Re: basic advise please

David Martin said:

So unless you get something that fits you, it will be painful. Gel is
not the answer. Fit, and getting your bum used to it is.

Wot 'e said, but further note that if you combine a good fit of
saddle with a padded pair of cycle shorts or liners then one's
ability to go far with minimum discomfort is greatly increased.

Shouldn't be needed on short hacks about town, but for a long
journey then having some extra padding in one's trousers makes very
good sense.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"stuart" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What a grand bunch you are! Thanks for all that advice. Funnily enough,
I got a second hand mountain bike for £25.00 from a bootsale yesterday to
give it a whirl & make sure im going to stick to it before spending out.
Been out twice and love it! it has stupid knobbly tyres though, and the
slightest hill at the moment is hard work, but I feel great (and SO proud
of myself!).

So you should - well done!

Quoted message said:

I did sneak a look in Halfords and thought the 'special offer' £99.00
bikes with the suspension everywhere look great, but after reading your
comments I will leave them well alone and start looking for a ridgeback
type with adjustable bars etc.

Good decision there ;-)

Quoted message said:

One thing I must get though is a gel seat, my [censored] is killing me!
CHEERS and thanks again,
Stuart

Ah.... *not necessarily*...

The key to a comfortable saddle is not the amount of gel it has. Indeed a
saddle with a lot of gel can actually be incredibly uncomfortable as the gel
puts pressure on parts of the nether regions which should not be
pressurised.

The key to a comfortable saddle is *fit* As we all have different
sized/shaped rear ends, a comfortable saddle is an individual thing. What
works for one person can be crippling agony for another. What is a constant
is * good fit* See

http://sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html

Cheers, helen s

"Peter Clinch" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

David Martin said:

So unless you get something that fits you, it will be painful. Gel is
not the answer. Fit, and getting your bum used to it is.

Wot 'e said, but further note that if you combine a good fit of saddle
with a padded pair of cycle shorts or liners then one's ability to go far
with minimum discomfort is greatly increased.

snip

Right, i'll stick to the hard saddle then, with some padding down me undies.
Cant bring myself to get any proper cycle shorts just yet, as I reckon I
look pratt enough anyway, wobbling down the road at 2mph without the added
embarassment of being fully kitted out with all the gear. I stick it out
though,
Cheers
Stuart

in message <[email hidden]>, stuart

(') said:

One thing I must get though is a gel seat, my [censored] is killing me!

No, don't do this, seriously. It is one of the classic beginner mistakes,
and is a really bad idea. There are two lumps on the lower back of your
pelvis which posh people call 'ischeal tuberosities' and the rest of us
call sitbones. If your saddle is firm and supports your sitbones, all of
your weight goes onto them which is fine because this is what they're
designed for. You may find this a little uncomfortable at first but you
will very quickly get used to it.

However, if your saddle is soft, your sitbones sink into it, which
relieves the pressure on them.... by spreading it to softer bits of your
anatomy, which will cause more discomfort in the long term and can lead
to impotence and quite nasty crushing injuries.

Harder saddles - provided they fit you - really are more comfortable in
the long term, but beginners never believe this because they are more
uncomfortable during the relatively short period while your [censored] isn't
used to sitting on a saddle at all.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; when in the [censored], the wise man plants courgettes

Stuart said:

Right, i'll stick to the hard saddle then

Not necessarily good either. It has to be the right shape, and the
best way to decide if it is or not is sit on as good a selection as
you can find. Once you've doe that you'll know what's good. The
points to take away are to try alternatives and that gel in itself
is not necessarily the end of the comfort story (some very good
saddles include some gel, it isn't a Total Work Of Evil).

Quoted message said:

with some padding down me undies.

Bad idea, IMHO. Padding sewn into cycle shorts is specifically
shaped for the job and is fixed into the right place. It is also
made from materials selected specifically for the job in hand,
rather than just "a bit of padding".

