Saddle help, PLEASE!!!

First some quick background info - I ride a 51cm Cervelo Soloist Carbon road bike with clip-on "shorty" aerobars (Profile Design Jammer GT). My primary type of riding is longer distance road riding. Most of my rides are anywhere from 60-100 miles. I've also done a few triathlons and plan on doing a few more in the future. I ride in "aero" maybe 40-50% of any given ride...mainly just to give my hands/wrists a break, every now and then. I generally do not stay in my aerobars for more than a few miles at a time...since most of my riding is done on roads with lots of traffic and stoplights.

Now on to my saddle problems. I'm currently using a Terry Butterfly Tri Gel. I bought this saddle at the beginning of last year...used it on my Trek 2100 WSD for a season. When I purchased my Cervelo back in May, I wanted to try a different saddle on it. So I swapped out the stock saddle (a San Marco Ponza) for a Cobb V-Flow Plus. The Cobb saddle came very highly recommended from many users on the Beginner Triathlete forum that I frequently visit, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I rode 300 painful miles on that Cobb saddle, before I ultimately decided that it had to go. I loved the narrow nose (no inner thigh chafing), but my sit bones were screaming in agony by the 20-mile mark! I was also getting butt numbness that would sometimes travel UP into my lower back area. I ended up putting my Terry Tri Gel on the Cervelo...which is where I'm at now. Initially, the Terry felt fantastic compared to that torture device Cobb saddle. But within the last month or so, the Terry is suddenly NOT feeling so fantastic anymore. Almost feels like the saddle is too squishy and soft. I'm still getting the sit bone pain and butt numbness (usually at about 40 miles) and occasionally, I will get some tenderness and redness of the soft tissue area after a long ride.

Last week, I ordered a SSM Aspide Glamour (after reading so many positive things here on it), but when it arrived...I took one look at it, and decided to send it back without even trying it. The first thing that struck me, was that it had NO padding in the nose...and since I do go into an aero position frequently, I'd like a saddle that has even a slightly padded nose just for a bit of added comfort in aero. However, I am curious...are there any ladies here that ride on aerobars using the SSM Aspide Glamour? Is it comfortable without the padded nose?

I'm also interested in the Koobi "tunable suspension" saddles. I've looked at their website, read all of the reviews of each saddle...and my interest has been peaked. I really like the Women's PRS Alpha (the red/black/white one), and the PRS Century, but I know nothing about their saddles, quality, reputation, etc. Anybody have any personal experience with Koobi saddles? If so, please share which saddle you're using and any feedback on it.

I was measured at a Trek store, using their Bontrager butt-o-meter...and I measured in the "green" zone..which equates to a 150mm. Should I be looking at saddles that are 150mm or greater? Or would I be okay with a saddle that is slightly narrower...say, a 146 or 148mm?

Some of the saddles that I'm considering are -

the Koobi Women's PRS Alpha
Koobi Women's PRS Century
Koobi Women's AU Enduro
SI SLR Lady
SMP Pro
Fizik Vitesse

Any others that I should consider? Any feedback would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you!

Linda

SMP !

I dunno - yes, there's always a little bruising in the front, but I don't ride more than 2x/week; and I just rode 135 miles on it.

I have the glider model. Less padding is probably the safe way to go.

if you measured at 150, you MUST get a saddle 150 or LARGER otherwise, you are putting the weight on the delicate areas that your sit bones are built to protect.

Padding has the tendency to allow your bones to sink in so that there is now pressure on your soft tissues.
Push your thumb into a cushion and compare that to pushing your thumb into a table top- only the tip of your thumb is compressed on the table top but on the cushion there is pressure up the sides of your thumb too.
Keep hunting. that Cobb sounds AWFUL

Specialized makes a number of their saddles in 3 different widths - one at 155 cm. I think you need about a 155 width.

If you want padding, the jett is padded - the ariel is even more padded.

But in general - I think it works better to be wearing padded shorts with a fairly firm saddle.

They call the Ariel a MTB saddle. Why is that - how does it differ from the road saddles?

