Front Saddle Problems

I've been searching this forum for saddle problems, and seem to come up with only rear saddle soreness. The problem I'm having is in the front. I have a Lady Selle Italia and it seemed okay the first few rides. Now after about 10-15 miles into a ride, the pain starts, and it is almost to the point where I have to stop the ride, especially when I pivot forward to get into good riding position. Only my soft tissue on the right side seems to be getting rubbed against or squished or whatever, and I come off the bike sore and red as hell. Sorry to get graphic, but where else can I talk about this…to the bike shop guys lol??? Last ride I tried putting on Aquaphor, but still was miserable. Could it be the cutout may not be a good thing for me and I'm rubbing against it? Any help would be appreciated!!!!

You've read this thread?

(Admins, can we put a sticky on that thread? Muirenn's done such a great job with it, and it ought to be where newcomers to the forum can find it [and regulars can find it to refer newcomers to].)

Another thing to consider is the possibility that your positioning on the bike might be too aggressive. I think this is likely the key to my own persistent crotch issues...we've raised my seat, lowered my seat, moved it forward, backwards, tilted up, down...tried various shorts and saddles. I'm still ending up pinched and raw. Some shorts and saddle combos aren't bad, but I'm still ending up beat up after most rides...even with globs of chamois lubes.

So last night I had my hubby flip my stem back to a somewhat less aggressive posture. The rest of my body does fine relatively horizontal, but my hooha is the deal-breaker.

The weird thing is that I'm generally OK in the drops, it's on the hoods when I end up too much on a delicate and sensitive "sweet spot." I prefer riding on the hoods for the bulk of my miles, so that doesn't work.

another simple issue is, is the saddle too high?
get yourself a bike fit!

Wow, thanks everyone. It is a Lady Gel Flow and I did have a very good bike fitting. When I went to the bike shop initially and told him the new saddle still wasn't great, we talked about it a bit and he tilted my saddle down a little, and it seemed to be okay for a while….I was able to do 40 - 50 milers no problem and I seemed to break it in. Just the last four or five rides it's really bad. I chalked it up to not being able to ride consistently for a few weeks.
When I just checked to see if the saddle was centered, it seems it is SLIGHTLY tilted to the right, when I look over the top of the saddle down to the tube. Maybe it has moved slowly over the rides and that's why I'm now in trouble. I will definitely try to get it dead center and see what happens before I take a look at my hips, leg length, etc. That is a great start and makes a lot of sense. Appreciated tremendously! :)

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Originally Posted by Biciclista

another simple issue is, is the saddle too high?

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You know, this thread is really timely. Today I got out for 20 miles on my bike with the stem flipped-up. Crotch issues were still there...and now my bike feels awkward and less responsive.

So I came home and dropped my saddle a mere 5ish mm. and went back out for 2 miles. Immediately it felt better (though still not great, since my crotch is already POd). It wasn't my relatively low handlebars, at all (I still don't have truly low handlebars, since I have such a short inseam relative to my torso. My bars were barely lower than my saddle height). So I'm going to have DH put my handlebars back where they were and I can keep skootching the saddle down more, if need be.

Never realized how tiny little adjustments can make all the difference. Let's see what happens with all the tweaking going on. To be continued……….

The footprint of the saddle may also be the wrong shape, and that, combined with bike fit and an asymmetry in your pedal stroke may cause that pattern of pain.

(Yes, I had the same saddle. It was too pear-shaped (too gradual a transition between the nose and the back of the saddle), which meant I kept sliding forward onto the girly parts, and then because I relied on my right leg for power more than my left, I'd sit weird to spare my inner right thigh the chafing, which lead to squished girly parts, but on the left.)

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Originally Posted by Muirenn

I did use this saddle for awhile, and my experience was similar to your's. Initially good, but then got beat-up in the front region. I believe in my case it wasn't due to an overly pear-shaped saddle where the transition area between the nose and sitting area was too wide, but because the padding around the cutout was too agressive. The nose has a lof of 'loft' in the padding, and it just pressed into me.

I've found relieve on a saddle with minimal padding, and a nice cutout.

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The padding in the nose did not help, that's for sure! The shape was the reason that the padding was the problem in the first place, though. :|

See if you can find a Cobb V-Flow Max to demo. It's an "almost noseless" saddle. It fixed all of my issues up front. It was like a miracle.

There are also the Adamo noseless saddles. I tried one of these, but wasn't comfortable with its wide, very short "nose".

