Quote Originally Posted by SLash View Post
First off, I was much more comfortable on my Brooks without my padded bike shorts. Confusing to me, I would have expected the opposite.
Too much padding in your shorts can indeed cause more pressure and will push back against your sensitive parts. Just as a too-padded foamy saddle can be more painful against your soft tissues than a hard unpadded saddle. Sometimes less is more.


It is when I rotate my pelvis down/forward and get on hoods or drops (which is how I ride the majority of the time) that the pain occurs. The pain occurs not on the sit bones but rather the pubic bone.
Thoughts??
When you get onto the hoods or drops, be aware of tilting your pelvis. Try tilting it the other way instead, down/forward- pull in your stomach and tip your pubic bone area up and forward instead of down and back. This will strengthen your core, prevent the sagging back posture (which again puts more weight and strain on your hands and shoulders) and prevents you from riding right on the hard nose of your saddle with your pubic bone. After a while when you are more aware of your body positions this tummy tuck pelvic tilt will become more automatic.

When you tilt your pelvis down/forward, you tend to let your back and tummy sag down (like a swayback horse) and that makes your hands have to hold your weight up all by themselves (ow!), plus it will hurt your pubic area to ride on it. It's sort of a lazy posture, easy to do, but will work against you. I had to stop myself from doing it.
It helps to be more aware of your whole body floating over the bike, and try to distribute your weight evenly between sitbones, feet, and hands. think of your whole body as floating/walking/swimming over your bike, not just your body sitting on a chair while pedaling. This thoughts helped me become much more aware of my own body on my bike.