upper body and pedal with your legs. A woman I ride with who has an absolutely still upper body picked it up instantly. Also no tire issues, etc., like with a trainer. The Sportcrafters have a known power curve so you can use them with TrainerRoad if you don't have a PM.

Also you could try a different saddle. The Selle Italia MAN saddle is under a lot of butts here all of a sudden.
https://www.sportcrafters.com/produc...ve-pro-rollers

Yeah, have to move around to assist circulation down there. I also just stick to ~1.5hr on the high side.

Todays workout on FulGaz was the Columbia Ice Fields in Japser, Alberta. 26mi, 1hr 41mins, 1750ft of elevation and it was fine without discomfort getting unbearable. I sit up, hands off the bars for short stretches, get off the saddle and mash a bit for the hill tops....like i'm sure most do when the brain calls for it.

Mix shorter rides and big climbs and longer miles on flats up to the saddle time you tolerate. Interval train around your comfort, split rides on a given day you have to abide by a daily goal.

Have to admit as a 200lb guy, i do much better on the trainer than on the roads with the granular and irregular pavement feedback to the bum, shoulders etc...Some jarring sections around my ways just suck the life out of you beating up your joints while disrupting your pace and cadence. That cumulative effect is absent on the trainer ride and your joints feel much better the following day.

It sounds like things can be made easier by changing positions at regular intervals, well before the discomfort sets in. I think probably some of you are better than me at standing on the pedals without rocking side to side too much. That's something I can work on.

That's why I like a slightly wider saddle and the aerobars when riding my trainer. I can change position a bit more on the slightly wider saddle, and can also sit bolt upright on it. And with the aerobars, I can sit quite upright with my hands on the arm rests, or I can lean forward a bit and put my hands on the hoods, or I can lean forward a lot and rest on the aerobars.

I do commercial intervals. So during the show, I ride sitting bolt upright or with my hands on the arm rests of the aerobars or maybe on the hoods, and I ride at a moderate pace. Then during the commercial I stretch out onto the aerobars and ride as hard as I can for the duration of the commercial. When it is over, I sit up again.

Get a mountain bike with some studded tires or a fat bike and enjoy winter riding.

Can we have a show of hands for those who enjoy cold weather rain riding? I posted a nice 35 mile ride, 2300' climbing for Saturday. Out of ~130 email addys, only my wife and I showed up on our tandem. We had a lovely ride in steady 39°-43° rain, mostly the former temp. I don't know what's wrong with people.

OTOH, we only prostrate ourselves to The Crazy once a week. During the week, we're indoors like most sane people.

For me, trainers feel dead as there’s no recruitment of the core. This small change in pedaling dynamic, when repeated thousands of times, can cause stress to the body.
Though I have a decent trainer (Wahoo KICKR), I feel much more comfortable on rollers

Thanks for the answer to a question I didn't ask. I live in Minnesota and have a winter bike outfitted with studded tires and everything else. I love winter riding outdoors and I am comfortable down to about 0 °F, but there are days when it's much colder than that or icy and dangerous or otherwise inconvenient to ride outside. Further, while it's OK to ride base miles in the winter, it's much harder to do high intensity work because trail and road conditions can be treacherous or because effusive sweating is very uncomfortable in the hard cold. ergo, occasional use of the trainer.

I ride quite happily in those conditions, so long as it's the light rain typical of the PNW and not a soaking downpour. OTOH, 8 or 10 degrees colder, where you get freezing rain, not so much.

I went out on a 20 miler this week 40 degrees f clear weather and thought I was going to freeze.

Hello MinnMan,

I never did catch which seat you were using. I know my OEM seat was terrible and a new Brook's Cambium 17 seat helped a lot. I learned to experiment and have it set best as I can through cause and effect. I can go much, much longer than I used to and I don't even think about it. Unfortunately, the C-17 has a rubber creak that starts and stops at will and is not fixable, so I will be searching for one more seat that is as comfortable. I've probably lost 25 pounds and that sure has to help. I try and do longer and longer seat time intervals as I wait for nicer weather (Butt Buildin').

I'm not sure if it matters, but I run my Zwift gradient setting at 85%. This is much harder on the legs and it takes some load off the butt compared to the spin training that Zwift is so into.

I love Minnesota and have many great memories visiting there.

It is a well known scientific fact that 1 trainer saddle hour = 12 road saddle hours. There was a mathematical proof, but the literature was bought by Wahoo, Zwift and the Sufferfest and burned.

Earlier today, I put my Brooks on the trainer bike in the hopes that it will be better.

I make sure to get out of the saddle on my trainer about every 10 minutes to help with southern circulation ;)

I totally know what you mean though. Anything over an hour starts to really become uncomfortable. I would also suggest taking a session to move your saddle around to different positions and change the post height a bit here and there and try and find the most comfortable position. You might lose a training session, but for me it paid off in the end.

Also, make sure you do some core workout here and there if you are on a stationary trainer a lot. You want to maintain strong core for when you get back to real life.

Totally know your pain!

I found using chamois cream helps me, I rarely use it outdoors, but use it for every trainer ride. Also here's another thread on this subject that might have helpful info: https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...y-trainer.html

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...y-trainer.html

30s and rain is likely the most challenging weather... I don't 'enjoy' it, but have been know to ride 100 miles of gravel road on a fat bike when it's 38F and raining. Not sure what's wrong with us, but I'm sure it's difficult to pronounce. :thumb:

Another take on trainer riding - look at it as the ultimate fit test, especially in regard to saddle issues. This is a great time to dial in the seat itself, the position fore and aft, the tilt. Trainers are the great testing ground. If you cannot sit comfortably on what you've got on the trainer, keep looking, keep adjusting. When you get there, your butt will be thanking you for years to come.

Ben

^This is true. I ride my rollers seated for an hour, no breaks, no standing, no issues. I don't really even notice the saddle, maybe because of my legs. . . . But it took a box of saddles to get here.