How do you find one that is comfortable?!

I get the idea that seat bones should be supported without the saddle being too wide to chafe inner thighs, but how do you protect the soft tissue? The saddle is at the correct height and I wear Howies, Endura and DHB bibs (mostly the Howies ones). I stand for the smaller hills and am regularly off the saddle. I’ve had a day off the MTB today because of being too sore after two days of road riding (each only 35-40 miles). Not good! What works for you?

Which bits hurt?
I’ve got a Velo with a cutout, which really works, a Brooks which fits like a glove and a Rolls.
The Rolls is odd, very rounded and different to the others, but not at all uncomfy.

imo Specialized and fizik are good as they come in plenty of flavours , as for recommending a saddle unfortunately what works for me may well not work for you. However for what it’s worth I use fizik arione and specialized toupe both with no problems.

Well, to be specific the bit between scrotum and bum crack. I know what works for one doesn’t work for another, but when one starts looking at Fizik prices it becomes an expensive game of trial and error. Any roadie lore or ways of narrowing down the choices?

I suspect it’s not a problem a new saddle will cure; you shouldn’t really be getting chafing on your perineum, because your padded shorts should be avoiding it. The outer material moves with the saddle, the inner material moves with you, and the padding in between reduces friction between the two.

If your shorts are too baggy and are moving about, you might get this problem.

Sounds like you are sitting with too much weight on your perineum, which is usually an indicator of a saddle that is too high and too far forwards.

You could also try some chammy cream until your flower toughens up..

until your flower toughens up

😀

Interesting. The bibs are Howies medium and feel nice and tight but the saddle is pretty far forward. I could try dropping the saddle a little too, although it feels at a perfect height.

Go to a specialized dealer and get your sit bones measured. This involves sitting on a bit of memory foam, they measure the distance between the dents and make a recommendation based on that.

I’d drop it by 1-2 cms, and push it back by 1-2 cms, and see if you are sitting on your bum bones (Ischial tuberosities..) rather than squishing your taint (t’aint your bum or your balls…)

Cool – thanks all. I’ll give those a go. MTB ride tomorrow though!

Keep the saddle horizontal.

Use a saddle with a cut out for rather premium.

Sit bones distance measured?

Seat post too high?
Bars too low?
Weak midsection?
Adjust your ride position?
Stiff saddles so no flexing under weight.
Thin gel without padding so you don’t sink.

I think the area you are referring to is your barse.

You also need to remember that bike seats and saddles are two totally different things.

This is a bike seat:

This is a bike saddle:

You shouldn’t be putting as much weight through your saddle as you would a seat.

Keep the saddle horizontal. (It was every so slightly tipped back, so I made it perfectly horizontal today)

Use a saddle with a cut out for rather premium. (Tick!)

Sit bones distance measured? (Not yet, but I have Spesh dealer not too far away)

Seat post too high? (I don’t think so, but I’ll drop it a little and see how it goes)

Bars too low? (I don’t think so – stem not slammed)

Weak midsection? (Probably!)

Adjust your ride position? (By playing with stem length? Will give other points a go first)

Stiff saddles so no flexing under weight.
Thin gel without padding so you don’t sink. (Yeah, stiffish saddle).

Lots to play with here – thanks.

@glupton1976 – yup, happy to stand, hover and also tend to have weight distributed across the bike.

You could try getting in touch with these http://www.tryasaddle.co.uk
They rent saddles out for you to have a play with for a month,but,and this may be a big but,their website was supposed to be up and running in Feb,it wasn’t,also the last time I tried to contact them I had no reply.
Shame if they ain’t going no more, I tried a few saddles off them and they was a good company when I used them.

Its worth trying a different saddle ,I had a Selle italia Octavia on my MTB which I swapped as it was uncomfortable.

Built a Singlespeed roadbike and needed a saddle so used this as a stopgap.

Due to the different geometry and body positioning found it to be quite comfortable which was a bit of a revelation.

My ideal road bike saddle at the moment is Selle italia Turbo ,I know its old skool but it suits my buttocks.

Leisure lakes do demoo Fizik saddles, pay your deposite and you can have a purple Arione for the weekend. They can also measure your sit bones – I think any Specialised dealer can. Trek dealers will be able to measure you for Bontrager saddles too.

Selle Italia used to do a money back thing IIRC.

I only use Fizik saddles, I did the ‘test’ where your saddle choice is based on how flexible you are and I can’t fault them.

I used to get this. I found making sure the middle part of the saddle is level really helped me and then pushed it back a bit. Good shorts are really important too for road riding, try using assos cream too.

I used an old specialized alias, but it fits well.

Specialized do a 30 day saddle swap policy or money back too if you buy from their concept store

Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Charge saddles up to now. Their Knife is excellent; comfy, light and well priced.

Selle italia slr …. Looks like a weapon of torture but its super comfy and super light to boot 🙂 I have em on 3 bikes and a stripped one on the cx bike ..