Fun Sustainable Transport

Saddle woes ?

written by rohan_kini on July 29th, 2007 @ 01:03 AM


a beautiful leather saddle

Bicycle seat a.k.a Saddle seemed to be quite an issue with folks at the BarCamp today.

Sheldon Brown, who is quite an authority on bicycles, has something very interesting say – “A seat is something that you sit on, whereas a saddle is intended to carry some but not all of your weight”.

Saddle setup is a pretty personal experience with not too many hard and fast rules. You stick by some basic rules and keep trying out small minor adjustments until you are happy.

Are you mostly numb after a long ride ? Does your butt ache like hell ? Some things to be aware of
  • maybe the seat is pointing upwards. That can compress the soft tissue in the groin and it can be painful.
  • maybe the seat is too soft. I have met many folks who swear by harder seats.
  • maybe the seat is not positioned correctly, check the fore aft position.
  • Do your shorts have seams ? Switch to cycling shorts – sitting on top of seams put pressure on the sensitive tissues in the groin ares.
  • just started riding ? Sometimes its just a matter of getting used to it.
  • maybe you are not moving enough on your seat. It also makes sense to get your butt off the seat sometimes and pedal and let the circulation flow. If you are hitting bumpy terrain try and get off the seat slightly with your knees so that the saddle doesn’t bump into your groin area.

Sheldon brown has a very nice article on this topic that is a must read and elaborates on many of the points mentioned above.

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  • Amitabh on 31 Jul 10:56

    Or use a gel filled seat cover. I think it goes by the brand name Velo. It helped me. And standing on you pedal as you encounter a bump on the road definitely helps. Also trying rising on your pedals - the way one does when you want to speed up - keeps the circulation going.

  • ROhan Kini on 31 Jul 11:17

    gel Saddle might sometimes cause more harm than good. The problem is that because of the gel seat, the seat bones sink in more into the seat and hence there can be more pressure on the sensitive tissues in the groin. Hence not too effective ! But of course if the gel seat is properly engineered it should help I guess.

  • Amitabh on 06 Aug 19:37

    Hi ROhan. You are probably right - in most cases a poorly designed gel Saddle would do that - or perhaps after some use mine will also give me more trouble. For the time being the Velo saddle distributes the pressure nicely. However, I will keep checking in case I have problem - one is likely to overlook this. Thanks.

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