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Saddle sores

56 posts & 28 voices | Started 2 years ago by jonb | Latest reply from TJJ

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jonb - Member

I know it's an old favourite but this time it's not "a friend".

I have just returned from the doctors with no dignity and a prescription.

So in the short term I am kneeling up more than I'm used to and staring at my new bike while not been able to ride it.

I've had minor problems before but never anything this bad, mostly because I did the Merida which isn't a regular ride length.

My GP actually cycles so offered some advice. Baby wipes immediately after long rides and a fresh change of underwear. Plucking hairs out of infected follicles. She advised against cleaning scrubs as they strip all the "good bacteria" off your skin so if you get an infection it was more likely to be worse. She also recommended against creams as staying dry was the best prevention so this puts mean off things like the chamois cremes.

With the last point in mind are there any less sweaty bib shorts about? I can't afford assos or rapha and I'll need 3 or 4 pairs so let's try and keep them below £50.

Is it worth ditching the baggies for more ventilation and just going with the lycra, especially on longer rides?

Anyway, advice appreciated, mocking expected :oops:.

Posted 2 years ago #
Kramer - Member

I'm a GP as well. Chamois Creme is actually an ointment, and prevents chafing which is what damages the skin in the first place. Put it on your Chamois rather than your skin.

Posted 2 years ago #
mikey74 - Member

Get a genuine leather saddle: It really helps prevent sores for me. Endura MT500 shorts are good. I think CR are doing them fairly cheaply

Posted 2 years ago #
jonb - Member

Any particular ones you've used?

Posted 2 years ago #
project - Member

Lycra is best,also check your shorts there may well be a high seam that is causing rubbing,use baby wipes before and after a ride.
Try sudocrem thats good,also a bath with a few handfulls of salt in it will help,and no it doesnt sting,and does you good.

Posted 2 years ago #
mikey74 - Member

I am currently using a Selle Italia C2 Gelo Flow saddle and it is the most comfortable saddle I have ever used. That and Assos Half-mille non-bib shorts - a bit pricey, but not as bad as the bibs.

Posted 2 years ago #
craig1975 - Member

Ive been experiencing similar problems recently, but maybe not as bad.
Ive been using Sudocrem, it works a treat for me

Posted 2 years ago #
IA - Member

On long rides, just lycra will give you a lot less chafing than with baggies on too.

Also when it's wet, or wet ground conditions, a rear mudguard or waterproof shorts to prevent a soggy arse will cut down a lot of chafing.

Posted 2 years ago #
haddock - Member

Man made Sports pants/boxers instead of the normal cotton ones help a lot, was having to use talc before, but not now.

Posted 2 years ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

I have been plagued with boils on the arse recently.

So far I have tried many things and have just got my second one in a fortnight - not in the same place so not the same one. I am not getting any chaffing at all - never have done.

Non of this had made a difference
careful attention to hygiene - shower before and after each ride. clean clothes for each ride.
using hibiscrub - bactericidal scrub ( GPs recommendation)
Pure cotton underwear - lets more air circulate
Padded lycra cycling shorts - made it worse in some ways - retained sweat more
Expensive saddle sbg thingy
Cheap gel saddle
long course of oxytetracycline - stopped them appearing while I was on it - stopped taking them and it reappears
Flucloxacillin - clears up immediate attacks but does not prevent reoccurance

Half a dozen GP visits, full range of blood tests - now I have exhausted all options the either I or the gp can think of and all the usual courses of action prescribed by dermatologists. I don't want to take oxytetracycline continuously. I have a floating / repeat script for Flucloxacillin to take any time one appears but that is no long term solution.

GP and the literature on skins decry the use of routine creams - blocks pores and makes infection more likely but effective if you get chaffing which I do not. I ain't hairy and I ain't sweaty.

any other ideas? Its a pain in the arse

Posted 2 years ago #
0091paddy - Member

You're a cyclist, and unfortunately all cyclists get spots and sores down there, with the odd saddle sore thrown in for good measure.

Firstly, if you find prefer baggies, stick with them. But wearing lycra shorts with a decent chamois will certainly help in the long term.

Use chamois creme, Assos is possibly the best - about £9 a pot, but well worth it. After you've returned from a long ride, and you've showered and what not, you could always apply some more chamois creme directly to the skin, I do this from time to time, and again it helps.

Look at your current saddle(s), do they have stitching or detailing on the area where you sit, if so then these stitches can cause a sore arse as well.

