Saddle help please

oldborn

Hi there!
I am 70kg, and having problems with saddles, or my ***. I am riding a road bicycle, both on drops and upright, sometimes on aerobar. Now i am on Specialized toupe team saddle 143mmx27mm after 5 or 6 different models (san marco arami, fiizik alliante and arione wing flex, selle italia etc., and Briko bib shorts.

I am starting to feel pain on my sit bones on some of them like toupe team, and on others like fiizik pressure and reduced penile blood flow after 20 or 30 minutes , fat or skinny, long or short, and i am riding about 7 hrs weekly for more than 2 years, what is a problem bib shorts, rpm, saddle height or? On specialized my sit bone hurt, while on others crouch area.

Please help!

LazyLoki

If I had the choice of sore sit bones or reduced penile blood flow I know which one I'd go for!

On a more serious note, do your bib shorts fit well? ie does the pad actually lie beneath your sit bones when you're in a riding position? Is your riding position quite upright to the point that you're putting quite a lot of weight directly down on the saddle? I guess it could be that your saddle is a little low and causing you to take less weight on your upper body.

Or of course it could just be that the saddles you've tried don't fit you well. A lot of bike shops have a sit bone measuring thingy - basically memory foam that you sit on for a while and they can gauge the distance between your sit bones and recommend a saddle of appropriate width. I know that the Specialized body geometry saddles come in different widths for this purpose. As far as I'm aware, saddles from Fizik and Selle Italia only come in a single width. Sit bone width has nothing to do with body weight or anything like that.

I'm not an expert but from what you've said I think you should stick to saddles that have a cut out (so no fizik) and go from there.

Another thing you might want to consider is a professional bike fitting as not only will they set and adjust your saddle height/fore and aft, cleat positioning, stem length and angle etc but they will also be able to advise on saddle fit for your riding style. A proper fitting will take a couple of hours and probably run you about £100 but that's pretty reasonable considering the cost of some of the saddles your tried. Don't know where you're located but theres a guy in NW London that goes by the name The Bike Whisperer (seriously - google it) and he is excellent.

Hope some of this helps.

oldborn

Thanks!

oldborn

Very interesting, i will try that. i am not sure that bib shorts can be personalized but i will try this also, yes i am very much in upright position.

Thanks a lot mate!

My only bkefitting guy was broke! :twisted:
Yes i will also choose reduced penile blood flow , for sure!