Need help from Brooks owners, please.

[SLash]

Just got back from riding around the neighborhood with regular shorts, no bike shorts/no padding.

I decided to ride once more before making any changes to my fit so I could mentally take note of exactly what was happening regarding pain, etc. I have found over the years that I am better off making changes to my fit very slowly and very conservatively.

First off, I was much more comfortable on my Brooks without my padded bike shorts. Confusing to me, I would have expected the opposite.

I'm wondering if the reason is when I wear padded shorts, the padding gets squished against the saddle, which further squishes my bits. My other saddles have cut outs so this wouldn't be an issue, or at least not as much of one. What do you think?

I did Knotted's cut-out test and passed, nothing was squished.

Another thing I noticed, when I am riding on my saddle with hands placed just on the flat part of the bar (either side of the stem) my saddle feels fine. No pain anywhere.

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??

Much Thanks!

Susan

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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.

[SLash]

Thanks Lisa, but I'm a little confused by some of the information. I've always been told to ride with flat back, pelvis rotated forward, imagining trying to touch the top tube with belly button, etc. So I have always tried to ride with a flat back and achieving that by rotating my pelvis forward. When I said forward/down I was referring to rolling my pelvis forward and down getting in the drops. I checked with my husband who I ride with primarily and a friend and both say although my back isn't perfectly flat (slightly rounded in the upper part) the lower part of my back is flat, not swaybacked.

The other thing is this is an issue with the Brooks and Jamis not my Scott and Zerox.

With that said, I know I could engage my core more (always ) and as you suggest try to pull up at the pubic area. I think part of the issue is the saddle is a little high which would exacerbates the pubic pressure issue as I have to reach at the bottom of my stroke (my husband noticed this when we were out riding the other day).

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 describes how I feel when I ride my Scott CR1 Pro perfectly (Terry zerox saddle), feeling a part of the bike, not like I'm sitting on and riding the bike. I don't feel that way on my Jamis which is partly because of the different geometry but I believe, is also a fit issue. Getting the Brooks has changed my fit and the changes need to be addressed. Sigh. I had the perfect fit on the bike prior to changing out the saddle. I felt comfortable while in the drops or hoods with the stock saddle, but my sit bones weren't happy. Funny, but I have the opposite problem with Brooks, sitbones happy, rest isn't/stock saddle everything happy but the sitbones. There is no perfect saddle.

I appreciate your feedback and know it's important to not collapse on the bike but to support myself with my core too, and will keep your pointers in mind when I ride next.

Susan

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Thanks Susan,
Yes everyone and every bike is a little different. I hope you can figure out the issues. I wonder if some of our confusion about pelvic tilt is possibly just confusion in descriptions, hard to figure out.

One sign that your saddle is too high is that your hips will rock from side to side as you hit your downstroke. Perhaps that's what you describe as 'reaching' for the downstroke? No harm is trying different tweakings!

My advice is usually based on just my own experiences, so if you find any stuff in what I say that you can use, then great!

[SLash]

Lisa, I think you're right, different ways to say the same thing sometimes.

I wondered about whether my hips were rocking and asked DH when we were out riding together last time and he said no. I mainly feel like I'm reaching with my right leg and not a lot but maybe enough to explain some of the discomfort with the Brooks. My right leg is 5/8th in shorter than my left (bike accident when I was 10 ) and although with shim and pad for R shoe it was reduced a lot there still is a slight difference so I have to fit for the shorter leg, if that makes sense.

It's a long story and I won't go into it but basically I rode for several years, lots of miles (for me anyway, 3000+) also ran and after having trouble with my knee saw an orthopedic dr. He's the one that first diagnosed my right leg problem. Turns out I broke my leg in that bike accident all those years ago (my buddy and I were flying down a hill, I hit gravel, went airborne, landed on my knees) and never knew it, never was treated for it. The break resulted in a curvature of my right leg below the knee (the area of the break) and the 5/8 inch shorter leg length since I was so young and still growing. So basically after riding all those years with no "accommodations" to equal out my leg lengths I just "learned" how to ride without rocking hips or being "unbalanced" in my pedaling style even though I had this fairly significant diff between the two leg lengths. From paying attention and riding while the guy that did the fit watched me, I have compensated for it by sitting on the saddle not quite centered. Until I got this latest fit on my Jamis and got the shim, etc. for my right shoe I had never addressed it. It's never given me any problems that I was aware of anyway.

I mention all this because it makes my fit on the bike more complicated and is part of what I'm dealing with on the saddle - I think anyway.

Again, I appreciate your help.

Susan

[moderncyclista]

I own a B-17 and for me, the tilt adjustment made a huge difference. I have one on one bike but I haven't gotten one for my Aurora because I'd need to get a better seatpost (for my tastes) to be able to tweak the heck outta the tilt. It's taken me awhile to get the height, tilt and such...just right on my other bike. But the rest is just a matter of breaking in. I'm in no pain when riding. You shouldn't be either. Brooks saddles take about - (dare I say this?), 1000 miles to fully break in - according to the guys/gals from Brooks. I feel comfortable already, but it's just a more finicky saddle.

[SLash]

I own a B-17 and for me, the tilt adjustment made a huge difference. I have one on one bike but I haven't gotten one for my Aurora because I'd need to get a better seatpost (for my tastes) to be able to tweak the heck outta the tilt. It's taken me awhile to get the height, tilt and such...just right on my other bike. But the rest is just a matter of breaking in. I'm in no pain when riding. You shouldn't be either. Brooks saddles take about - (dare I say this?), 1000 miles to fully break in - according to the guys/gals from Brooks. I feel comfortable already, but it's just a more finicky saddle.

Hi Modern,

The thing that jumped out at me was the 1000 miles. The aged leather is supposed to have a shorter break in period, so that should help. Part of the reason I got the aged, guess I'm inpatient. I also liked the way it looked with my Aurora.

How did you finally get the tilt adjusted? Is it tilted up or down? I rode a little tonight and again felt a little better so there's hope I think.

What do you ride with on your Aurora?

Thanks,

Susan