another rider seeking saddle advice

first, thank you in advance for your advice! Long story short - I bought a new road bike (have been a mountain biker for years, just getting back into road cycling). The seat that came with the bike was just evil! It was a Selle Italia, trans am. I'm still recovering!

Right now I'm in serious pain. Around and in front of my sit bones. My right side has a knot, the left feels like a bone bruise!! The rest of my "area" feels just fine. I didn't even realize there was a bone type bruise until I started digging for my sit bones. :( It made me want to cry!

I went to the trek store today and they told me to look for a saddle with a max width of 128-130mm. I did the gel measuring at home and my inner sit bones are 3 3/4 inches and my outer are 6 inches. I don't seem to handle padding well at all. I leaned forward and am not smooshed at all. Quite comfortable sitting with my elbows on my knees. I'm not sure, but aren't my measurements a bit off from the Trek stores? I'm a massage therapist, so I'm pretty sure of where my Sit Bones are located :)

I would really like to limit the current state of pain as much as possible. :) Any suggestions on saddles I might try? Thank you SO MUCH!!!! I really appreciate all of the experience here!!!

where's your old saddle? if it wasn't a big fat cushy one, put it on this bike!

unfortunately each person is different, but it sounds like you have one of those little tiny hard saddles, and there are a lot of choices. did you see our saddle thread?

i have looked at the new thread about saddle sores. I'll search out the saddle thread. Thanks!!

Thanks for your reply. If by "old saddle" you mean my mountain bike saddle, it's still on the mountain bike. It's not a good fit for mountain biking. I have a hard tail mountain bike and am standing as much as sitting. It's never been great for long seated rides. The most I've ever sat at one point was 5 mins or so. Then equal time standing. We have lots of rolling hills with twisted, rooted, single track.

Anyway, the first seat that came on the bike is thick and firm. It has a cut away and the edges dug into me a lot! I should have trusted myself and not gone on a ride with it - but I was too excited about having my new ride :)

I literally just got back from buying my new bike and I had them swap out the saddle before I took it home. I measured my sit bones before I went and the outer measurement for me was 6 inches also (like you I know where mine are - I teach yoga so I better!). They had me sit on the saddle sizer and said that I should be in a 140mm saddle which is a 1/2 inch smaller than my sit bones by my measurement. I tried a 155mm saddle and that felt good but they didn't have it with a cutout and I need the cutout, so I rode home on a 144mm saddle. We'll see if it works out.... if not I'll be back in there in a few days swapping it out again.

Flur, can't wait to hear how your new seat works! I will get a few from my LBS today - he's letting me test ride them for free. Helps that my husband has spent way too much of our money there :)

I've found (during my great saddle saga), that in a "normal" saddle you can get away with something that's just a 1/2cm or so wider than the center to center measurement of your seatbones and still be supported (I'm 145mm c2c and a 150-155mm is wide enough). However, if you want a Brooks, then you definitely go with the outside to outside measurement, then look for something a cm or more wider so you won't be sitting on the frame of the saddle (personal experience- I'm 160mm o2o and got the b17, and ended up having the outsides of my seatbones on the outer rivets of the saddle!)

littlegrasshopper, that's great that your LBS is letting you try saddles. If you really never sat much, you ARE going to have to develop your "seat" so to speak. it does take some conditioning.

FWIW, I went to an LBS that is a Trek dealer on Saturday, and they said that Trek/Bontrager is coming out with new saddles called "Inform" but they are not in stock yet. The men's saddles are available but the women's were delayed because they weren't happy with the original design.

They won't have a cutout.

I'm hoping they'll be available soon.

Here's a link to their site which tells about the men's saddles.

http://bontrager.com/products/road/saddles/en

thanks for all the advice. I am taking a couple of days off to recover. I actually had a blister for a bit there. It's getting better. DH picked up a WTB shadow V for me to try. I'll go for a trip around the neighborhood tomorrow.

I really appreciate all the help! It was such a struggle to find a saddle that worked for me the last time around...I should have kept it when I sold the bike!

my sit bones suggest a 155 saddle size but i have a liberator race i have gotten that is a dream and is 143 size. also the womens saddles i have tried many of and they were okay, but not quite right... then i sat of a boy cycling buddy's mountain bike and OMG! what a difference-- so got the same boys saddle for my road bike-- got along with it really well but decided to go for something for long road rides instead, ie. not as hard, even though it was fine-- and bought a mens terry liberator ti saddle - perfection in a saddle it is for me!!!!! all the womens ones had really wide noses and were just 'wrong' somehow-- the mens saddles are way better for me--- so they might be worth a try for some other women too-- all our anatomy is different!! :-)

I have tried SO MANY saddles from the LBS in the last few days....all not feeling good from the start. So today, I put on my dreaded canari gel shorts that have always been a pain for mountain biking (they split me in half mid ride and just keep digging) and put the saddle off my husband's bike. He has a saddle from an old lightspeed. It's a velo, but we can't figure out which one. Anyway, it feel wonderful!!! We're going on a ride and I am feeling good about it finally :)

look fwd to hearing if the boys' saddle works as well for you as they do for me-- you'll make me feel less weird if so!! :eek:

Hi there,

Men's saddle worked great!!! You're not weird at all. :) Or, you are, and you're in good company! We only road 15 miles but that's a bit for me!! Especially since it was pretty hot today. First day of real heat in this area...it surprised us!

Now I think I need to have some adjustments made to the rest of the bike fit. Another trip to the lbs but it's SO worth it!!! Nice to ride without that kind of pain and no new blisters!