Selecting a new saddle

Nick Kew said:

I had a look in my normally-friendly&helpful LBS, and they have a range of wierd and wonderful
things, including some with holes or slits in, which leads me to wonder how far some people take
the leg-over metaphor. However, they didn't seem particularly keen for me to test-ride with any of
them, leaving me unable to choose.

So, I'm looking for tips. How do I go about selecting a saddle "blind", without risking a
sore bum?

You go to a shop that doesn't think that's out of the question, is my advice. Or at least get to sit
on them in the shop: if they won't even do that then you want the door, not one of their saddles.

As has been said many times, your bum is a personal thing (cue multiple-entendre side comment
involving a matron) and how it interfaces with any particular design, size and construction of
saddle isn't predictable over Usenet :-(

I've ridden some popular "you will be much more comfortable on this!" saddles and found them torture
equipment, others have used my Brooks saddles that *I* think are wonderful and felt they should be
used as cricket bats rather than bicycle saddles.

Quoted message said:

and - ahem - what are the strange shapes in aid of?

Supporting, or in some cases significantly *not* supporting, various bits of your anatomy. The
cutouts are usually to relieve pressure on the sensitive "bits" peculiar to either ladies or gents,
width will depend on the personal layout of your sit bones, and so on.

Try before you buy really is the way forward, but some worth trying would be trad leather Brooks,
Georgina Terry Liberators and similar and Specialized Body Geometry (by no means an exhaustive
list btw).

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
dundee.ac.uk~pjclinchOpen ↗

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

Quoted message said:

Nick Kew said:

I had a look in my normally-friendly&helpful LBS, and they have a range of wierd and wonderful
things, including some with holes or slits in, which leads me to wonder how far some people take
the leg-over metaphor. However, they didn't seem particularly keen for me to test-ride with any
of them, leaving me unable to choose.

So, I'm looking for tips. How do I go about selecting a saddle "blind", without risking a
sore bum?

You go to a shop that doesn't think that's out of the question, is my advice. Or at least get to
sit on them in the shop: if they won't even do that then you want the door, not one of their
saddles.

As has been said many times, your bum is a personal thing (cue multiple-entendre side comment
involving a matron) and how it interfaces with any particular design, size and construction of
saddle isn't predictable over Usenet :-(

I've ridden some popular "you will be much more comfortable on this!" saddles and found them
torture equipment, others have used my Brooks saddles that *I* think are wonderful and felt they
should be used as cricket bats rather than bicycle saddles.

Quoted message said:

and - ahem - what are the strange shapes in aid of?

Supporting, or in some cases significantly *not* supporting, various bits of your anatomy. The
cutouts are usually to relieve pressure on the sensitive "bits" peculiar to either ladies or
gents, width will depend on the personal layout of your sit bones, and so on.

Try before you buy really is the way forward, but some worth trying would be trad leather Brooks,
Georgina Terry Liberators and similar and Specialized Body Geometry (by no means an exhaustive
list btw).

Don't forget the Selle Italia Flite, the king of saddles !

Graham

Quoted message said:

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells
Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
dundee.ac.uk~pjclinchOpen ↗

Graham said:

Peter Clinch said:

As has been said many times, your bum is a personal thing...<*Snigger*>

What he said.

Quoted message said:

Don't forget the Selle Italia Flite, the king of saddles !

Y'know, I'd have said the same thing a couple of months ago. I've used Flite Ti saddles on my
mountain bike for the past 7 years and always swore by them. Recently I've been converting to the
roadie thang which initially meant lots of very long road rides on my slick shod MTB. After four or
five hours of being sat down spinning, the old bung hole was in absolute agony. I then tried one of
them thar WTB Rocket V saddles which improved the situation greatly, though still not perfect. When
I bought my new *cough*road*cough* bike I specced a Fizik Aliante on it. And thus far it's been
bloody marvellous. Whether that's down to a genuine ergonomical improvement, a change of riding
posture down to the different type of bike, or simply the mind refusing to accept that having spent
all that dosh on a saddle, that it could possibly be uncomfortable. ;-)

Whatever it's all highly subjective and personal. You'll just have to try different saddles until
you find something that works for you.

