Saddle Question

[Cyclenewbie08]

Hi All,

I have been lurking on this site for a while and finally decided to join. I have learned so much from you ladies(and gentlemen) that when I go to my LBS I actually sound like I know what I am talking about! Your encouragement to other posters has helped me numerous times because I was often dealing with the same things they were. Anyway.....thanks for all of your great advice.

Knowing how knowledgable you all are I have a question about saddles. I have been riding for a few months now. I have a Trek 1000 triple road bike. In the last month I have upped my mileage to about 25-30 miles each time out. I am about 250 lbs....overweight and working on it. When I am done riding, my butt doesn't hurt, but the bones of my pelvis on either side of my girlie parts hurts for the next 2 days or so. I don't know if changing the saddle will work. Is it just my weight or would a wider or thinner saddle work? I was looking at some gel saddles today, but I wanted to get your opinions first. Has anybody else had this issue? Any help you can give would be appreciated!

I look forward to chatting with all of you. Thanks!

Chris

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Hi Chris, welcome! (I'm from NY too)

I'm hoping I understand you properly.....the pain you describe might happen if the back of your saddle is too narrow for your sitbones to take your weight properly. If your sitbones are wider than the back of your saddle then the middle of your saddle is going to push up into your pelvic area too much and you might then be resting too much weight on those middle/front pair of pelvic bones instead of your rear sitbones.
The key to comfort in saddles is getting your weight onto the right spots. Extra-padded saddles don't necessarily solve pressure problems.
I'm sure others will have more suggestions and ideas....

[Cyclenewbie08]

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for your reply. What you said makes sense. How exactly do I measure my sit bones to know what size seat I need? My seat is fairly narrow and I think you might be right that I am putting too much pressure on the front parts and not enough on the back. This stuff is all new to me, so any advice would be wonderful.

Thanks,
Chris (fellow upstater)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

How exactly do I measure my sit bones to know what size seat I need?

Try reading these two threads, perhaps they will help:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...uring+sitbones
and
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...uring+sitbones

Again, not sure if this is exactly what your problem is. It's normal to have soreness of your rear sitbones when you are a brand new rider, but what you describe sounds more like the frontal pelvic bone pair, not the sitbones? -and you are not a really new rider anymore anyway.
Myself, I have extra wide sitbones and I find the x-tra-wide Brooks B68 non-padded leather saddles to be the most comfortable for me on all distance rides up to 70 miles so far. But I combine it with some good long distance (dense foam, but not overly puffy chamois) shorts.
You might also want to experiment with slightly changing the tilt of your saddle's nose up or down 1/4". A little adjustment usually translates into a big change in how it feels (for better or worse).
This is an interesting picture- is this the problem you think you are experiencing?:


I'm still sure that others will have some valid input here as well. I'm only putting forth one idea.

[KnottedYet]

+1 to what BleeckerStGirl said.

I ride on unpadded wide Brooks B67 saddles. The same as BSG's, only mine have springs under them.

If I ride a regular women's saddle (like the Selle Italia lady gel flow) it is narrower than my sit bones and I end up with my pelvis meeting the saddle at the rami (the "A" in BSG's pic) rather than on the tuberosities (the "B"). And then I have pain just like you describe.

Measure your sit bones, then select a saddle or two that are wide enough to support your sit bones. Be sure to buy them from someplace that will give you a return if the saddles don't fit! Wallingford Bicycle Parts has a great 6 months return period. They pretty much only sell Brooks saddles, though. www.wallbike.com

[feistyep]

I am sooo glad there are other women having this problem!! I will say that you definitely don't have to be a larger woman to have this problem!
I am finally in the 50 mile mark and am suffering from agony as well!!
I think I measured by "sits bones" correctly and they are only 3 inches apart!
I originally had front saddle pain, then switched to a Sella saddle (with the center of the front cut out) which alleviated the front pain, but now I have severe pain on my sits!! Barely was able to ride 45 minutes!

Any suggestions?

Suzy

[Cyclenewbie08]

All of your advice is appreciated. I will read through the old posts that you sent, Lisa, and the the "A" part of the diagram does show where my pain is.

Knotted....I will check out the Brooks website and see what I can find there.

Feisty....I feel your pain. Glad to know it's not just my weight contributing to my pain. These ladies are great on here and will probably be able to help you.

Have a great night!

Chris

[KnottedYet]

I am sooo glad there are other women having this problem!! I will say that you definitely don't have to be a larger woman to have this problem!
I am finally in the 50 mile mark and am suffering from agony as well!!
I think I measured by "sits bones" correctly and they are only 3 inches apart!
I originally had front saddle pain, then switched to a Sella saddle (with the center of the front cut out) which alleviated the front pain, but now I have severe pain on my sits!! Barely was able to ride 45 minutes!

Any suggestions?

Suzy

3 inches is astoundingly narrow. Is that the distance between the bones, or the distance from outside to outside of the bones? The ischial tuberosities are thick, wide, heavy, rocker-like bones. Start by measuring outside-to-outside while sitting upright to get your boney maximum. As you tilt yourself forward (rocking forward on those sit-bone rockers!) you will see that the out-to-out measurement decreases depending on your torso angle. And if you keep going forward onto the rami (thinner blade-like portions of the pelvis) it gets very narrow and tender. (which is why saddles for riding in an anterior pelvic tilt, like tri saddles, have such wide padded noses) The more saddles you test-ride, the more you can fine-tune the width you like best for your position on the bike.

Saddle shape can have a lot to do with pain, too. If your saddle is too pear-shaped or too t-shaped you can get some really miserable hamstring attachment/sitbone irritation. (look at it from the top: is it more pear or tear-drop shaped than your last saddle? Or does it look more like a capital letter "T"?) I haven't found a quick and easy way to determine what saddle top shape is likely to feel best. That's pretty much a matter of trial and error and comparison.

Sheldon Brown, RIP, has a lot of good stuff about saddles: http://sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html

ETA: just for comparison, my out-out measurement is around 170mm or 7 inches. I ride on a saddle that is 210mm or about 8 1/4 inches wide.