Charge Spoon eats my shorts!

psychle

After a nice long ride on Sunday I noticed clear signs of wear on my new Lusso Pro Gel shorts - both inner thighs right next to the pad. My initial thought was the shorts, though very comfy, were a piece of cr*p. But I dug into the laundry basket for the shorts I had worn on Saturday (Endura) and they had the same signs of wear, ditto Fridays shorts!

So the obvious culprit is the new Charge Spoon saddle. And sure enough, it has raised stitching running down either side of the nose. I agree with most of the reviews, this saddle is supremely comfortable but if it's going to destroy my shorts, it's not much use.

Has anyone else noticed this?

I thought of taping over the seams but it'll probably look terrible and may well not stick.
I've seen saddle covers but again they look awful, they tend to be quite wide and padded and I suspect they may slide around.

Does anyone have any other ideas for a solution?

softlad

I had a similar issue, but I worked out it couldn't be the saddle, because of the spacing of the damage on the shorts, compared to the spacing of the stitching on the saddle.

In the end, I traced it to the saddle mounting hardware on my seatpost - there were some sharp edges on it which were catching the stiching on my shorts. I filed the edges smooth, but I may end up changing the seatpost anyway...

fortyone

Haven't noticed any wear yet on the clothes - the Charge Spoon is the most comfortable saddle I've used.

punkypossum

I've got the girlie version, the ladle, but that certainly does not appear to be a shorts eater!

Steve_b77

I've been riding charge spoons for over a year on two bikes and have never noticed wear patterns like this

keef66

Spoon eats shorts! Sounds like a daily mail headline. No problems with my Spoon and my cheapo Polaris shorts, which is a pity because I want just the smallest excuse to replace them.

psychle

Thanks for the feedback all.
I've been riding bikes for over twenty years and have never noticed wear patterns like this before. This has just occured since fitting the Spoon last week. Seat post and clamp have been on the bike for over ten years.
Could I have an odd pedalling technique? I thought the best technique involved keeping the knees fairly close together, which I tend to do. I could see how this may cause greater friction between inner thigh and saddle nose.
Maybe I'm too far forward or back on the saddle?
I may experiment with adjusting the saddle position/tilt etc, though it feels perfect as it is.

softlad

The Spoon has quite a significant cutaway, I'm wondering if this might have 'exposed' bits of the seat clamp underneath, which may have previously been covered by the old saddle - certainly that was the issue in my case....

The solution was to go for a post with a bit more layback - I think that's the answer for me, although it might not be the same for you...?

nielsamd

How about an occasional blast of silicon spray on any culprit saddle chafe areas ?

Stellite

I had wear on a couple pairs of my shorts and it turned out to be the velcro strap on the little tool bag under my saddle. Not impressed