TT Saddle Position / Replacement

meesterbond

Not sure quite where this should go, but I guess here is as good as anywhere

I've been using my road bike with clip-on aerobars for a while but it always felt like a bit of a compromise - the bike fits perfectly as a road bike, but as a tri bike, less so. Anyway, I bought myself a Canyon Speedmax AL TT bike which arrived a week or so ago and I've been tweaking it to try and get more comfortable.

My biggest issue seems to be the saddle though - starting with it horizontal and it's fine on the base bar, but drop onto the extensions and after not many minutes my crown jewel feel like their in a garlic press... angle the nose down slightly and that pain subsides, but then I feel like I'm sliding off the front. Not so bad on the aerobars but puts lots of extra stress on my arms when I'm sitting up.

I'm pretty new to the whole geometry of TT bikes, so should there be a happy medium? There's not much excess on the steerer to raise the bars so that's not really an option.
The current saddle is a Selle Italia SL Kit Carbonio (according to the Canyon site!) so would a replacement be a better option - either something that stops the slipping (Prologo for example) or one with more of a cutout (Adamo / Cobb etc)?


Any ideas?

Thanks

SBezza

Well on a TT bike I doubt you will spend much time on the base bar (well you shouldn't if you want to go as fast as possible).

With saddles it can be a bit of try and see, my TT saddle is completely different to my road saddle, as like you say you sit on the saddle of a TT bike more on the nose of the saddle. I slide a little on mine, but nothing really to worry too much about, and I rarely sit up on the base bar.

Some have found getting a well padded nose helps, and alot of riders are now going for the Adamo saddle which in effect allows you to sit on your sit bones, and the nose if effectively cut off, some love them, some hate them. I haven't tried one yet some can't comment on the effectiveness.

danowat

Adamo's are indeed a bit of a "marmite" thing, although I think the "loves" outweight the "hates" by a big margin.

For me, it is the ONLY way I could TT long than 10 miles, the first 25 I did was on a normal saddle, and I was a wreck down below for days, I've done a 100TT on my Adamo and it was perfectly comfortable.

Tucky

Another vote for an Adamo.

meesterbond

Cheers for the input...
Agree that I shouldn't be spending long on the base bars, but even on the aeros I didn't feel 'balanced'... more weight on the forearms than felt right and whilst I'm still building up the distance, I can see that being a problem pretty quickly.

The Adamos are an incredibly ugly piece of kit, but I do keep reading good things about then and I am leaning that way...

Chip \'oyler

I use a Pro Logo Nago TTR. Great piece of kit. Like sitting on a sofa.

alan_sherman

I find that i have to run my TT saddlebike at a lower height than on my road bike, as the hips are swivelled forward the undercarriage needs somewhere to go!

I was having similar issues to what you describe and found that a arione tri saddle (very padded nose) with the saddle dropped, and the tri bars set up with the wrists just a bit higher than the elbows gives a good stable position that I can hold for a 25 fairly comfortably.

danowat

meesterbond wrote:

The Adamos are an incredibly ugly piece of kit

You don't see it when you are sitting on it!

I prefer the asthetic penalty, rather than having the old chap out of action for 3 days due to numbness!!!!

markos1963

alan sherman wrote:

I find that i have to run my TT saddlebike at a lower height than on my road bike, as the hips are swivelled forward the undercarriage needs somewhere to go!

I was having similar issues to what you describe and found that a arione tri saddle (very padded nose) with the saddle dropped, and the tri bars set up with the wrists just a bit higher than the elbows gives a good stable position that I can hold for a 25 fairly comfortably.

I find I'm the opposite, I have to raise my saddle on the TT bike as the rotation has the effect of lowering the saddle height.

For the OP it's just like road bikes no two people will get on the same with a saddle. I use a Selle Italia SL T1 which has a very padded nose. I angle it down just a couple of degrees and as others have said I put up with the slight forwards pitch. You are new to the bike so it might take a while and a bit of fiddling to get a comfortable position.

Pokerface

meesterbond wrote:

The Adamos are an incredibly ugly piece of kit, but I do keep reading good things about then and I am leaning that way...

Just to resurrect an old thread...

As someone who is totally into pimping out his bikes, I agree that Adamo saddles are pretty ugly. But wouldn't give mine up for the world! When it comes to TTing, comfort is more important than looks if you want to go fast!

I wrote about my Adamo experience here: http://637daystogo.blogspot.com/2011/11/double-pronged-pillow.html