recommended saddle for hybrid?

[momof4greatkids]

This is my first post, but I've been lurking for a while! I really appreciate any advice you can offer me.

I am riding a Trek 7.5fx hybrid, with about 500 miles of riding in the past 6 weeks. I'm loving everything but the saddle. Mainly the discomfort is up front on the soft tissue.

Does anyone have a suggestion for the better saddle for a hybrid? My position on the bike is definitely not upright, but bent forward. It's that forward bend that causes the pressure on the front parts. It feels like I am not sitting on my sit bones, but with the slightly bent riding position, I am on the soft tissue in the front.........definitely a problem after about 20 miles, I am beginning to get quite miserable! I do wear padded shorts (commando).

I was thinking about a Selle lookin 3-d womans saddle. It is wider in the back and shorter in the front.

I see the Selle SMP strike has some pretty good reviews, but I don't know if this would be the right type of saddle for a hybrid?

Thank you in advance.

Colleen

[KnottedYet]

Have you checked the angle of the seat you have now? Is it level? You could try tipping the nose down very slightly and see if that helps. Too much downward tilt will make you weightbear on your hands, and you'll know right away if it's too much!

On my hybrid I had a B67 by Brooks. http://www.wallbike.com/B67.html

When I got a road bike I moved that seat to my road bike. Now, going to a Brooks is a whole new kettle of fish, so I'd recommend reading the Brooks thread before you buy one. (its a long thread, but has a lot of info that will help you no matter what brand of saddle you end up buying)

Saddles are incredibly individual: you've got width, length, "pear" vs. "T", padding (or no padding), plastic, leather, and so on.

Playing around with the fore/aft placement, height, and tilt of your current saddle can help you learn a lot about what your body wants on the bike. Also measure your sit bones. (for example, I have 180mm outside sitbone measurement, which tells me right away that a sexy 160mm Fizik saddle is NOT gonna work for me!) All that will give you info to help you choose a new saddle when you need one.

[Grog]

You can have any saddle on a hybrid, even a triathlon saddle if it strikes your fancy (although I doubt it would be comfortable!!). I have always thought the enormous saddles they put on these bikes are absolute nonsense, but a bike shop owner/friend of the family told me that clients are looking for that so companies put them up... Anyways...

This being said, try different things, read the Favorite/Least Favorite Saddles threads and try out different saddles.

Your hips should indeed be tilted to have you leaning forward a little bit. However, most of the weight should still be on your sitbones. Maybe the saddle is slightly tilted up (higher at the nose)? You definitely would want to put it level (look at it for a minute, you'll easily figure out how to do that with some simple tools).

Good luck!

[mimitabby]

I agree with Grog, those saddles they put on those bikes are disgusting!
OW OW OW OW.

I ride a brooks too. I have one on my hybrid, i have one on my road bike
and i have 2 on my tandem :) yep, my husband's a convert too.
he has one on each of his road bikes!

[xeney]

I agree that a Brooks could work well on a hybrid, but I also liked the Terry Liberator on my hybrid, and they can be had for much less money than a Brooks. Performance sometimes has them on sale for under $40.

[recycle613]

My best hybrid (less than bolt upright, but not bent 45 degrees forward, either) saddle is Brooks B17. I like their regular model because I feel the longer nose makes for a little more give in the soft tissue region. The width is perfect for me. YMMV. I got the 2 x 4 feeling from my Terry Liberator until I rode it in a more aggressive position forward (go figure that). I love it on my fixie with bull horns, but not on a hybrid.

Saddles are really hard to get right. Try to find somewhere to work with that has a nice return policy. 30 days, no questions asked, or something like that. That way you can really ride the saddle a bunch of times if necessary to decide. Also, take rides with your Allen wrench in your pocket so you can tweak, tweak, tweak the set-up ... the perfect saddle might be just 1/16" from absolute misery. Or, so I've found.

Best of luck!

[momof4greatkids]

Have you checked the angle of the seat you have now? Is it level? You could try tipping the nose down very slightly and see if that helps. Too much downward tilt will make you weightbear on your hands, and you'll know right away if it's too much!

.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I had the seat tilted downward, and I came upon a seasoned roadie who told me it was probably tilted forward too much. I didn't feel much pressure on my hands, though. But just yesterday I changed the position and made it almost level. I'll see how that goes on my next ride. Probably not today, unfortunately, as work and life are interfering w/my leisure pursuits.

[/QUOTE]
On my hybrid I had a B67 by Brooks. http://www.wallbike.com/B67.html

When I got a road bike I moved that seat to my road bike. Now, going to a Brooks is a whole new kettle of fish, so I'd recommend reading the Brooks thread before you buy one. (its a long thread, but has a lot of info that will help you no matter what brand of saddle you end up buying)

Saddles are incredibly individual: you've got width, length, "pear" vs. "T", padding (or no padding), plastic, leather, and so on.