Finally, avoid standing around in your shorts after a ride, easy mistake but get out of them as soon as you can, otherwise nappy rash can result.

Was going to mention the hygiene issue, never wear dirty shorts, I'm sure you don't though.

Ciao

Posted 2 years ago #
Drillski - Member

end-your-arse-boil-voodoo-attacks-here
TJ, pay up and we stop dunking the wax manekin we made of you in chip fat every other night!

Posted 2 years ago #
stuartie_c - Member

Lusso gel shorts and Assos cream got me through the Transalp with no chafing or related arse problems.

Posted 2 years ago #
jonb - Member

TJ I think I share a lot in common with your symptoms. It's fairly recent unusual before now and moving around

I've got flucloxicillin as an immediate cure. I agree about the lycra, on hot days I do get sweaty. I wear baggies for fashion reasons with lycra underneath (only on my mtb not on the road!). I'm going to try a chamois creme and just lycra on the longer rides.

I always wear clean shorts but I only wash them at 30 with standard powder. I think I'm going to up it to 60. I may kill my shorts but also the bacteria.

The one thing I don't do is shower the morning of a ride as there's little point if I'm covered in mud a few hours later. Might start doing that see if it help.

I'm worried about excess cleaning as the bacteria that causes the problem is staphalococcus aureus (sp?), naturally on your skin anyway and acts as a competitive inhibitor for all the more nasty bacteria that could be there.

Posted 2 years ago #
Scienceofficer - Member

Change in Skin fauna TJ? You are of course, aware of what heavy duty courses of anti-biotics do to your microbial skin communities?

Tried natural yoghurt poultice?

Posted 2 years ago #
enfht - Member

I too am afflicted with "ass acne" from time to time

The solution....Quinoderm, it works

Posted 2 years ago #
ourmaninthenorth - Member

I've found that my Assos shorts, after a couple of years use, now make me "sore" every time I use them. Yes, they're clean (sometimes at 60 degrees), so they just need to be relegated to the bin.

I've currently using Giordana Tenax, which has a comfortable non-bulky pad (unlike the Assos), and don't seem to give me a sore bum.

For me, cleanlines is they key factor - both for my clothes and my self. And the abovce advice about not hanging around in shorts after a ride is really important.

Posted 2 years ago #
mtbfix - Member

Assos creme is a great help IMO. I also use Northwave 39/25 (circa £60) shorts which use pads that are designed for a slightly more upright riding position typically found on an MTB as opposed to the Assos kit intended for racing positions. And get out of those bike shorts as soon as you get off the bike and into some dry boxers.

Posted 2 years ago #
ScotlandTheScared - Member

Jon - Will you be out on Thursday? Was this just an excuse to show your backside you the doctor? Can we post this detail on the front page of midaircrisis?

In all seriousness though, I find decent lycra shorts (you pay for what you get IMHO) and PLENTY of chamois cream help on longer rides. I used to find the problem was worse on my full suss, but I have no idea why! When I kept the same saddle and used it on my hardtail it was less of a problem.

Get well soon - see you Thursday (or Saturday for Ian Bs birthday)...

Stew.

Posted 2 years ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

Scienceofficer - Member

Change in Skin fauna TJ?

Presumably. My GP said not tho. I have noticed a change in sweat smell sometimes.

You are of course, aware of what heavy duty courses of anti-biotics do to your microbial skin communities?
I am aware it will have an effect but not sure what that effect will be.

Tried natural yoghurt poultice?

Really? Do I get my girlfriend to apply it?

The thing I find odd is I don't get any noticeable skin chaffing - so I don't understand how the bugs get into the skin as there are no breaks in the skin. I understand its normal skin bugs causing this.

Posted 2 years ago #
enfht - Member

I'm told the bugs are identical to acne bugs so unless you get a secondary infection I don't see what antibiotics are for?

Posted 2 years ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

enfit - basically thats right. Its normal skin bugs that normally live on the skin surface. When you get boils tho they have got into the layers of the skin and multiplied out of control - so the antibiotics will kill the bugs in the skin that are causing the boil. Antibiotics will have no effect on bugs on the surface

Posted 2 years ago #
MrsMugsy - Member

My friend has come back just at the same place where it was a couple of month ago.
I thought I'd go to the doctor straight away and she gave me an antibiotic cream. didn't do anything. she said that it works only if the skin is broken which it was at the beginning but healed pretty quickly and now I'm left with a hard lump which won't go down. it gets inflamed after a long ride but otherwise it's just there.
she also gave me a referal to a surgeon and said if it doesn't go away i'll have to get it carved out. ouch!
it looks like that's what's going to happen.

