Saddle Quest 2011

[hulagirl]

<sigh>

I need help bad. I am about 2 months into Saddle Quest 2011 and ready to quit and go back to numb girly bits.

Here's the info:

I'm riding an Orbea Diva in a relatively neutral position. (My saddle is just about half an inch taller than my handlebars.) I spend 50% of my time on the hoods, 30% in the drops and 20% in aerobars. I am FAR more comfortable in the drops and aerobar than on the hoods. I do NOT have any back, hand, wrist or arm pain. It's all about the saddle. I'm 5'8, 146lbs. I do use Chamios cream and ride in lightly padded cycle shorts (Giordanna Carbon).

History:

I've always had numb toes. Always. No matter what bike I was on (Soft Ride, Specialized Vita, Orbea) it would start with a sharp pain on the left foot on the outside of the foot, then the toes/forefoot would go numb equally on both feet. Usually within 5 minutes of the ride.

On my hybrid (Specialized Vita) I have a Dolce 155. Which seems fine as I'm more upright. But I do get the numb toes/left foot pain.

On my Orbea - I started with the Selle Italia Diva Lady Gel Flow. Looks to be about 155mm wide. And I get the numb toes + numb junk. The numb toes and junk go away within 5 minutes of the end of the ride.

Then I was told that you don't have to have numb junk! And I thought "No freaking way!" LBS (triathlon shop where I got my Orbea) lady/instructor/coach SWORE by her Selle SMP saddle and informed me that they do a saddle swap. So I thought I'd try it out.

Started with the Avant.

154mm wide is a pretty wide saddle. But based off my Dolce 155 I thought that would be good. The cut out was WONDERFUL. Junk is no longer numb. Toes = still numb, not as bad. But something new! That little area at the top inner part of your leg? Yeah...OUCH. Not the sit bone, just in front of it. Bruised and painful and just made me want to cry-but only on the left leg! But oh how I loved not having numb junk! Wow!

Tried the Pro next. 148mm wide. Numb toes going away! Junk is happy, inside of left leg is hurting still. Maybe less with this one.

Next up: Lite 209. 139mm wide. This one was VERY painful after about 30 miles. OUCH. Numb toes almost 100% gone. Left inner leg bruise/pain = hell.

Now I'm on the Dynamic. This one is 138mm wide. It have very little padding in the ridges along the cut out (which is what I was thinking was compressing into my leg/hip area). Problem is, it feels like I'm riding on a brick. Like 100% of my weight is now resting on that area just in front of my sit bones. I can feel the tendons and things getting compressed as I shift my weight. Toes are RARElY numb. Junk is a little numb - just starting to feel some compression there. But the inner left leg is really, really bad.

I went and had my LBS measure my bum on their Specialized Bum-measurer. 140 ish. Possible 145ish.

So there are my issues. Seems the wider seats cut off nerves and circulation to my toes. The thinner seats put way too much pressure on that area just in front of my seat bones - and 90% of the pain is on the left side. At this point I have 2 decisions: Numb/painful feet/toes and numb junk. Or incredible bruise/pain in saddle area of left leg.

I will say that the SMP saddles are HIGHLY comfortable for riding in the drops. But when I rotate forward I can feel the tendons in my left leg roll over that saddle ridge and I cringe. I find that I put weight into my legs/feet in order to relieve some of my saddle pain. And that might be contributing to the issue anyway. Coming up out of the drops is even more painful. Rolling back to my sit bones (which I'm never on BTW...is anyone? I'm only on them if I sit straight up hands-free) is worse than a root canal.

Any thoughts on this? The saddle is level. I may try to tilt it down just a hair and I might even knock the saddle to the right too. Dunno. I have a metric century in 1 week so I don't want mess with it too much. Should I try to move it forward? Back? I do find myself scooting back on the saddle now - but I think it's to alleviate some of the pressure on that inner leg area and spread it out. Shifting to the right or left more doesn't help anything.

I'm open to any thoughts, suggestions.

Many thanks for reading my book!

Denise