how long to "wear in" a new bike? (aka Help the saddle is hurting my girly bits!)

[aeiea]

So basically, no, you shouldn't be able to reach the ground at all when you're up in the saddle... If your seat is too low, you're doing waaaay too much work to keep moving, and you probably are stressing your knees... If my saddle's too low, I definitely feel it in my knees.

Thanks so much for this. So basically, if there's no curb to stand on and I can't track stand, do I need to hop off the seat and straddle the frame when I come to a stop, or can I avoid doing this?

Basically, I read somewhere that people should have 1-2 inches of clearance between the straddled frame (wish I knew the actual term) and their ... sensitive area (is crotch the right word?)... but i am right on top of it. I guess this has been the other deterrent for me getting off my seat. I got the smallest frame available though, so I am a bit worried.

Ugh... but as you mentioned, there are other ways to stop (I've been mountain biking it for awhile before I got my road bike so I can apply some of those tricks, but I guess my seat was too low there too) ... I just don't know which method is the safest and least energy consuming -- both elements I'm most concerned about when it comes to commuting in LA traffic.

Basically I don't want to fall from stopping and get hit by an LA driver. I see what they do in their cars... text message... apply makeup... scream at their agents... etc.