--
Alex BMW R1150GS DIAABTCOD#3 MSWF#4 UKRMFBC#6 Ibw#35 BOB#8 team-ukrm.co.ukteam-ukrm.co.ukOpen ↗ Windy's
"little soldier"

Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> wrote: ...
| I've ridden some popular "you will be much more comfortable on this!" saddles and found them
| torture equipment, others have used my Brooks saddles that *I* think are wonderful and felt they
| should be used as cricket bats rather than bicycle saddles.

The point about Brooks saddles, in case the OP was wondering, is that they /are/ hard, relatively,
but the leather gets to be shaped exactly right which gives you a much more even pressure across the
said geometry, which is much more comfortable on long rides and just generally. You have to look
after the leather though.

--
Patrick Herring, Sheffield, UK anweald.co.ukanweald.co.ukOpen ↗

Nick Kew said:

So, I'm looking for tips. How do I go about selecting a saddle "blind", without risking a
sore bum?

Your bum will be sore until it adapts to the new saddle, just like new shoes are. I have never
agonised over choosing a saddle. I have a Rolls San Marco, Selle Italia Turbo and Flite Titianium.
Don't really see why folk have so much trouble, ones backside will mould itself to the saddle, at
least mine has, takes some time though. The trick is to ride regularly so your backside does not
soften up and change saddles rarely.

--
The Reply & From email addresses are checked rarely. mseries.freeserve.co.ukmseries.freeserve.co.ukOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>, one of infinite monkeys

at the keyboard of 'MSeries said:

Your bum will be sore until it adapts to the new saddle,

I've ridden enough saddles to disagree. One I had in my youth was always painful (dug right in
to the bones). Others have ranged from neutral to nice. Also noticable was the time when I had
two tourers; both saddles were OK comfortwise but one wore through the trousers far quicker than
the other.

Quoted message said:

just like new shoes are.

Not mine, unless I make a bad mistake buying them. Not even the heavy mountaineering boots (bought
in a small village high in the Italian Alps) caused serious soreness.

Quoted message said:

much trouble, ones backside will mould itself to the saddle, at least mine has, takes some
time though. The trick is to ride regularly so your backside does not soften up and change
saddles rarely.

It's not so much the soft bits... not even the vitals if I wear pants that hold them up safely.

--
Finally, someone takes a stand against Humbug. Three cheers for Austrian shop workers!

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 13:12:15 +0000, [email hidden] (Nick

Kew) said:

How do I go about selecting a saddle "blind", without risking a sore bum?

Say goodbye to sore [censored] misery with New! IMPROVED! Recumbent...

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
chapmancentral.demon.co.ukchapmancentral.demon.co.ukOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>, one of infinite monkeys

at the keyboard of 'Just zis Guy said:

Say goodbye to sore [censored] misery with New! IMPROVED! Recumbent...

You haven't seen the space it doesn't have to live in. Or indeed the budget I don't have to not buy
it with. Or even the non-roads I frequently don't have to ride it on.

--
Finally, someone takes a stand against Humbug. Three cheers for Austrian shop workers!

MSeries said:

Your bum will be sore until it adapts to the new saddle

Not the case with my saddles.

Quoted message said:

are. I have never agonised over choosing a saddle. I have a Rolls San Marco, Selle Italia Turbo
and Flite Titianium. Don't really see why folk have so much trouble, ones backside will mould
itself to the saddle, at least mine has, takes some time though.

So rather than agonise over choosing it, you agonised over sitting on it for a while instead. I
think I prefer my way!

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
dundee.ac.uk~pjclinchOpen ↗

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

(Nick Kew) said:

How do I go about selecting a saddle "blind", without risking a sore bum?

Say goodbye to sore [censored] misery with New! IMPROVED! Recumbent...

Sore bums and 'bents? I'm wondering if this news group is suitable family entertainment! ;-)
___
Michael MacClancy

Patrick Herring said:

The point about Brooks saddles, in case the OP was wondering, is that they /are/ hard, relatively,
but the leather gets to be shaped exactly right which gives you a much more even pressure across
the said geometry, which is much more comfortable on long rides and just generally.