Playing around with the fore/aft placement, height, and tilt of your current saddle can help you learn a lot about what your body wants on the bike. Also measure your sit bones. (for example, I have 180mm outside sitbone measurement, which tells me right away that a sexy 160mm Fizik saddle is NOT gonna work for me!) All that will give you info to help you choose a new saddle when you need one[/QUOTE]

duly noted, thanks again for the info. I will review the Brooks thread, and go from there.

Colleen

[emily_in_nc]

I will review the Brooks thread, and go from there.

See you in a month or so! :D

(The Brooks thread is quite lengthy...) :p

[momof4greatkids]

See you in a month or so! :D

(The Brooks thread is quite lengthy...) :p


You're not kidding! I started at the beginning (seems a good place to start :-) ) and I'm working my way through and taking notes.

I'm completely flummoxed regarding "sprung" and "unsprung", though.

I ride for fitness, I'm surely not making any speed records, but I like to go long, so far as long as 42 miles and I want to get better. I see myself completing a century next year. Maybe doing some touring. What difference do the springs make? I'm thinking springs=comfort, but on a vain note, I don't want to look like I'm riding my grandmother's bicycle!!

;)

Colleen

[momof4greatkids]

My best hybrid (less than bolt upright, but not bent 45 degrees forward, either) saddle is Brooks B17. I like their regular model because I feel the longer nose makes for a little more give in the soft tissue region. The width is perfect for me. YMMV. I got the 2 x 4 feeling from my Terry Liberator until I rode it in a more aggressive position forward (go figure that). I love it on my fixie with bull horns, but not on a hybrid.

Saddles are really hard to get right. Try to find somewhere to work with that has a nice return policy. 30 days, no questions asked, or something like that. That way you can really ride the saddle a bunch of times if necessary to decide. Also, take rides with your Allen wrench in your pocket so you can tweak, tweak, tweak the set-up ... the perfect saddle might be just 1/16" from absolute misery. Or, so I've found.

Best of luck!


I hope you re-visit this thread because I want to pick your brain as to why you chose the regular b-17, not the women's model.

Understanding that this is a highly individualized and subjective choice, BUT, can you tell me why you prefer the standard B-17, as opposed to the woman's version? I know the woman's is wider, and shorter. But in my limited experience, it seems like biking items that are specific to women are made w/smaller women in mind. And I definitely don't fit that description, I am 5'8" and a hundred and plenty pounds.

But OTOH, realizing the benefit of a wider saddle to accomodate my womanly anatomical differences in that "region", I feel inclined to choose the woman's saddle.

So, I am in a quandry, and I've read the Brooks thread here, and several at bikeforum.net.

One thing that is nudging me to the standard B-17 is that wallbikes has that one in stock in black, and has only the honey colored in the woman's model. They don't know when they will get more black woman's B-17s saddles, either.


Colleen

[recycle613]

I PM'd you a longer response but the short version:

I initially chose the B-17 because of a good price at Nashbar. It was love-at-first-ride and even better as time went one. Subsequent, I've ridden a Champion Flyer S (same top as a B-17 S) and feel the midsection and nose are much stiffer. I recommend the regular because I think it's the length that lets the leather give more in the pereneal area where hammock is a nice feeling. Also, I'd say get a regular for your first b/c it breaks in easier than, say, a Champion Special (thicker leather).

Good Luck!

Tzivia

[KnottedYet]

I'm 5'8" and 145-150 lbs. I have springs because that's the only way I could get a saddle wide enough for my sit bones. My outside sitbone measurement is wider than any of the unsprung saddles. (my sprung B67 is 210mm wide. )

However: sometime next spring Brooks will begin selling the B68 - which is my saddle WITHOUT SPRINGS!!! Whoopee!

Springs are good in that they do absorb a lot of the road buzz. They won't absorb big bumps, these are stiff non-bouncy springs. If you are lopsided, the springs let you even out a bit. On long rides the springs are great.

My saddle has black springs, and truly they are hardly noticable, especially when my saddlebag is hanging there.

The major downside I've experienced with springs is the noise. Not from the springs themselves, but from the seat frame. The springs allow the frame to twist a little, and that twist can get noisy. Wallbike has helped me work on the noise. With a lot of grease and care I've got the noise down to a faint ping every once in a while. That is a huge improvement over the creaking groaning snapping I had going for a while.

But, as one LBS guy said, the noise is the price you pay for supreme comfort. And it is supremely comfortable!