Posted 2 years ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

That sounds like a sebaceous cyst.

Posted 2 years ago #
enfht - Member

TJ have you tried acne cream? Antibiotics seem a bit overkill, why flood your body with antibiotics when acne cream does the same job of killing the bugs causing the boils?

I had a boil the size of a small pea forming, 1 week of Quinoderm twice daily got rid of it completely. Skin was never broken, red or inflamed but the Quinoderm did the job.

Posted 2 years ago #
jonb - Member

Isn't that what happens if you don't treat it soon enough.

The flucloxicillin is a beta lactam based molecule (simillar to penicillin) which stops the bacteria producing cell walls (they are gram negative so I think they technically have walls as well as membranes?). The reason you need it is because the bacteria are somewhere they are not supposed to be. These are the same bacteria (ish) that are resonsible for MRSA. It's a narrow spectrum antibiotic so the wider implications are less than more general antibiotics.

I had no issues with abrasion. I felt perfectly comfortable in the sadle it was only later on in the night I could feel a throbbing pain.

Stewart, I won't be out on Thursday, I may think about Sunday but I'll still be on antibiotics so I'll see if things have "cleared up". If the infection get's worse it can be very unpleasant. There was a post on here a year or so back where some guy had a huge amount of infected skin removed and was off the bike for months. I'll miss one ride to avoid that!

Posted 2 years ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

enfit - acne cream will have virtually no effect on bugs that are underneath unbroken skin. I guess yours healed spontaneously. A boil is a rather more serious infection than yours by the sound of it. There are several similar and related but different types of these infections.

Posted 2 years ago #
carlphillips - Member

frequent recurring boils can be a sign of 'PVL' ,have you been swabbed for this? worth a try, its very prevalent and here in plymski we even have our own strain!!!

it very commonly presents with boils in otherwise healthy young/middle-aged people particularly gym goers.

Posted 2 years ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

Very unlikely from a quick google FMH but I'll check with the GP when I next go.

Posted 2 years ago #
sslowpace - Member

Sugoi short liners are very good (with gustov shorts). No seams on the pad, which also always gets superb reviews for comfort, and the liner is of a perforated lycra material which is very good at keeping you cool.

Posted 2 years ago #
scruff - Member

I think I have a recurring sebaceous cyst on my right Larse. A 1 hour ride can make it come up, but sometimes an all dayer wont bring it out. Once its up it takes weeks to go down, I generally use Assos before & Sudocream after. I’ve bought new shorts and keep as clean as possible, even shower before a ride, seems to be working. To get rid last time I used Hydrocortisone and it got rid of it in about a week, it thins the skin so don’t spread it all over your bo11ocks. Seems to be keeping it at bay but its still there when I touch myself.

Posted 2 years ago #
enfht - Member

but its still there when I touch myself.

Posted 2 years ago #
69er - Member

I've been through all this. I rode La Marmotte this year in basic shorts on a basic saddle. It was v.hot and sweaty (especially on the Telegraphe!) and I stepped off after 9 & 1/2 hrs ride time with no trouser trouble. My recipe for success...

1) Cleanliness - keep yourself scrupulously clean in all areas. Don't make me spell it out!
2) Arse acclimatisation - I'd done lots of 'darkside' hours in the saddle
3) Take your shorts off straight after riding
4) Wash your shorts after every ride
5) If you do get the onset of problems wash yourself then clean any sore bits with salt water. This can be quite uncomfortable but works. I use an old flannel to gently exfoliate the skin.
9) Wear cotton undies. Or none.
10)Chamois cream on the pad works well. I only bother for 4hrs + rides
11)Sudocreme is waterproof so it will reduce chafing but will hold any dirt due to it's tackiness and be difficult to wash off thoroughly. Avoid, IME.
11) Ana avoid riding fixed gear bikes, all that sitting down in one position is asking for trouble! Chafemungous.

Posted 2 years ago #
69er - Member

I love my fixie BTW...

Posted 2 years ago #
carlphillips - Member

kona ona,, old flannel on sores probably isnt the best thing!!

Posted 2 years ago #