Saddle Selle Italia comparison help...

[CyborgQueen]

My sincere apologies for such a long post, but I figured an explanation is needed and hopefully someone can help me a little bit.

A few months ago, I bought Selle Italia Diva Gel Flow (and I bought it on impluse buy...didn't look at the price...Should have done that first before dropping $$$ I figured that I love my LBS, and figured to "throw them a bone" once in a while since they've done a lot of free service for me).

I really like it and found it more comfortable than my Terry Butterfly Ti (I may/will sell that one soon if anyone is interested).

However, after riding the SI for a few months and doing my first Century in that saddle, there is one issue that I can't seem to solve, and I don't know if it's just my anatomy or the saddle.

The umm (my apologies for the TMI), upper part of my girly bits - pretty much pubic bone area seem to hurt after a while. It's more of the bones/ligaments that hurts than the soft bits. Everything else seems fine.
http://www.reshealth.org/images/greystone/em_0179.gif If you look at the link, it hurts more on the ^ shaped part of pubic symphysis. I *think* it's the Gracilis muscle attachment (not sure exactly what ligaments they are) that hurts as well. If you feel the sides of your pelvis, there's two ligaments that I can feel from my leg to the "girly bits". On me, it feels really tight and "sticks out" compared to the rest of my flabby areas. :-) That's what hurts more.

On the saddle, there's two "rails" that creates the cutout that seems to "dig" in me, hence pressing against the two ligaments and pelvis bone.

When I rotate my hips back a little, the pressure is off, and it doesn't hurt, but I can't seem to "stay" in that position, I just naturally go forward.

The sit bone area is fine, no issues so far.

My questions are: is the saddle too "long"? The "rails" of the cut out too wide? (I don't think I've ever seen a very narrow nose with a wide back type of saddle). Or do I need to move the saddle nose up a little bit?

Lastly - will it be better if I've gotten the SI Ldy Gel Flow? (shorter nose, larger sitbone area - I'm not too concerned as it most likely will fit, and smaller cutout.)


I'm just sick and tired of trying different saddles. I liked the Terry Butterfly, but it was just slightly too narrow. I hated the Felt, Bontrager inForm, and Specialized (although I only tried it for a short time).

When I tried the Bontrager's inForm, without a cut out, I didn't like the feel of the squished soft tissues, hence I thought a cut out would feel better.

After hours of riding (even riding hard), the only thing that hurts is the bony area of my pelvis, and it's annoying.


OH - Forgot to add - I also noticed that for all my bike shorts, the chamois stops just right before the two ligaments that I told you about. It feels like I want a padding that goes all the way to the sides of my leg.


Thanks for all the help!!!
(PS: Will I have any issues selling my SI Diva Gel Flow? The white of the saddle has been ruined by using Body glide...that's a whole 'nother story...I can't return it. :-( It's practically brand new. )

[Catrin]

I had the SI Diva and found the cutout too wide (and too long) which put pressure and caused numbness - not on my girly bits - but on the area next to them. If I understand your description correctly it is the same area that you are having trouble with.

For me the SI Lady (LDY) Gel flow turned out to be THE saddle for me. I now have it on all of my bikes including my mountain bike. For me it is the perfect combination of cutout size (both length and width), nose length, and width in the back of the saddle. It has a quite different shape from the Diva - some have said it is similar to the Terry Butterfly but they didn't seem THAT similar when I visually compared the two. Probably one, or both, of the designs have changed.

Do you have a LBS that would allow you to demo the Ldy Gel Flow before committing to it? I was fortunate to find one, which is nice as they aren't cheap...

[CyborgQueen]

Muirenn -

Currently I have the nose slightly up. I did that because if I have it level, it feels worse (the area that I have issues with). Feels like I'm "falling forward", hence why I put it up.

Yes, I had a good bike fitting, and I'm positive that I'm sitting on the sitting area. (The thread you put up, is the wrong link...you copied your comments into the link, so I can't open it).

I do consciously lift myself up onto my sitbones, could it be poor posture? If it matters, when I stand normally on two legs, my lower back "curves in", so my pelvis is a little more rotated than a normal woman. I've had x-rays done and stuff, and they found that it's just slightly off, and nothing I should worry about, and I need to wear a "girdle" type of belt, but since I've already grown up, it's too late to "fix it".

So, if I do consciously keep rotating my pelvis, is it poor posture?


Thanks for the help, definitely got my thoughts going...