pain in the saddle

The obviouse 1st question is... are you wearing padded cycling shorts? Sorry if you are as it seem obviouse but many people forget this point.
Saddles with a cut out will help as it's then only the but that comes in contact with the sadle and not the perrinaum. If it is a question of contact on the seat you may also wish to try a gel like saddle cover for much cheaper than a whole new saddle but this will not make your bike the most efficient machine. The last thing on the checklist would be to make sure your always launder your shorts between rides as if you don't you can get saddle-rash. Friciton from shorts will take some skin of your but and then germs from dirty shorts:eek: ... well you get the picture.

Hope this helps...

yeah, I wear padded cycling shorts. Sometimes the pain is not that bad or not there at all, but sometimes its terrible.

shming123 said:

yeah, I wear padded cycling shorts. Sometimes the pain is not that bad or not there at all, but sometimes its terrible.

Some people are just so prone to it. My girlfriend really suffers from it. I am quite lucky on the other hand. I even commuted to work on a road bike a couple of times in my work clothes and no pads with not much pain at all. I think for some people it depends on how long you spend in the saddle and whether you let it sufficiently recover from the previouse ride and then with ample recovery each time it will get less prone to pain a little bit less each time. The ones with a cut out might be a good idea. If you have biking friends see if they would be kind enough to lend you one before you buy though. Hope the problem sorts itself out.

Where are you from, what and where do you ride? I am realy struggling to get out this winter damn british whether!!! I am hoping to join a club over the next few months to get some good long rides in.

I am from Wisconsin.

shming123 said:

Is it bad to have a lot of pain in the "perrenial" region i guess they call it? Sometimes it get sooooo bad! I have a fizik arione saddle and is comfortable besides for this pain once in a while. When i stand up and pedal for awhile, it goes away for a little bit. Does the San Marco Aspide saddles little grove help with this? Would a small grove in the seat work? or do I need a seat with a cutout in the middle? I have tried a Selle Italia SLR, but this gave me a bruising feeling on my bones. Any tips or advice for me?

I had the same problem, which I alleviated by slightly changing the angle of saddle tilt. What might seem odd - I would have thought it would have placed more pressure on the offending region - was that the saddle angle was increased in an upright direction (now ever so slightly off the horizontal), as opposed to moving the nose in a downward direction. Don't really care if this doesn't make sense to me, though, as the at-times awful pain and numbness has pretty much all but gone away since.

Why not give changing saddle angle a go first before splashing out on anything new? No guarantees but it might just work. If no joy and your LBS don't have a problem with it - try out a number of different saddles before making your purchase. Just because it has a cut-out does not guarantee that the saddle will give you the comfort you're looking for, and vice versa... just ask the Brooks brigade! 😉

n.b. ride a Bodyfit Viper which has "strategically" placed gel-pads; has done the job reasonably well.

Or buy a softride bike... bit expensive though but apparently that helps in the bum and back region.

Gilders said:

I had the same problem, which I alleviated by slightly changing the angle of saddle tilt. What might seem odd - I would have thought it would have placed more pressure on the offending region - was that the saddle angle was increased in an upright direction (now ever so slightly off the horizontal), as opposed to moving the nose in a downward direction. Don't really care if this doesn't make sense to me, though, as the at-times awful pain and numbness has pretty much all but gone away since.

Why not give changing saddle angle a go first before splashing out on anything new? No guarantees but it might just work. If no joy and your LBS don't have a problem with it - try out a number of different saddles before making your purchase. Just because it has a cut-out does not guarantee that the saddle will give you the comfort you're looking for, and vice versa... just ask the Brooks brigade! 😉

n.b. ride a Bodyfit Viper which has "strategically" placed gel-pads; has done the job reasonably well.

This is good advice, if your saddle is tilted forward even slightly you will move forward on the saddle as you ride and end up sitting on the "nose" of the saddle. Tilting it back slightly will help keep your weight on the saddle towards the wider, more supportive part of the seat. You may need to adjust height at the same time to keep it comfy.

Another tip is to not sit in the saddle for extended periods while riding, stand regularly just to take the pressure off the nerve and help the blood flow.