under carriage numbness anyone?

russell.osullivan

Hi all

Been cycling (fair weather) now for about 5 years, just bought a turbo trainer too, so can train in the house. But, I am getting some serious numbness in the downstairs department, so much so, that yesterday after about 45 mins the whole of the man region was dead numb and took about 3 mins to get any feeling back.

I was thinking of moving my seat down about half an inch to see if that helps, but I really need to know if there is anything i should be considering?? or if anyone else has had the same?

cheers

eddiefiola

new to Turbos and had the same, googled and it seems to be quite common, ive moved the angle of my seat down a bit and also make sure to move around a bit every few mins or take every chance to stand up, which makes it all more comfy.

russell.osullivan

Cheers Eddie

funnily i was thinking last night about pointing the angle of the seat down a bit too... last thing I want is to have to give it up, so has to be a load of ways in making sure it doesnt happen!

Calpol

I have never had an issue with this since switching to my Specialized Romin saddle. There are plenty other saddles with a cut out section that takes pressure off the perineum area. Might be worth a try?

gpreeves

I had the same problem when I first started riding on the turbo, but the problem seems to have gone away. I changed a few things so can’t guarantee any of them is 100% effective.

First thing to make sure you do is get out of the saddle every so often, on the road I often stand up when going up hills etc - on the turbo it’s very easy to just stay in the same position. I also pointed my saddle down a bit and moved it forward slightly – in terms of fore/aft position ensure you can feel your sit bones contacting at the wide part of the saddle. Regarding tilt, make sure you’re not tilted so far down/up that you slide forward or back.

Ed-tron

Hello. Yes, I have had the same problem on the turbo. My soldier goes dead after about 20 mins. I mentioned it to my girlfriend and she rightly said that cant be good. So I put my saddle from my old XC mountain bike on my road bike and it has helped. The saddle has a cutaway so perhaps increases circulation? Not sure, but that seems correct. I think i'll save up for A Romin though

eddiefiola

i recently bought a Romin and still had numbness the 1st time with it until I angled it down, so def not **just** the saddle type.

Ed-tron

OK Eddie, good to know. Will look into angles etc, thanks

drlodge

Numbness is caused by restricted blood flow, and of the saddles I've tried, the best in this regard are those that have a nice big cut out in the middle. My Selle SMP Lite 209 has a massive cut out, and I get no numbness.

You might get lucky with a saddle with a lesser or no cut out and doesn't give numbness due to the shape of the saddle vs your undercarriage. Saddles are a very personal think and its normally a case of try a few and see which feel best over a long distance.

eddiefiola

just to clarify my 'angled it down' is still actually angled up a bit (couple of degrees up from level), all personal preference really, as driodge said, saddles are very personal, if you can go to a LBS that has some test saddles, my local here let me use a different one a week for a few weeks until i decided.

VTech

I fixed it by raising my seat a little.

russell.osullivan

thanks for all your input...

Really happy with the response from my very first post here on BR!

elderone

Is your saddle at the set hieght for you,if not it will not be comfy and certainly you won,t know if it is the issue or not.
Also once correct hieght,then try a slight tilt up or down,to far one way or other will put pressure on a different part of your under area.
Assuming the above are all good,then see if the saet width is right.My new bike saddle was really uncomfy and spoilt my rides antil i measured it against my other saddle which fit great,my comfy saddle was 130 and the new one a 155,so lot of difference.
good luck getting sorted.

marylogic

Do you have a riser for your front wheel when on the turbo trainer so that the bike is at the same angle as on the road?

russell.osullivan

yeah have a riser... going to try the angle of the seat tonight first and see how I get on, before spending any cash on getting a new seat etc...

cheers

defycomp2

I've just copy/pasted my reply to a earlier post today.

All of the above but... if you sit on your sit bones you won't have a problem.

If you are reaching too far forward (i.e. have your stem under all the spacers or the stem tilted down or your frame is too big) you tilt your pelvis so applying pressure to the area that you don't want pressure on. So up goes the stem, down goes the saddle (and back a bit) and the problem should alleviate itself as the pelvis is now in its correct position. If not is your frame too big?

Finally if you tilt your saddle down you slide forward so applying pressure where you don't want it, a good pair of shorts works wonders and you won't go too far wrong with a Specialized Toupe but get your sit bones measured.

simon_masterson

Some good points made. Generally you don't want to be angling your saddle around; certainly nothing extreme. Having the saddle too high can increase pressure. Some saddles simply don't provide sufficient blood flow (though this is evidently a personal thing), but sitting on the 'wrong' part of the saddle can cause trouble as well: I find that my Charge Spoon is most comfortable when I sit quite far back on it, as opposed to on the nose, which I have a distinct tendency to do.

It sounds like you might be after a saddle with a pressure relief channel. Different companies offer different designs; for example Fizik apparently don't believe in the full cutouts that Specialized and others offer.