But the leather needs to be in more or less the right place to start with. Roos doesn't like the
Brooks on my Brompton because one of her sit bones isn't properly on the saddle, and the fact she
gets to choose which one doesn't make up for the basic problem!

Quoted message said:

You have to look after the leather though.

It's not that hard though: Proofide it once in a while ("while" is measured in months), stick a
Tesco bag over it if you leave it parked in the rain and that's been quite enough for all of mine
(B17 on the MTB, Brompton one and a B66 which has transferred from my old tourer to the freight
bike). My B66 is the most comfortable saddle I've ever sat on as it was more or less the right shape
before wearing in more exactly to me. But for *real* comfort the recumbent sprung, padded armchair
on the Streetmachine is an order of magnitude better.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
dundee.ac.uk~pjclinchOpen ↗

Nick Kew said:

In article <[email hidden]>, one of infinite monkeys at the keyboard

of 'MSeries said:

Your bum will be sore until it adapts to the new saddle,

I've ridden enough saddles to disagree. One I had in my youth was always painful (dug right in
to the bones). Others have ranged from neutral to nice. Also noticable was the time when I had
two tourers; both saddles were OK comfortwise but one wore through the trousers far quicker than
the other.

Quoted message said:

just like new shoes are.

Not mine, unless I make a bad mistake buying them. Not even the heavy mountaineering boots (bought
in a small village high in the Italian Alps) caused serious soreness.

Quoted message said:

much trouble, ones backside will mould itself to the saddle, at least mine has, takes some time
though. The trick is to ride regularly so your backside does not soften up and change saddles
rarely.

It's not so much the soft bits... not even the vitals if I wear pants that hold them up safely.

--
The Reply & From email addresses are checked rarely. mseries.freeserve.co.ukmseries.freeserve.co.ukOpen ↗

Peter Clinch said:

MSeries said:

Your bum will be sore until it adapts to the new saddle

Not the case with my saddles.

Quoted message said:

are. I have never agonised over choosing a saddle. I have a Rolls San Marco, Selle Italia Turbo
and Flite Titianium. Don't really see why folk have so much trouble, ones backside will mould
itself to the saddle, at least mine has, takes some time though.

So rather than agonise over choosing it, you agonised over sitting on it for a while instead. I
think I prefer my way!

Pete.

So please let the OP know how to choose the saddle that will fit him perfectly from day 1. How did
you choose yours ? Me ? I use trial and error.

Quoted message said:

Your bum will be sore until it adapts to the new saddle, just like new shoes are.

If the shoes fit properly in the first place - they won't cause your feet to be sore at all.

Quoted message said:

I have never agonised over choosing a saddle. I have a Rolls San Marco,

Oh I have - having had my posterior on saddles which have caused *excruciating* pain to my delicate
nether regions...

Quoted message said:

The trick is to ride regularly so your backside
does not soften up and change saddles rarely.

The trick is to have a saddle which is comfortable to sit on and therefore assists in making one's
cycling enjoyable, as opposed to an offshoot of the medieval torture chamber, as that way, one is
more likely to want to keep at it
:-)

Both my Bianchis - with the saddles supplied on them were really, really painful to sit on. As soon
as I switched the saddles to Terry's Liberators (TiLite on Gino and RaceLite on Luigi) the
difference was incredible. I cannot stress how much difference the change of saddle made to me. Put
it this way - when I got Gino - after cycling ten miles on it when it had the original saddle on it
- I literally could hardly walk for a couple of hours afterwards. With the change of saddle to
Terry's Liberators, it is so comfortable I don't even notice them there, so to speak.

Cheers, helen s

--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam-- to get correct one remove dependency on fame &
fortune h*$el*$$e**nd***$o$ts***i*$*$m**m$$o*n**s@$*$a$$o**l.c**$*$om$$

Nick Kew said:

You haven't seen the space it doesn't have to live in. Or indeed the budget I don't have to not
buy it with. Or even the non-roads I frequently don't have to ride it on.

