century today revealed er, flaw in riding position/setup

Hi everyone,
I did a century today with my local cycling club (actually it was the club preview for our organized century, the Wabash River Ride (July 27th) sponsored by the Wabash River Cycling Club of Lafayette, Indiana). A few weeks ago the great guys at the LBS helped me with some bike adjustments to make my stance more aggressive by tilting my handlebars down. Overall, this causes me to sit less on my seatbones and rest more on my girlie parts. For the last few training rides I've noticed it, but not been terribly bothered by it. Now, my crotch is in agony! Do I need a new seat? Or is it just a matter of 7 hours in the saddle being a few too many? I was a bit undertrained, as my longest ride this season had been 60 mi... I ride a Giant OCR2 (xsmall) and my saddle is a Terry firefly. I've had both for years, but am definitely riding more this summer than before. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!

Get the LBS to tilt the handlebars back up? Or maybe part way up?

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Originally Posted by trbl_mkr

Hi everyone,
I did a century today with my local cycling club (actually it was the club preview for our organized century, the Wabash River Ride (July 27th) sponsored by the Wabash River Cycling Club of Lafayette, Indiana). A few weeks ago the great guys at the LBS helped me with some bike adjustments to make my stance more aggressive by tilting my handlebars down. Overall, this causes me to sit less on my seatbones and rest more on my girlie parts. For the last few training rides I've noticed it, but not been terribly bothered by it. Now, my crotch is in agony! Do I need a new seat? Or is it just a matter of 7 hours in the saddle being a few too many? I was a bit undertrained, as my longest ride this season had been 60 mi... I ride a Giant OCR2 (xsmall) and my saddle is a Terry firefly. I've had both for years, but am definitely riding more this summer than before. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!

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Can I ask why you would want a more aggressive riding position for doing a century? I've done 4 this year so far, and I can't imagine doing even one with an aggressive riding position. If I'm doing that kind of mileage, it's all about comfort. And that's not to say that I'm riding pain-free...because I am most certainly NOT. But if my position were any less "relaxed" than it is, I highly doubt that I would be able to ride 100 miles. I will feel pressure in my crotch when I go into my drops, and my handlebars are fairly upright AND I'm using a 17-degree rise stem, which brings my bars even more upright. It sounds to me like your bars are now too low and it's forcing you to be more forward on the saddle, which is putting pressure on your girly parts. I'd try raising the bars back up.

How much farther did they tilt them? I've played around with the tilt of my handlebars over the years. While some positions have proven more or less comfortable for my hands and wrists, I can't say that any of the changes have made my position more or less aggressive. I think it would take a bigger change to my bars, e.g., changing my stem or stack, to accomplish that. In any event, just change it back (this is an easy enough change to do yourself with an allen wrench) and go back to your old position. If something is still wrong, consider your saddle. Saddles do not last forever. I usually only get 4-5k miles out of my Terry saddles. I use one with a cutout, though, and they tend to break down faster.

I'd also add that you should avoid making changes before a long ride. Always make changes weeks before a big ride.

If you didn't have the problem before, put the bars back where they were. Then you can see if it's the saddle that's starting to break down. (Personally, though, I don't think I could manage a century in an aggressive position...)

The changes were made several weeks ago- and had been fine, until today. The LBS guy tilted the handlebars down until they were no longer above the plane of my saddle. Point taken that "more aggressive" might not be appropriate for a century :) but the change was made for overall rides, not this one specifically. If only I could afford multiple bikes! :) I'll go in tomorrow to see if we can put them halfway back up to find a happy medium.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trbl_mkr

The changes were made several weeks ago- and had been fine, until today. The LBS guy tilted the handlebars down until they were no longer above the plane of my saddle. Point taken that "more aggressive" might not be appropriate for a century :) but the change was made for overall rides, not this one specifically. If only I could afford multiple bikes! :) I'll go in tomorrow to see if we can put them halfway back up to find a happy medium.

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Did they tilt the bars by flipping the stem? If so, if you want to go half way up, you would need a new stem.

If you remove the pain from squished bits from the equation, does the new position feel otherwise feel better or worse? If the new position feels better, then you should probably start by looking at other saddles. If there are other problems with the position, then you need to re-visit the person who made the changes, list out the issues and get things tweaked.

+1 to ultraviolet ... although even before changing saddles, you might consider tilting your saddle down just a skooch.

minus the squished lady bits, I love the new position. They tilted the handlebars down by loosening the screws at the top of the stem (Giant OCR2 has a funny 2-piece stem) and tilting them down, then re-tightened. will try moving the saddle back a bit, thanks for the suggestion! Incidentally, the pain is a lot less this morning, and I'm willing to bet my seatbones would have hurt just as much after the long ride in the old position :)

If you do try moving your saddle back, make sure you make a note of where it was. Moving it back will change the relationship between your legs and your pedals, as well as your reach to the bars. I'd try changing the tilt before the fore/aft positioning, truly.

the important point is that your girly bits are not supposed to bear weight, your sit bones are. If you continue to use your girly bits as your main point of contact with your saddle, you face more pain, and possible permanent nerve damage*. If you are sitting on your sit bones, that will not happen. I can ride 100 miles without any of my butt being sore. You should be able to work up to that, and you're never going to be able to do it if you are riding in the "more aggressive" position.

(***nerve damage includes aches, numbness, pains maybe even during sex, come on!!***)

Ok.. is it just me and my ignorance but .. isn't tilting the handlebars down the initial wrong solution anyhow?

to indy's point, if you wanted to get into a more aggro position, wouldn't it usually involve either _dropping_ the height of the steam or by changing the stem angle?

if all they did was tilt your hb,, that would make me put my hoods/brakes/shifters farther away thus, changing my reach... the only reason i can see them tilting your hb is if your bars were already more tilted toward you than "normal." take a look at the hb in this article, is this how your hb now looks, after the lbs tilted your bars down or are the hoods even ? (Sorry, I'm a visual person.)

oh, and yes, when i get onto my bike with the more drop, i need a different saddle because my pelvis is now angled differently. and i'm hoping nscrbug's saddle might help out with that :rolleyes:

I flipped my stem and suddenly my saddle was painful. I tried several saddles, but didn't find one that worked, so I ended up just flipping my stem back over. Of course, that solved the problem.