Do I have a saddle problem? Recommendations?

[dianne_1234]

damn, 37 views and no one has advice....

maybe if i rephrase the question....

my sit bones are:
17 cm on the very outside to outside
82mm on the very inside to inside
and 133mm from center to center

Would I be best to start with a 143 or 155 saddle?

Ischial Tuberosity Spacing among women:
5th percentile 112 mm
50th percentile 130 mm
95th percentile 148 mm

I guess I'll dissent with some of the other posters a little and suggest you might already be on (nearly?) the right saddle. Here's my reasoning:

1. The Bontrager R1 saddle that come stock on Trek's WSD bikes nowadays is their mid-width shell, which is 150mm. It looks like that's what you have. (The width should be molded into the plastic shell on one of the rail sockets in the back.) Bontrager aimed that width at the 50% percentile.

2. You measured your sit bones center to center at 133mm. That's only 3mm more than 50% percentile, which is 130mm for women.

Based on 1 and 2, I'd say the width is about right.

3. You have no major discomfort issues.

So it might not be too bad!

That said, the stock Bontrager R1 saddle is a bit squishy. If you generally like it in other ways (IMHO it's fairly T shaped, it has a groove in the middle, etc.) then consider trying one of the Bontrager aftermarket versions of this saddle. They're called inForm. The inForm R is a little firmer than yours, and the inForm RL slightly firmer still.

[OakLeaf]

Yeah, maybe we should back up a bit ...

I don't think "high discomfort tolerance" would let you tolerate what many of us have experienced with too-narrow saddles, i.e. labia that look like they've been roadrashed after every ride

If the pennies are sitting where the very outside of your sitbones fall on the saddle, and most of your weight is a centimeter or two inboard, you're probably fine with that width. Maybe a different cutout or a slightly different shape.

How did you determine where to place the pennies? Are they placed your measured 133 mm apart? (If so, that's no 150 mm saddle.) If you make a tracing of your butt-print and lay it over the saddle, do the centers of the ovals fall where the pennies are, or closer to the center?

Do you feel like your weight is on your sitbones, but the saddle is just too high in front for your soft parts? Maybe a tilt adjustment could help, or a saddle with a deeper channel or larger cut-out.

I also can't tell from looking at those pictures whether the whole area between the trim in the middle is a channel? So that the potential seating area is very small?

[trista]

No, I'm definitely not getting any roadrash. The pennies are placed 133mm apart and exactly where my pointy bones hit. I know this because, well, I'm there every day pretty much , and also because if I put my buttprint there, the pennies are in the middle of the ovals. My sitbones hit at the very very inside edges of the saddle (the plate inside).... if it were a few mm narrower, I'd be off the sides, but yes, the weight is on my sitbones. However, the saddle is so squishy that there is still a great deal of weight also on my softparts. I think a cutout would help, or a firmer saddle.

Keeping the current saddle is now, not an option. I just noticed today it has a hole in it . It must have happened during my last fall and somehow I missed it . So now I HAVE to get something new.

Oakleaf, the channel extends to about 1 inch before the cut-in at rear of the seat.

It is 150mm, I just measured the plate underneath, but because the padding tapers in on the sides, it gives the illusion of being smaller.

Thank you Dianne, I put the inForms on my list of saddles to try. I would never have thought about that. And yes, I do seem to like the T-shape

[OakLeaf]

Okay, I was at an expo today where they had some Trek WSD bikes you could sit on and try, and I'm pretty sure they had the same saddle.

It's considerably narrower than my 155 Jett.

My sit bones were on it, but just barely. Probably about where yours are.

Get something a little wider.

[dianne_1234]

Okay, I was at an expo today where they had some Trek WSD bikes you could sit on and try, and I'm pretty sure they had the same saddle.

It's considerably narrower than my 155 Jett.

My sit bones were on it, but just barely. Probably about where yours are.

Get something a little wider.

My 140mm sit bones like the 160mm inForm better than the 150, and the 155 Jett better than the 143. So I think we agree. :-)

Not saying the OP needs to stick with 150; as KnottedYet points out, extra width isn't necessarily bad if other aspects of the saddle's design make it okay.

[trista]

I put on the Butterfly Ti and rode 16 miles this morning. Didn't like it. My butt fit fine on it - it was the cutout that I didn't like and irritated me. The stock saddle fits me better - I think I like the channel better than the cutout. So, I'm going to give the inForm a try, probably the R first, then the RL if that's still too squishy. I'll go with the 150 since the next step up is 160 and i think that would be too big for me.

[trista]

Not thread-jacking

The Madone came with a Bontrager R1 150 mm, and according to Diane, all the WSD Treks come with that saddle. I definitely don't hate it (esp. now comparing it to the Terry Butterfly, the R1 fits me much better). In fact if the R1 wasn't so squishy I imagine it'd be perfect for me. So I'm pretty excited about the inForm, which as Diane pointed out is the aftermarket version of that saddle. It is on the way and I'll post how I like it when i get a chance to test it out.

ETA: here's a blog post that a bike shop guy posted about the inForm that I thought was interesting: http://www.bikegallery.com/blog/2009...nform-saddles/

[dianne_1234]

I just looked at a picture of the Bontrager Inform and it looks pretty nice to me

Question: can anyone tell me what Bontrager that comes stock on Treks everyone hates? What about that saddle hurts. A LBS carries a lot of Bontrager saddles, and I can't even look at them without hurting after everything I've heard here. (If this is thread-jacking then maybe I should post separately, just asking).

Not fouund on this current Bontrager saddle web page:
http://bontrager.com/products/components/saddles

Maybe one of these older "Select FIT" models?
http://treknology3.com/cms/index.php...406&Itemid=160