However, if I ever replace my B67 (Mimi has had one of hers for 30 years) I will replace it with a B68. See how I like no springs.

This is my road bike with a black sprung B67 Brooks saddle:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m21/KnottedYet/DSCN0224.jpg

And this is my hybrid with the same saddle:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m21/KnottedYet/DSCN0002-1.jpg

[KnottedYet]

MO4GK - what is your outside sitbone measurement?

[momof4greatkids]

MO4GK - what is your outside sitbone measurement?

Thanks Knotted and Tzivia very much for the info, and again, Tzivia, for the pm, that was nice of you.

My outside sitbone measures about 18cm, about 15 cm from center to center. Is the saddle supposed to cradle from the outside of the sitbones? If so, I might need the B67, also.

I now realize that the saddle I'm now using essentially snugs up in my butt crack (lol, forgive the graphic language!) and no wonder it hurts! It's quite narrow, about 12 cm :eek:

I would put up with a little noise in trade for supreme comfort anyday!

Both your bikes are beauties!

Colleen

[mimitabby]

Hey, momof 4, what's with the metric measurements ? :D :D :D

It sounds like you might not have a good saddle yet, but you probably already know more about them than the guys at your LBS!!

Any saddle will work on your hybrid. (quit worrying abuot what it looks like, it will LOOK fine)
The real question is; is that Selle going to feel good after 30 miles? 20? 10?

The cool things about the brooks is that they have been around for about 100 years. I think they have been proven with the test of time. And my tender underparts agrees.

[KnottedYet]

Your measurements and my measurements sound very similar. If you are interested in a Brooks, I would try a B67 or B68 first. I can't tell you what a huge relief it was to get a seat wide enough to completely support both sitbones! Even fresh out of the box, that B67 was the most comfortable thing I'd ever ridden on.

Now that it is breaking in to my unique tushie, it's even more comfortable.

Yeah, they are slippery and hard for the first 100 miles or so. Yeah, they make some noise (which can be minimized), but oh it is soooo worth it!

And it is just as comfy on my road bike as on my hybrid.

Wallingford has a 6 month return policy, so you get the chance to really try out (and break in) the Brooks saddles. www.wallbike.com

[recycle613]

I think this might depend on how upright one rides. If I sit on my hand (:eek: ) and lean slowly forward I can feel the change in area of sit bones that need support. I don't think the issue is just width. The saddles are shaped differently. The wider ones are sort of flatter and the B-17 begins to give a graceful curve to the nose and a Team Pro has an even greater downward sort of curve for the cheekbones aside the mid-section. I'm not sure I have the words right, but the saddle shapes account for riding angle as much as width.

[recycle613]

Here are the pics to compare. The B-67 vs. Team Pro S. The Team Pro has much more ramp angle, for lack of better terms, where your sit bones rest in. In contrast, it looks like the B-67 has you more perched on top.

Know your own butt, eh? :cool:

[KnottedYet]

Here are the pics to compare. The B-67 vs. Team Pro S. The Team Pro has much more ramp angle, for lack of better terms, where your sit bones rest in. In contrast, it looks like the B-67 has you more perched on top.

Know your own butt, eh? :cool:

That's for sure! The great thing about Bill and Diane at Wallingford is that they give you 6 months to figure out what you do and don't like, and they answer questions and really know the different saddles they sell. If one is uncomfortable, they can usually recommend another that will solve your particular problem.

They are a great resource. Too bad they left Seattle...
(they used to be about 6 blocks from my house)

[momof4greatkids]

I cannot thank you all enough for sharing your wisdom. Today I ordered the b-67 from Wallbikes. :D

I was so desperate to ride more comfortably today that I switched my bontrager out for the cheap, but wider seat on my son's mtn bike for a 26 miler today. ANd even though it was still pretty uncomfortable, it wasn't as bad as the bontrager.

Colleen

[momof4greatkids]

I've been breaking in my Brooks b67 and I have to say, after a few hundred miles and some tweaking with the position, I really love it. I can finally get on my bike an don't even think about the saddle, it's a great feeling. Also, this is a sprung saddle and I have no problem with squeaking, I hear nary a peep,and then only when going over cobbles or bricks. It's fantastic.

I have the seat set all the way back on the rails, and sometimes I still feel like I need to push back (I seem to have a tendency to creep forward on the seat, which I attribute to the way my pelvis is tilted, not sure if that assumption is correct though) This is probably more of a bike fit issue than a saddle issue.

I can't thank you ladies enough for offering me your advice and sharing your wisdom!

Colleen

[KnottedYet]

Yay! Glad the Brooks worked for you! (welcome to the Brooks Cult!) :D