On a hillside desolate

[venta]

Advice wanted from the bicycle-aware, please...

Firstly, let's get one thing clear. I am not a cyclist. I do not cycle. I am a person who owns a bike who and sometimes uses it to get from A to B. Typically A and B are both within Oxford, and not terribly far away from each other.

My bike is a nice, sensible affair with six gears and straight handlebars. I mostly like it. However, I do have one serious issue with it.

The saddle. When I hop on my bike, it all seems fine. But after more than about ten minutes of riding the saddle has become quite uncomfortable. A few months ago, I cycled out to Nuneham Courtney[*] (about 5 miles) and back, and the net result was bruises in unmentionable places.

My saddle doesn't appear to be the sort that would have this effect - it's quite broad, and quite padded. I have no idea whether the problem is the saddle itself, or something more subtle like the angle at which I have it fixed.

I have no idea how to fix this probem. Adjust saddle, ride for 15 minutes, check for bruises, wait two days, repeat - it's not an appealing process. Similarly with buying a new saddle. How will I tell whether a saddle which a shop offers me will be comfortable not only in the shop, but several miles down the road ?

Presumably finding a comfortable saddle is a well-known problem, so hopefully there is a well-known solution.

[*] Which, I might add, is pretty much entirely uphill from my house. Which surprised me in the woefully flat county of Oxfordshire. My journey back was an order of magnitude quicker than my journey there.

Comments

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Female-specific saddles are standard and sensible options. A useful bike-shop should be able to help.

It's also possible that some small (fore-aft/up-down) adjustment will sort it.

[smorgasbord.livejournal.com]

Lots of useful information about saddles.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Trial and error is pretty much the way to do it. If the unmentionable place is your bum rather than genitals, it's probably just the angle. If the opposite is true, you need a saddle with a dip in the middle, which are sold as "ladies' saddles" and will make your life greatly better.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Some saddles are designed to be used in conjunction with a chamois and some are not. If you're only doing short rides, you want the sort that's not. They're usually wider and more padded.

The more padded a saddle is, the more often it will need replacing. It might just be that yours is at the end of its useful life.

A lot of people swear by Brooks, but I've never used one.

If the saddle is OK, you could try a suspended seatpost for less impact. Or even moving your handlebars down a bit (so you put more weight on your arms and less on your saddle).

But the short answer is to tinker around a bit and see what happens. Go for a ride around the park with a set of allen keys. :-

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

remove the saddle =;-)

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

Sorry about your problems mate. I'm not a bike person so I can't comment. However if you are ever in the area and suffering from the problem then drop in and I'll be happy to rub some soothing ointment on the affected area.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

My old saddle came off so I recently bought a new one. It's one of those fancy gel ones with holes others have told you to avoid, but it's working fine for me.The woman in Cycloanalysts didn't seem to think a ladies' cycle was particularly necessary or useful, and mine is a unisex one.

It took me a week or two to get used to sitting in a different posture to my previous one (slightly further forward), but it's actually better in that I now get pressure on the pedals all round the cycle. Also, as with any saddle, my bum got sore until it was used to it. I'm still not sure if the fancy gel had much of a point to it, but it's at least as comfortable as the old one which came with the bike, and also makes riding easier.

Brookes

[smiorgan.livejournal.com]

I never got on very well with a Brookes saddle, but experiences differ. I use a Planet X superlight team saddle on both bikes and it's comfortable from the start. They do (or used to do) a shorter nose one which would probably fit the female anatomy better, but both models are narrow race-type ones.

Often the problem with chafing saddles is too much padding rather than not enough.

You're welcome to have a go with my old Brookes saddle to see if it works for you. It's a narrow style, which may be a problem... but worth a try.