Quoted message said:

Cant bring myself to get any proper cycle shorts just yet

You can get padded liners with a good quality cycle specific pad
sewn in and wear these under any other trousers instead of
underpants. Like http://www.ctcshop.com/product.jsp?style=20292

Another alternative is baggy cycle shorts which have a cycle
specific liner but aren't the usual skin-tight deal. Something
like this: http://www.ctcshop.com/product.jsp?style=21429

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"Peter Clinch" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Stuart said:

Right, i'll stick to the hard saddle then

Not necessarily good either. It has to be the right shape, and the best
way to decide if it is or not is sit on as good a selection as you can
find. Once you've doe that you'll know what's good. The points to take
away are to try alternatives and that gel in itself is not necessarily the
end of the comfort story (some very good saddles include some gel, it
isn't a Total Work Of Evil).

Wot 'e sed...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

with some padding down me undies.

Bad idea, IMHO. Padding sewn into cycle shorts is specifically shaped for
the job and is fixed into the right place. It is also made from materials
selected specifically for the job in hand, rather than just "a bit of
padding".

Wot 'e sed again ;-)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Cant bring myself to get any proper cycle shorts just yet

You could always wear a pair of padded cycle shorts *underneath* a pair of
long something-or-others you are comnfortable in. I wear padded cycle shorts
under a pair of RonHill Bikesters. Works for me :-)

Cheers, helen s

Quoted message said:

You can get padded liners with a good quality cycle specific pad sewn in
and wear these under any other trousers instead of underpants. Like
http://www.ctcshop.com/product.jsp?style=20292

Another alternative is baggy cycle shorts which have a cycle specific
liner but aren't the usual skin-tight deal. Something like this:
http://www.ctcshop.com/product.jsp?style=21429

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

In article <[email hidden]>, Peter Clinch

Quoted message said:

It has to be the right shape, and the best way to decide if it is
or not is sit on as good a selection as you can find.

If you are anywhere adjacent I have about 20 different saddles on the
hire fleet - you are welcome to try them all.

--
A T (Sandy) Morton
on the Bicycle Island
In the Global Village
http://www.millport.net

Stuart said:

Cant bring myself to get any proper cycle shorts just yet, as I reckon I
look pratt enough anyway

I really do recommend cycling shorts, even though I felt like you when I
started.

I wear cycling shorts with a pair of baggy, seamless shorts on top of
them. Alternatively, a pair of cycling shorts with a pair of non-baggy
tracksuit trousers over the top will work, as long as there's no
uncomfortable seam in the crotch.

Tchibo (and Lidl, regularly) do very cheap, decent quality cycling
shorts.

--
Keith Willoughby http://flat222.org/keith/
Keep on keeping on.

Peter Clinch said:

You can get padded liners with a good quality cycle specific pad sewn in
and wear these under any other trousers instead of underpants. Like
http://www.ctcshop.com/product.jsp?style=20292

I always think those are a waste of money as you can only wear them
under something. If you just get some standard lycra cycling shorts you
can always put shorts or trousers on over the top but unlike the
underpants you still retain the option to wear them on their own.

--
Tony

"I did make a mistake once - I thought I'd made a mistake but I hadn't"
Anon

Well done Stuart, you've past the biggest hurdle, and it's great to
hear that you enjoyed your first couple of outings.

I've come a long way in the two years since I returned to biking. My
first "big" ride out of town when I got my second hand M/B lasted for
2 miles and I had to turn around and come home - exhausted. There's a
lot of short but steep hills around where I live and for the first year
I had to walk up all of them, but this year I can bike over all but one
nasty 100 yard stretch.

I forced myself to remember that speed and long distances weren't
important, and I'm doing it only for the pleasure and fitness I can get
from it.

Sore bums seem to be a problem at first, till it hardens a bit. I stand
up on the pedals on the flat or downhill bits often, especially near
the end of a 2-3 hour ride, and give my bottom a chance to recover. I
agree with the others about the seat. I had a wide tourer size with
added padding, for a long time but have replaced it with a conventional
narrow hard type, and paradoxical though it seems it is more
comfortable.

