More attention being given to saddles issues for women

[OakLeaf]

Because the disfunction of our parts isn't a visible thing it's easy to assume that disfunction doesn't exist.

Visible to whom?? I guarantee when my parts were chafed literally as raw as hamburger pretty much all the time, it was plenty visible to anyone to whom it mattered, and none of it ever matters to anyone as much as it matters to the person who's getting saddle damage.

Owlie has it right. There's a large segment of the population - mostly male but sadly some female - to whom it just doesn't matter when women are in pain. Sadly, even serious life-threatening pain, as our politics is showing. Bike saddle pain isn't even on their radar.

how long does a ride need to be before you decide to put on the padded cycle shorts?

However long it needs to be for you. That question is no different from "what's the best saddle?"

In the more aero position on my roadie, I don't ride in anything but cycling shorts (except say a block or two test ride after doing some maintenance). In the more upright position on my hybrid, now that I've got a saddle that works for me (which was an old take-off, a saddle that didn't work so well for me on the road bike), I've been over 20 miles in jeans with a normal jeans waistband and a big stonkin' crotch seam, with no trouble at all. There are one or two women here on TE - granted a very small minority - who never wear cycling shorts at all. It's whatever works or doesn't work for your particular combination of anatomy, geometry and saddle.



Anyway, the article's answer to the whole issue is "get out of aero position and, if you need to, get a noseless saddle so you're way upright AND can't steer or balance properly either." Nothing suggesting that something in such direct contact with the human body might need to, like, actually, fit. It's completely typical of the NYT fitness reporters to identify a real problem and then tack on a conclusion that says, basically, don't exercise.