The Lithia is nearly identical to the Jett, except with more padding. To my *ss, the Jett is pretty darn hard.

Having had my stint with aerobars, I used a Specialized ruby with great success in the bars. There is little padding but great gel in the seat area, and on the sides of the cutout. The cutout is very forgiving and the nose is so minimal is doesn't get in the way. Have you looked at the adamo saddles with no nose? I don't know if they have one with the width you need, but I know several tri folks that love it. I wanted to try one but never found one wide enough for me, I too am in the 155 club. SSM also makes an aspide glamour arrowhead K, with cutout, also liked that. Wore one out.

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Originally Posted by nscrbug

I ride a 51cm Cervelo Soloist Carbon road bike

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Take a look at your Soloist's aero seat post - I've seen the tops of the bolts coming up pretty high, almost into the cutout of a Specialized Toupe (almost the same saddle as a Ruby). It looks like the bolts could hit you when the saddle flexes. I didn't ask the man riding it if that ever happened...:eek:

So when considering different saddles, make sure the vertical clearance between rails and saddle is high enough, because all the posts your Soloist will accept have the same hardware on top.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

They call the Ariel a MTB saddle. Why is that - how does it differ from the road saddles?

The Lithia is nearly identical to the Jett, except with more padding. To my *ss, the Jett is pretty darn hard.

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It's got the thick stuff stuff on the side of it so that when you crash your bike, it doesn't rip the leather up on the sides?

It's plushier than the jett. I haven't tried the lithia, so I don't know how it compares to the ariel. I used the ariel for a time with aerobars and had no problem with it up front leaning forwards. Then I got over wanting aerobars.

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Originally Posted by Biciclista

if you measured at 150, you MUST get a saddle 150 or LARGER otherwise, you are putting the weight on the delicate areas that your sit bones are built to protect.

Padding has the tendency to allow your bones to sink in so that there is now pressure on your soft tissues.
Push your thumb into a cushion and compare that to pushing your thumb into a table top- only the tip of your thumb is compressed on the table top but on the cushion there is pressure up the sides of your thumb too.
Keep hunting. that Cobb sounds AWFUL

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Yeah, I should have noted that the Cobb saddle was 130mm (as ALL of their saddles are)...which I am sure was the problem I had with it...just way too narrow for me. Don't know what I was thinking when I decided to try it...doh!

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Originally Posted by dianne_1234

Take a look at your Soloist's aero seat post - I've seen the tops of the bolts coming up pretty high, almost into the cutout of a Specialized Toupe (almost the same saddle as a Ruby). It looks like the bolts could hit you when the saddle flexes. I didn't ask the man riding it if that ever happened...:eek:

So when considering different saddles, make sure the vertical clearance between rails and saddle is high enough, because all the posts your Soloist will accept have the same hardware on top.

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Hmm...I'm pretty sure the bolts aren't hitting me. My Terry Tri Gel saddle that is on the bike now, has a cut-out...and while I can SEE the bolts clearly...I don't think they even come close to touching me. I guarantee that I'd FEEL bolts poking into my privates...:D LOL But I will take the vertical clearance into consideration in my saddle search...thanks for the tip!

I've been checking out some of the Specialized saddles on their website. The Jett looks promising...so I added that to my "possible" list. The Ruby doesn't look bad either...but I worry about that metal-looking tip on the nose...wondering how comfortable (or not) that might feel against my girly bits, while in aero...:eek:

I also checked out some of the men's saddles, as well....and that TriTip saddle looks interesting. But I'm confused by the sizing on that one. It shows it as being 40mm or 50mm...instead of the standard 130, 143, or 155mm. Can somebody explain this to me? Does anyone know the actual width of that saddle?

I have the Ruby on my road bike and have no issues with the metal in the front when I ride in the drops. The cutout doesn't bother me either and I haven't had much success with cutouts on other saddles. I did have to change my shorts. I love Shebeast SSS shorts but needed more padding on the sides, the Ultra D's work better.

