Front Saddle Problems

[Biciclista]

another simple issue is, is the saddle too high?
get yourself a bike fit!

[zoom-zoom]

another simple issue is, is the saddle too high?

You know, this thread is really timely. Today I got out for 20 miles on my bike with the stem flipped-up. Crotch issues were still there...and now my bike feels awkward and less responsive.

So I came home and dropped my saddle a mere 5ish mm. and went back out for 2 miles. Immediately it felt better (though still not great, since my crotch is already POd). It wasn't my relatively low handlebars, at all (I still don't have truly low handlebars, since I have such a short inseam relative to my torso. My bars were barely lower than my saddle height). So I'm going to have DH put my handlebars back where they were and I can keep skootching the saddle down more, if need be.

[jcl531]

Never realized how tiny little adjustments can make all the difference. Let's see what happens with all the tweaking going on. To be continued……….

[Owlie]

The footprint of the saddle may also be the wrong shape, and that, combined with bike fit and an asymmetry in your pedal stroke may cause that pattern of pain.

(Yes, I had the same saddle. It was too pear-shaped (too gradual a transition between the nose and the back of the saddle), which meant I kept sliding forward onto the girly parts, and then because I relied on my right leg for power more than my left, I'd sit weird to spare my inner right thigh the chafing, which lead to squished girly parts, but on the left.)

[Owlie]

I did use this saddle for awhile, and my experience was similar to your's. Initially good, but then got beat-up in the front region. I believe in my case it wasn't due to an overly pear-shaped saddle where the transition area between the nose and sitting area was too wide, but because the padding around the cutout was too agressive. The nose has a lof of 'loft' in the padding, and it just pressed into me.

I've found relieve on a saddle with minimal padding, and a nice cutout.

The padding in the nose did not help, that's for sure! The shape was the reason that the padding was the problem in the first place, though. :|

[HillSlugger]

See if you can find a Cobb V-Flow Max to demo. It's an "almost noseless" saddle. It fixed all of my issues up front. It was like a miracle.

There are also the Adamo noseless saddles. I tried one of these, but wasn't comfortable with its wide, very short "nose".

The Cobb is a little narrower and a little longer in the nose, but the drop front shape means that there's nothing there to rub you.

[jcl531]

Ok, so after moving the saddle a tiny bit from the right and centering it, I took a 36 miler and that problem on the right side was gone! Still had the numbness in the middle, but that awful chafing was gone and I was able to pretty much enjoy the ride. I think I'm going to demo the Cobb V flow Max and see how that goes. Thanks again!