Space and budget are pretty fundamental, but for future reference note that 'bents aren't
necessarily congenitally hopeless on comedy roads. On the really rough stuff forget it, yes, but a
typical estate or landy track is usually fine (not as easy as an MTB, but if it's only part of a
larger trip not a problem). I live on a non-road and it gets up and down that okay.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
dundee.ac.uk~pjclinchOpen ↗

MSeries said:

So please let the OP know how to choose the saddle that will fit him perfectly from day 1. How did
you choose yours ? Me ? I use trial and error.

Trial and error is the way, but if you do it *before* you buy the saddle on short trips it's a
lot cheaper than if you have an "error". A good shop may let you take it back after a week or so
as well (a friend had this offer from Velo Ecosse with a Terry racing saddle, though she liked it
and kept it).

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch University of Dundee Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Medical Physics, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net [email hidden]
dundee.ac.uk~pjclinchOpen ↗

(Nick Kew) said:

I have a knackered saddle that badly needs replacing. Criteria for a new saddle include comfort
(I'm a wimp) and that it shouldn't rip holes in my trousers too quickly (hate that kind of waste).

I had a look in my normally-friendly&helpful LBS, and they have a range of wierd and wonderful
things, including some with holes or slits in, which leads me to wonder how far some people take
the leg-over metaphor. However, they didn't seem particularly keen for me to test-ride with any of
them, leaving me unable to choose.

So, I'm looking for tips. How do I go about selecting a saddle "blind", without risking a
sore bum?

and - ahem - what are the strange shapes in aid of?

The strange shapes are to protect the plumbing that runs under your pelvic bone from damage.
Scarring of these tubes can lead to infertility in cyclists.

Different people have different shaped arses and consequently need different saddles. The key is
fundamentally the width of your pelvis. Essentially you need a saddle which is as wide across the
back as another saddle you're comfortable on.

My advice would be to go to the shop with your old saddle and get the Brooks saddle which has the
same width. You do a lot of cycling so even if the Brooks isn't initially the right shape for you it
will be within a week or two. In my experience they're the best saddles for comfort, although I know
quite a lot of people find them too hard at first.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) jasmine.org.uk~simonOpen ↗

;; MS Windows: A thirty-two bit extension ... to a sixteen bit ;; patch to an eight bit
operating system originally coded for a ;; four bit microprocessor and sold by a two-bit company
that ;; can't stand one bit of competition -- anonymous

"Patrick Herring" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > The point about Brooks saddles, in case the
OP was wondering, is that

Quoted message said:

they /are/ hard, relatively, but the leather gets to be shaped exactly right which gives you a
much more even pressure across the said geometry, which is much more comfortable on long rides and
just generally. You have to look after the leather though.

I neglected mine badly for its whole life (20+ years) and it basically survived OK. Although it
didn't in all honesty get a huge amount of miles on it for the last 15 of those years. The bike
even sat idle outside for a year, to the extent that I had to cut the plants off it when I
moved. I've had to clean mould off the saddle more than once as well. This obviously isn't to be
taken as a recommendation on how to treat Brooks saddles, but just an indication that they're
not that delicate.

I've now bought a brand spanking titanium one for my new bike which I intend to look after
rather better !

Hywel

"Hywel & Ros" <[email hidden]> wrote:

|
| "Patrick Herring" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > The point about Brooks saddles, in case
| the OP was wondering, is that
| > they /are/ hard, relatively, but the leather gets to be shaped exactly right which gives you a
| > much more even pressure across the said geometry, which is much more comfortable on long rides
| > and just generally. You have to look after the leather though.
| >
|
| I neglected mine badly for its whole life (20+ years) and it basically survived OK. Although it
| didn't in all honesty get a huge amount of miles on it for the last 15 of those years. The bike
| even sat idle outside for a year, to the extent that I had to cut the plants off it when I moved.
| I've had to clean mould off the saddle more than once as well. This obviously isn't to be taken as
| a recommendation on how to treat Brooks saddles, but just an indication that they're not that
| delicate.

Worth knowing.

--
Patrick Herring, Sheffield, UK anweald.co.ukanweald.co.ukOpen ↗