When I got my bike it had normal tread narrow road tyres, but I had
given me some knobblys, and although the knobblys slow mw down a bit I
feel much more secure with them and can cycle on rough ground in low
gear that wouldn't be preacticable with the narrow tyres

All the best

Tony Raven said:

I always think those are a waste of money as you can only wear them
under something. If you just get some standard lycra cycling shorts you
can always put shorts or trousers on over the top but unlike the
underpants you still retain the option to wear them on their own.

While I don't feel any use for them myself, the fact remains that
the basic construction material is usually very different to
straight lycra and a wearer may find that makes them rather more
comfortable as an underlayer.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Stuart said:

Quoted message said:

Wot 'e said, but further note that if you combine a good fit of saddle
with a padded pair of cycle shorts or liners then one's ability to go far
with minimum discomfort is greatly increased.

Quoted message said:

Right, i'll stick to the hard saddle then, with some padding down me undies.
Cant bring myself to get any proper cycle shorts just yet, as I reckon I
look pratt enough anyway, wobbling down the road at 2mph without the added
embarassment of being fully kitted out with all the gear. I stick it out
though,

Don't panic about saddles immediately. You haven't been on a bike in
yonks, so no matter what you use as a seat your backside is going to
hurt for a while. There's nothing you can do about that other than
grin and bear it, and also not overdo it in your first rush of
enthusiasm.

Everything will soon toughen up, and in a week or two you'll be much
less sensitive in that area, and can then begin to make decisions
about how to fine tune things.

"Bob"
--

Email address is spam trapped, to reply directly remove the beverage.

"stuart" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

One thing I must get though is a gel seat, my [censored] is killing me!

Your [censored] will harden up in a week or so and then it won't bother you, don't
get a soft saddle.

What a grand bunch you are! Thanks for all that advice. Funnily enough, I
got a second hand mountain bike for £25.00 from a bootsale yesterday to give
it a whirl & make sure im going to stick to it before spending out. Been
out twice and love it! it has stupid knobbly tyres though, and the slightest
hill at the moment is hard work, but I feel great (and SO proud of myself!).
I did sneak a look in Halfords and thought the 'special offer' £99.00 bikes
with the suspension everywhere look great, but after reading your comments I
will leave them well alone and start looking for a ridgeback type with
adjustable bars etc.
One thing I must get though is a gel seat, my [censored] is killing me!
CHEERS and thanks again,
Stuart

Stuart said:

Right, i'll stick to the hard saddle then, with some padding down me
undies. Cant bring myself to get any proper cycle shorts just yet, as I
reckon I look pratt enough anyway, wobbling down the road at 2mph without
the added embarassment of being fully kitted out with all the gear.

You can get shorts liners. These go under a normal pair of baggy shorts,
and are worn as underwear. Any big bike shop should have some.

Re. saddles, I agree with the advice given by others on the thread.
I do want to ask though - does this bike have a really hard plastic saddle?
If you have taken an instant dislike to it, nothing wrong with visiting
your bike shop and looking over a range of saddles. Bear in mind what
the list has said about squidgy saddles.
Me, I get on with the Specialized Body Geometry saddles.
Your backside may vary.

John Hearns said:

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 19:12:57 +0100, Stuart wrote:

Quoted message said:

Me, I get on with the Specialized Body Geometry saddles.

Me I don't..

Quoted message said:

Your backside may vary.

Certainly does.

...d

in message <[email hidden]>, John Hearns

(') said:

Me, I get on with the Specialized Body Geometry saddles.

Personally I get on best with Brooks Professionals - very comfortable
indeed, but also quite heavy - and Selle Italia SLR, very nearly as
comfortable and half a kilogram lighter.

Quoted message said:

Your backside may vary.

Indeed. One good thing about the Specialized saddles is that the good
ones come in different widths, and Specialized dealers should have an
[censored]-measuring pad so you can check how wide apart your sitbones are. It
surprisingly doesn't correlate at all well with general built - chunky
people do not necessarily have wider sitbones than thin ones.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Morning had broken, and there was nothing left for us to do
but pick up the pieces.