The Ariel has more padding on the back to slide off the saddle when climbing on a mtn bike and is sturdier to accomodate falls.

BTW, make sure the saddle is put on properly. I just got the Ariel for my mtn bike, had the shop put it on according to my fitting measurements, they didn't check my riding position, and it ended up to far back for me. In order for me to get my knee properly over the pedals I'm riding on the nose. My old saddle was too wide and forced me on the nose so I didn't notice until my back started hurting on the 3rd day of the Mickelson Trail tour. Back to the shop for an adjustment.

I have a tendency to slouch when riding and notice my saddle. Lifting my chest takes away the irritation.

Give yourself time to adjust to a new saddle with shorter training rides.

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Originally Posted by nscrbug

..are there any ladies here that ride on aerobars using the SSM Aspide Glamour? Is it comfortable without the padded nose?

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That would be me! I don't do tris, but I do long rides - 24-hours, brevets, etc. I use aerobars like you - to give my hands a break and stretch out the back for a while. On one 24-hour race, i'm on the aerobars almost all night (closed course) and I've been fine with the Aspide Glamour. There are a few different versions floating around - ones with a cutout, ones with tiny little gel pockets under the sitbones, and ones with nothing. To be honest, I don't find much difference between the gel one and plain one. I do get numbness on 24-hour rides and got some on a tough 300k. I haven't had enough time with the cutout version to know if it will relieve the numbness - I've done one 24-hour race with it and a weeklong tour and didn't get numb.

There's also a tri version of the saddle with a thicker padded nose. Looks interesting to me, but I'm afraid it might be too bulky.

Ok...so I stopped by 2 different Specialized dealers yesterday. The first one measured me on the Specialized butt-o-meter device (looked like a black squishy padded seat). The gal helping me, said I measured a 143 on it...which put me in the "middle" (143mm) category for Specialized saddles. She then also measured me on the Bontrager device...and that measurement came out to 150...which she said is also the "middle" for the Bontrager saddles. I thought it was odd, that the measurement readings were fairly far off. She said it "really doesn't matter, because you measure in the middle for both of them". Huh??? Ok, whatever. They didn't have much in the way of saddles that I was interested in (Jett, Ruby, Avatar). Most of the ones I was interested in, were already on bikes and she didn't seem to open to the idea of taking one off to sell it to me. Oh well...her loss. But I did, at least, get to sit on them to feel 'em out. The Ruby felt VERY firm to me. They didn't have a Jett to try, but they did have an Avatar on a bike. I sat on it, and liked it a lot...had pretty much made up my mind that the Avatar was the saddle I wanted.

Left that dealer and made our way to dealer #2 a few towns away. Had the owner of that dealer helping me. He is a "certified 3-D BG fitter"...whatever that means. He had both the Specialized and Bontrager measuring devices in his shop...but in his opinion, he felt that the Bontrager device was more accurate. He measured me on it, but then took that measurement and using the Specialized device to interpret it...came up with a 147. Yet he insisted that the middle size 143mm Specialized saddle would be fine for me...???? I'm a little confused by this. I thought the saddle had to be WIDER than the sit bone measurement in order to properly support them. :confused:

When all was said and done, I walked out with a 143mm Specialized Phenom...which is actually a men's MTB saddle. It's a firm saddle with very minimal padding and has an independent rear flange design, so it "flexes" with your sit bones. Hubby put it on last night, and today I rode 80 miles on it! :eek: It actually wasn't too bad. Sure I was sore, but I would be sore riding 80 miles regardless of which saddle was on my bike. The good news is...I had very minimal butt numbness. Felt a tiny twinge of numbness at mile 45, but then it dissipated and never returned. So, I think I'll give this saddle a few more long rides before I decide if it's a "keeper". The nice thing is, the dealer I bought it from said that if I don't like it after a few rides...I can exchange it for another Specialized saddle - either a different model or size, until I find one that works for me. I've already decided that if this Phenom saddle doesn't work out, I want to try the Avatar next. :cool: