Saddles !!! WTF

zak3737

Ok, Im struggling, I'm struggling to get my @ass comfy on the damn seat !

I have MTB'iked for many a year before, until about 6yrs ago, and quite honestly, never had an issue with saddles, and we did some pretty long rides & days.

Now, 2mths onto my Road Biking baptism, I've having gone through a process of finding the best 'bike fit', and am now on a Roubaix, complete with one of their CG-R seatposts, and wider tyres etc etc.
I even took myself into a local Spesh delaer to get a Saddle fit, and walked out £85 lighter with a 155mm Romin Expert Gel saddle, to ensure I was gonna be comfy.

I'm even wearing some padded boxer type Endura shorts, under my bibs, to pad things well....

BUT - my sit bones are still screamin at me ffs !! What the hell ! How long does it take to get ones @ss in shape for the tarmac for god's sake ?????

Do I just assume that despite the 'fitting', the saddle just aint for me......and move on to something else ?
Is it a case of try and try to find something that you @ss likes, despite what the fitting says it should like ?

vs

fizik aliante

iron-clover

Hmm, sounds interesting that you were measured and it didn't help.
However, the gel is pretty irrelevant imo- I always have the padding on the shorts rather than the saddle to avoid sinking into the saddle and producing more friction.
But if it's your sit bones that are hurting it definitely sounds like something else is wrong there.

imposter2.0

Zak3737 wrote:

I have MTB'iked for many a year before, until about 6yrs ago, and quite honestly, never had an issue with saddles, and we did some pretty long rides & days.

Just use the same saddle that you used previously on your MTB. Sorted.

rolf_f

Once you have got your donkey happily riding your bike, please do post a picture of it on here.......

WindyG

I would suggest the same as Imposter use the same as you used on your MTB, it's what I have done and it works fine for me.

Matthewfalle

Selle Italia SLR. End of.

Jules Winnfield

If you ask me you have gone waaaayyyyyy over the top with the padding. Why do you feel you need padded shorts along with your padded bibs?

zak3737

Jules Winnfield wrote:

If you ask me you have gone waaaayyyyyy over the top with the padding. Why do you feel you need padded shorts along with your padded bibs?

Errr......to try and stop my damn sit bones yelling at me !!

Jules Winnfield

Well with all that padding, you are not exactly sitting on just your sit bones are you? Think about it! It's a very common misconception that a lot of people think 'More padding = more comfortable ride". Like someone said previously though, the logical thing would be to swap your saddle from the MTB to the road bike.

Sorted.

ai_1

Zak3737 wrote:

Jules Winnfield wrote:

If you ask me you have gone waaaayyyyyy over the top with the padding. Why do you feel you need padded shorts along with your padded bibs?

Errr......to try and stop my damn sit bones yelling at me !!

Do you think it's the bones themselves hurting you or is it perhaps the soft tissue around them?
Excessive padding often contributes to soft tissue discomfort as it deforms to spread pressure more evenly rather than allowing you take the pressure where it's best supported. Also excessive padding on your clothing may well negate the design of the saddle.
I don't remember ever seeing someone on here report solving their saddle problems with padding. I can recall threads where the opposite was the case. It's a common trend that people try adding padding to reduce discomfort. It tends not to work.

Anonymous

Forget about all the silly gels, wide/soft saddles and double padding, and start doing things properly.

Get a saddle that fits you. Try to broaden your horizons beyond Specialized (although they do offer a saddle swapping system that you may now be able to take advantage of).

Get some decent padded shorts for normal rides and a second, much better pair, for longer ones. Do not wear both at once!

You should be comfortable in the saddle on short rides with no padding. The padding is just there to extend the time you are comfortable, not to make it comfortable.
Very nice/comfortable bib shorts are not cheap, but IMO are well worth the expense and should command the biggest chunk of your cycle clothing budget.

Try chamois creme.

I have no easy answers to getting a saddle that fits you, other than trial and error.
I stumbled across a Fizik Arione CX and struck lucky. I subsequently found it was a very popular saddle so maybe thats worth a try.

Man of leisure

How about Brooke's if all the padding is not working ?

skeetam

I had a similar problem, rode MTB for years with no issue, came to road biking and struggled to find a saddle that doesn't give me lots of pain. Tried different Fizik, Sell italia, Prologo and Charge saddles but my undercarriage got butchered. So I used the Specialized saddle swapping service and went through all of them until I arrived at the Avatar. Job done.

zak3737

Thx fellas, I take on board comments. I thought I had done a good thing by going to get a 'fitting', at least I now know the width of my sit bones.

Re Shorts/padding etc, - perhaps it is 'excessive' padding thats contributing.....not sure. I do only at this point have some seemingly 'reasonable quality Decathlon Bib's, and shorts etc, so perhaps I need to splash out on some top quality ones. I do feel that the padding is perhaps more 'front' than 'back' where it should be......

For the meantime, after some quick searches, I've picked up a £20 Charge Spoon, which I'm gonna give a try, a does have a helluva lot of satisfied users, so worth a go. Initial 'sit on' impressions are promising......

Anonymous

What are those odd looking really short saddles that make big comfort claims?

ben@31

Have you tried a bike fit? The place where I went had a device for measuring your backside and a wall full of different tester saddles, different sizes / shapes etc.

One problem I had was my bike was so far out of fit that I'd subconsciously sit on the wrong part of the saddle, I was inching myself forwards and sitting mostly on the front end of the saddle. If you have bone pain, maybe because your hip bones are on the wrong part of the saddle and not being supported?

iron_duke

Carbonator wrote:

What are those odd looking really short saddles that make big comfort claims?

Adamo. Can certainly see the logic for TT but on roadie where shifting around a little more personally not so convinced. I am fortunate not too have had too many saddle issues though.

damocles10

Matthewfalle wrote:

Selle Italia SLR. End of.

I use one of these and I have taken off the padding so the saddle is rock hard. I use Assos FI milles and never had an issue... Perhaps look at your set-up/fit as a road bike will have different geometry to a mountain bike .

ai_1

Iron_Duke wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

What are those odd looking really short saddles that make big comfort claims?

Adamo. Can certainly see the logic for TT but on roadie where shifting around a little more personally not so convinced. I am fortunate not too have had too many saddle issues though.

I tried the Adamo Breakaway last year on my road bike for about a month and found it great. I reckoned it was perfect for TT and very good for general road use. My only reservation was that it felt a bit wide when I sat up on climbs or when taking it easy.
This year I got a new roadbike and put clip on tri-bars and a forward seatpost on the old one so a few months ago I bought a new saddle for the old bike, now in TT mode. I went for the newer Adamo Attack. I love it.
It's narrower at the back than the other Adamos which makes no real difference in TT position, it remains excellent, but now I think I could live with it very happily on the road bike too.
The Adamos support your weight very differently from conventional saddles and may be a good solution. However they are pretty expensive. Bear in mind that you need to adapt to these like you did to a conventional saddle when you started. It won't feel great on the first ride. It'll feel odd and you may be sore fairly quickly but bear with it. I was starting to gave doubts after 2 weeks with the Attack but after 3 weeks it was suddenly a delughtfully comfortable place to sit.

DKay

Matthewfalle wrote:

Selle Italia SLR. End of.

Had one. Hated it. Might as well have been sat on the seatpost, the amount of discomfort it caused me.

Anonymous

OP could get the suspension seat post that comes with Roubaix's these days.
They will have backrests and cup holders soon lol.

zak3737

Well, just done a quick 20mile this evening, and this cheap Charge Spoon was wayyyy more to my liking, so chuffed. Didnt wear more than just Bibs too, so seems like my @ss is more suited to it than the £85 Spesh Romin Gel jobbie.

subconsciously sit on the wrong part of the saddle

Good point, I do feel like I edge slightly too far forward, particularly when on the hoods, so need to watch that. Will slide the saddle a little more forward too.....

But, my sit bones were much happier

Very strange, considering the 'Fit' I went for, and the Romin Gel 'feels' just as padded as the Charge, if not more so, but my @ss disagrees.

zak3737

Carbonator wrote:

OP could get the suspension seat post that comes with Roubaix's these days.

Already fitted, me likey 8)

Pituophis

Zak3737 wrote:

Well, just done a quick 20mile this evening, and this cheap Charge Spoon was wayyyy more to my liking, so chuffed. Didnt wear more than just Bibs too, so seems like my @ss is more suited to it than the £85 Spesh Romin Gel jobbie.

subconsciously sit on the wrong part of the saddle

Good point, I do feel like I edge slightly too far forward, particularly when on the hoods, so need to watch that. Will slide the saddle a little more forward too.....

But, my sit bones were much happier

Very strange, considering the 'Fit' I went for, and the Romin Gel 'feels' just as padded as the Charge, if not more so, but my @ss disagrees.

I put a Charge Spoon on my "best bike" as a temporary fix as I couldn't wait to ride it.
It's still on there!

Anonymous

Pituophis wrote:

I put a Charge Spoon on my "best bike" as a temporary fix as I couldn't wait to ride it.
It's still on there!

Similar thing happened with my wife's bike.
I stuck an Evans/FWE female road saddle on as a stopgap to getting a Fizik Donna or something, but she won't let me take it off now!

They look pretty good saddles to be fair. Any women with saddle issues reading this should try one IMO.
Guessing the male version might be worth the OP trying come to think of it.

keezx

Once you have found out what kind of saddle you like it becomes easyer to choose a new one....
A long time ago I figured out a saddle classification system:
1-Widt : Wide, Medium or Narrow W/M/N
2-Form: Flat. Medium or Round F/M/R
3-Padding :Hard. Medium, Soft H/M/S

I know I must have 1M 2F 3M , by looking at a saddle and feel it I can say whether I'll like the ride....