Quote Originally Posted by Kati View Post
I have a scott hybrid I bought from a bike shop long before I moved out of state. It was my first bike and I wanted to ride to take the pressure off my knees and be able to get some cardio. Fast forward two years of not riding to today.
I started riding 6 days a week almost 4 months ago. Was riding 30-45 mins a day most of the time until this month. I have been riding one hour to 2 hour rides. My max has been 16 miles, but normally ride around 10 miles. I am 6'2 and 320lbs. I went to a new bike shop in my new state and the owner was not very friendly concerning my size, so I am needing help. I get intense pain in my crotch after rides longer than an hour. When I bought my bike before I had no intention of falling in love with cycling and got the biggest most cushioned seat possible. Found this website and wondered if anyone could guide me about what to do... Also the palms of my hands ACHE... I called a bike shop and they said I might need to change my grips?
Am I hurting because of how heavy I am and it will go away in time or do I need a different seat/ grips due to the longer rides?

Thank you for any help anyone could give me... I really appreciate your time
Just to let you know, bikers of all sizes have saddle problems. So, don't think that just because you are 6'2 and 320 pounds that you are having pain issues when you bike. As an encouragement, besides enjoying biking, we have had a lot of TE members lose a TON of weight because of their love for biking.

There have been multiple threads on saddles as this is a common problem. In fact, see if you can find a store that has demo saddles for you to try. Maybe you should look at the SMP PLUS saddle first. I personally like saddles with huge cut-outs. In addition, some women like chamois in their bike shorts while others prefer bike shorts without padding.

Same with the gloves, some think the padding on gloves helps while other disagree. Unfortunately, the aching of the palms could also be a fit issue. If you are too far backward or the handlebars are not high enough for you, you might be having palm pain. How do you know the problem? Get a bike fit.

My recommendation is to work on the saddle issue first and try different types of gloves. If these basic recommendations don't help, you might want to consider a bike fit, which is expensive but well worth the money, especially if you think that you could really enjoy biking once the pain issues are resolved.