Saddle problems

davecooper

Here is my regular yearly search for a comfortable saddle, an exercise which has so far been pretty unsuccessful. My current saddle, a Fizik Pave CP, which I bought last year, has never really been comfortable for me. I thought I would give it one last try and got back on the bike about a week ago for my 20 mile round trip commute. After 2 days I couldn't even sit on the bike it was so painful. Did a few miles over the weekend but come Monday morning it was too painful to even sit on, let alone ride, cue the car for work on a glorious morning. I even tried wearing two pairs of cycling shorts but that didn't really help.
I have been through a number of saddles, all professing to be the answer to my prayers, but to no avail. Looking back, the most comfortable saddle I ever had was a plain unbranded one fitted to a bike I bought in the 80’s. This was a basic thinly padded, plastic shelled saddle with no gel “sculpturing” and a bit broader than current road models. Is there anything now that has such a “classic” design? I am running out of ideas and just not looking forward to getting on the bike at the moment. Any help would be appreciated.

giant_man

The basic selle italia XO. You could try that. When i had one 10 years ago there wasn't any gel in it, looks like that's changed now. Or the Flite come to that.

http://www.selleitalia.com/eng/index.html

Some people swear by the Charge Spoon at 20 quid. It's quite a classic shape with no gel. I have one and it's OK. Not as comfy as my Fizik Aliante but that's a lot more money. Also the Knife is supposed to be good too.

http://www.chargebikes.com/products/parts/spoon.php

http://www.chargebikes.com/products/parts/knife.php#

You are going to find this with saddles, not all are good for your ar$e. Hope this helps.

skyd0g

Don't forget, your @ss is 30 years older than it was in the 80's

davecooper

Fair comment skyd0g. A few pounds heavier as well!

kfinlay

You need to try and find out what sort of shape saddle you need.
Having tried a few saddles I found that I didn't like ones with a wavy shape front to back as I got numb nuts. Trying a Charge Spoon also helped me realise I need a wider saddle than the many that are only 130mm wide. Only issue from there was to get the right amount and type of padding. I found that my pain was on my bum bones caused on longer rides with road buzz/bumps being transmitted through the aluminium frame.
I also got my bones measured on a Specialized bum pad at my LBS. Tried a Specialized Toupe 143 but just too hard although no numb nuts. Then a Prologo Nago Evo with more padding but still very hard.
So I knew that I needed quite a wide saddle - about 150mm - that had a flat top profile front to back.
The Charge Spoon had worked quite well if the seat angle was spot on but I opted for a Selle Italia Max Flite Genuine Gel as it has a degree of suspension built into it so the road buzz was greatly reduced and bumps were also smoothed out a lot. Took a few 50 mile rides to break in and is fantastic. Their MAX saddles are the wide versions and they also do ones with cut outs with GEL FLOW in the title.

This nis how I worked out which was best for me so hope it gives a few pointers to help you find saddle nirvana