Saddle Question

[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