The Cobb is a little narrower and a little longer in the nose, but the drop front shape means that there's nothing there to rub you.

Ok, so after moving the saddle a tiny bit from the right and centering it, I took a 36 miler and that problem on the right side was gone! Still had the numbness in the middle, but that awful chafing was gone and I was able to pretty much enjoy the ride. I think I'm going to demo the Cobb V flow Max and see how that goes. Thanks again!

Ok, decided to update my trial and error results. I originally was on the Lady Selle Italia Gel, did some good miles on it, but after a while, it became so uncomfortable. Got a lot of suggestions on this thread, which were so helpful and appreciated!! Since I last wrote in, I tried moving my Selle Italia nose up a bit and then down a bit, but it wasn't really great. Then tried a Specialized Jett, felt good initially then uh oh. Next tried a saddle without a cutout, a Selle Royal Lookin, but couldn't even make two miles on it. Lastly, I got a Cobb V Flow Plus to try. Went onto their website and followed the setup directions. Found that according to them, my saddle was actually too far back, and I moved it forward about two inches, maybe more. Went out today and had such an amazing, comfortable ride for the first 13 or so miles….then it hit. Ouch!! That is such a hard saddle, but much better on the girly bits which is where I was having the initial trouble. With the Cobb, everything around them got sore this time!! I can't seem to get it right. What I will try now is to put the Selle Italia back on and move it forward two or so inches and see what happens. What the Cobb website said is if you measure from tip of your index finger to back of your elbow, that's the distance the tip of the nose of your saddle should be from the middle of the handlebars, just for those newbies like myself. Mine was much farther back. Anyway, sorry for the long post!!

Don't want to hijack, has anyone ever tried a "Ride Out Technologies" saddle, the woman who designed them lives in Boise. I have met her and I sat on one at Interbike a few years ago, didn't work for me but may for others. Her website is www.rideouttech.com

I actually had a good bike fitting when I got my new bike in the beginning of the summer. He suggested the Lady Selle Italia, which is this guys "go to" saddle for women. It's just trial and error with me, I guess. Will keep trying!!!

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Originally Posted by jcl531

I actually had a good bike fitting when I got my new bike in the beginning of the summer. He suggested the Lady Selle Italia, which is this guys "go to" saddle for women. It's just trial and error with me, I guess. Will keep trying!!!

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No guy should have a "go to" saddle for anyone, much less someone with completely different anatomy. :confused:

Truth be told, no bike shops around here have women working in there, and guys can do just so much, so a lot of the time we are on our own to figure things out. That's what I am trying to do. I guess the "go to" saddle is the one women feel most comfortable with. I am still searching!

Murienn's marvelous saddle info thread should be the "go to" for everyone (male or female, really) looking for a saddle.

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Originally Posted by jcl531

I guess the "go to" saddle is the one women feel most comfortable with. I am still searching!

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This is my LBS's top-selling women's saddle...go figure. I had one...gave it to my MIL. She likes it. I know a couple of women who like it. It was a torture device for my crotch.
http://media.rei.com/media/j/1048147.jpg

The women who like it tend to ride very upright and I think my LBS likely sells more cruisers to women than road bikes. My MIL has a custom Seven...ugliest bike I have ever seen. It's is ALL head-tube.

OK, I've tried about six saddles, and the only one that came close to being tolerable was the Cobb V Flow Max, but instead of killing the soft tissue, it killed the inner sides where my legs join up with my torso. So, since my LBS didn't have an Adamo, I ordered one (Adamo Typhoon) on the Net and used it today. THIS IS MY SADDLE!!!! I finally found one. Did a 25 miler on it to test it out and I was thanking the heavens the whole ride. Not only was there no numbness on the girly parts, but the seat is made so your butt immediately gets back into the right place after stops, uphills, etc., so no more fidgeting in the seat. Extremely comfortable also in the drops. Thanks again everyone for all your help!!

Interesting you should ask. So I started to wonder if perhaps my stem might simply be a hair too long. My bike came with an 80mm, which I knew right away was too short and it made my bike's steering sorta scary. I talked to our LBS about going up 10mm, but our shop buddy didn't seem to think it was worth switching out just 1cm and talked me into the 100mm stem.

So I purchased a 90mm stem on a hunch and had my hubby put it on my bike.

Hmmm...I think my hunch was right all along. While the rest of my body can tolerate being relatively stretched-out and aggressive, that 100mm stem was just a hair too long. The 90 feels perfect. Now my only discomfort is that of having tights over shorts, which just feels like too much bulk under me.