Saddle sores

stoobydale

Whats the best way to get rid of them. Just started riding my summer bike, and although it was real comfy for long rides last year I have got a couple of sores now.

portuguese mike

If you mean prevent them then always wearing clean shorts, showering as soon as possilbe after a ride and using a good quality chamois cream will all contribute to minimising their occurence. Correct postionong on the bike and the right saddle (for you) are equally, if not more so, important.

Nothing will ever gaurantee that you won't get any , it's an occupational hazard, but you can reduce the chances.

ut_och_cykla

Actual sores with pus 'n all? (Sorry!) or just painful 'sitting' areas from pressure. Cleanliness in saddle area, good padded shorts (clean ones) as above helps prevent.

a bit of pressure tenderness is just something you have to get used to. It should go after a few rides. If it doesn't a check of saddle /position is in order.

I managed to develop a BLISTER once - not funny at all especially when it burst. :shock:.. but I kept it clean and carried on riding daily. It took a fortnight to heal
Not sure what that says about me... crazy is one word my familly uses frequently

sloboy

I've found that a temporary twist of the saddle towards the side where the sores are can help.

Otherwise, when the curse is upon me, I'll make sure I'm having a good old wipe round with antiseptic (e.g. TCP - bit of a ponk though) before riding and as the last stage in the clean up operations afterwards.

They can still hang around a bit, so once they're there, the challenge for me is to find a system that let's me keep riding without them turning nasty.

stoobydale

Think I just needed to get the soft bits used to the toupe again. What was one "pus-n-all" zit turned into three. Been giving the area a liberal dosing of savlon 2 to 3 times a day and it seems to be helping. Haven't stopped riding but it does get uncomfortable after about 40 mins. Just for the record, I do wash my gear after every ride .

Bronzie

Once you've let the puss out of the spot, Germolene "Second Skin" is a good way of protecting the spot from further infection - stings a bit when it goes on mind.

Cajun

http://www.cptips.com/sadsore.htm
I've been using a Sports product called "Body Glide" and haven't had any sores in about 3 years.. It applies like an underarm deodorant, but non-greasy and doesn't stain or absorb into the shorts. Definitely NOT messy!!
http://www.bodyglide.com/
Also remember; when you rid the area of it's discharge, it's very caustic and can spread to create more discomfort. Clean the area with an antibiotic/antiseptic product immediately.

TomBombadil

Hi,

I would suggest Sudocrem - it's for nappy rashes and is cheap (even available at some newsagents!) and acts as a great barrier cream helps cover sores and stops sweat rashes. Apply liberally before ride and cover sore patches, wealds or spots etc. Also another cheap option it to rub vaseline into chamois as acts a s a lubricant again very cheap and works.

Sudocrem has been tried and tested by millions of babies and works for a long time in the saddle (is still evident after hours) and is as safe as you are going to get. It's less oily than Savlon and iin my opinion works well - although you will have that special baby smell.

Now I don't get sores - this stops them if I use it and my main use is that it stops sweat rashes around the scrotum :oops: !

Tom

ave_it

Hi,

I find Assos chamios cream the best and make sure you use it before every ride.

If you have sores now the best way to clear them is using surgical spirit applied with some cotton wool BUT I warn you it will sting like mad for about 1 minute but your sores will heal straight away.

TomBombadil

I Agree the Assoss cream is good and warming but becomes expensive if you are commuting every day and riding at weekends - it's more of a lube than an antisceptic and won't act as a barrier cream.

Vaseline may not be trendy and comes in a simple (and cheap pot) but works well as a lube and washes out - always wash shorts daily.

I use Assos for dedicated events like sportives etc. Luckilly never had boils but have had a few sores and even cyclists cysts which are small lumps that are benign and need surgery to remove - a real pain in the perineum!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3336958?ordinalpos=10&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Probably best to experiment and find out what suits - good luck - Tom

sloboy

Another thread recently recommended acne gel, and that's what I'm trying at the mo.

It's a good theory, cos the bacteria in saddle sores are supposed to be similar to acne nasties.

Otherwise, it's antiseptic before and after, and Assos chamois cream or Sudocrem during.

Eat My Dust

I went to the doctor and he gave me thrush cream which Mrs EMD found very amusing!!

TomBombadil

Eat my Dust - been there,

But if you still have a problem try after a week try the Suodcreme as a barrier cream as a sweat rash can appear a bit like yeast infections like thrush.

Tom

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chrisw12

TomBombadil wrote:

Hi,

Sudocrem has been tried and tested by millions of babies and works for a long time in the saddle (is still evident after hours)
Tom

Not to be pedantic but what study was done where babies were given sudocrem then asked to ride a bike, or were they on horse back?

I knowfor example, the Chineese start their sport stars young, but can babies really ride bikes?

chrisw12

sloboy wrote:

Otherwise, when the curse is upon me, I'll make sure I'm having a good old wipe round with antiseptic (e.g. TCP - bit of a ponk though) before riding and as the last stage in the clean up operations afterwards.

.

and which type of curse are you talking about? I thought the curse was something women have once a month.

or are you saying the sadlle sores are the curse?

markos1963

I have used clotrimazole cream from the doctors or you can use canestan cream from the chemists. The results are very quick and then I would use either talc or a barrier cream such as sudacrem mentioned by others.

TomBombadil

Ahhhhhh to be a pedant!

So much beauty and so many sentences to check! Tom

.........and don't get me started on study statistics! Well end up discussing what a significance test is and why we should be using confidence intervals!

chrisw12

TomBombadil wrote:

Ahhhhhh to be a pedant!

So much beauty and so many sentences to check! Tom

.........and don't get me started on study statistics! Well end up discussing what a significance test is and why we should be using confidence intervals!

I'd love to discus confidence intervals and significance tests since I'm a (bad) pure maths teacher thrown into teach A level Stats. I'm almost developing a passoin for it.

TomBombadil

Ahhh, my learned friends.

Regarding hypothesis tests, the major factor is they are not predictive. Especially when it comes to low power medical and physiological studies. The following article highlights that the predictive value of such tests can be as low a 50%.

BMJ Article - Sifting the evidencewhat's wrong with significance tests?
Jonathan A C Sterne, senior lecturer in medical statistics, George Davey Smith, professor of clinical epidemiology. It can be downloaded free

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/322/7280 ... type=HWCIT

Two good books I can recommend are:

Stiglers –Statistics on the table
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Statistics-Tabl ... 713&sr=1-2

This is an excellent and fun book but requires a good knowledge of statistics. The essay on Stigler’s law is very funny and almost like something I might write. However, it should be accessible to a teacher of A level statistics. A more general book that is a good bed time read is:

Salsburg’s The Lady Tasting Tea

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lady-Tasting-Te ... 713&sr=1-2

You may of course have read these books!

At P=0.05 the chance of a statistical significant result being random is 1 in 20 – This level has been used since Pearson to suggest significance. With over 800,000 papers published each year in medicine and physiology (including exercise & cycling physiology) a large number of the results are based on ‘significance – null hypothesis tests’ using the P<0.05 level i.e. a very large number that report a difference between two test groups are going to be in error and as a result of low statistical power due to low numbers of experimental samples predictive value can be as low as 50% as mentioned.

What does this mean – make of this what you will, but ascribing value to such studies without very careful consideration of the full details of the study may be a mistake. Most studies are not analysed by statisticians and may not meet reasonable standards and unlike other areas of physical science most medical and physiological; studies are not repeatable or repeated.

Does a nappy rash model cyclists sores - mmmmm – I have my suspicions that similar physiological conditions occur.

Discuss……… Tom

chrisw12

Tom, very interesting, I've sent you a pm so as not to hijack this thread.

Love the way you got it back on topic at the end.

sloboy

chrisw12 wrote:

sloboy wrote:

Otherwise, when the curse is upon me, I'll make sure I'm having a good old wipe round with antiseptic (e.g. TCP - bit of a ponk though) before riding and as the last stage in the clean up operations afterwards.

.

and which type of curse are you talking about? I thought the curse was something women have once a month.

or are you saying the sadlle sores are the curse?

Well, yes of course "the curse" is applied to that lady thing, but it's a general purpose word so I'll use it too.

It's a curse in our case, I would say, cos it's an occupational hazard of the cyclist.

chrisw12

Thanks sloboy, that's that cleared up then. :roll: