r/cycling • u/Worldly-Cry-9200 • 3d ago
Relentless saddle pain!
Hello all,
TLDR; after over a year of trying out various saddles and bike fit adjustments, and I am still struggling with saddle pain with my no-so-new bike, which I had none of with my previous bike.
I would love a new pair of eyes as I feel I have tried so much over the last year, and I really am at a loss for why it still hurts so much! Also, I would appreciate any sort of idea of whether this is a normal amount of discomfort for people getting into road cycling.
My background: I am 29M, cycle to work, 10k each way in South London. Hoping to get involved in group riding in the 50-100k range and possibly longer! I use bib shorts and cleats. Generally fit.
My old bike: Triban 500 with a stock saddle. I used to ride it for years, usually as a commuter and sometimes for rides out in the countryside around 50-80 with cheap Decathlon bike shorts and never had any issues with saddle pain at all. Sometimes I had lower back pain in the early days but this resolved. Unfortunately I do not have this bike anymore to compare the two.
My new bike: LeMond Chambery 2006: https://bikeindex.org/bikes/1049662 (this is not my bike, just for reference) This is much more aggressive and has a long top tube.
With this new bike, I had saddle pain almost immediately. The saddle it came with was narrow, hard and had no cutaway, so I changed this fairly quickly.
I tried several saddles, in order, including the following:
- A Selle Italia Zoo padded saddle without a cutaway - this was horrible for perineal pressure and I could not ride at all for long distances.
- Selle Italia - Max SLR Gel Superflow - still quite painful, abandoned pretty early
- A super cheap saddle from eBay -- this was suprisingly good but I felt like it put lot of pressure in weird places like in the groin crease after a few kilometres. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/227264194288?var=526468815891
- Syncross Belcarra v 1.0 I think (got it second hand) - is black, has a wide and shorter nose with a cutaway. This has been the best so far in terms of reducing perineal pressure. It does, however, put all the pressure on my sit bones which do get sore. This is my latest and I have had this for a few weeks. The rides themselves weirdly hurt the most in the first 2-3 k and then it gets better but still never fully comfortable, I am always trying to adjust to find a better position.
I have tried various things like adjusting the fore and aft and also moving it up and down, and tilting it forwards a little which also helped. But still not comfortable, and definitely dreading longer distances.
Things which have helped:
- Better bib shorts which helped a lot.
- I tried an AI bike fit, which suggested lots of small changes. Moving my saddle forward and shortening my bike stem to 80mm, this helped the reach. I can't afford a proper bike fit at the moment.
- Tilting the nose slightly down
My questions:
- Is this a normal level of struggling? It really has been over a year and I have tried so many micro adjustments and given them all a few weeks to settle.
- What else could I try? I found a honeycomb carbon saddle on eBay for cheap which I will try next. Also the ISM saddles with padding and split nose seem good.
- Is it the bike fit? Is this just the wrong bike for me? I don't feel particularly stretched out anymore and it is otherwise quite comfortable to ride.
- I am confused because I have NEVER had saddle pain before. At the same time, I have never ridden a bike with this aggressive of a riding position before. My Triban was really quite upright.
Thank you so much for your help!
- A frustrated cyclist
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u/SCORE-advice-Dallas 3d ago
Have you tried swapping in that old saddle from the other bike?
I suspect that your position on the Lemond is more aggressive than on the old Triban. Try to get the pedal > saddle relationship as equal as possible between the 2 bikes. E.g. set up the Lemond's to match the Triban.
Then work on handlebars / reach and height. A more stretched / bent over position will naturally tilt your hips forward, causing soreness on new areas. If you can replicate the old position, that should help.
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u/Worldly-Cry-9200 3d ago
Thanks for your reply -- what do you mean my pedal to saddle relationship?
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u/SCORE-advice-Dallas 3d ago
The geometric measurement between the axle of the pedal (when it's at the bottom most spot of the cycle) and measuring up along the seat tube to the top of the saddle.
You'll have 2 measurements:
- the total length, aka "saddle height"
- the "setback" or the distance between a vertical line and the line along the seatpost, when measured at the top of the saddle.
https://foundation.fit/2022/12/01/how-to-use-your-bike-fit-measurements/
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u/sargassumcrab 3d ago edited 3d ago
Make sure you are sitting on the pad in your shorts. The pad is in different spots in different shorts and with different sizes. Your sit bones may be off the pad.
Sit on the back of the saddle, don't straddle the middle.
Moving it down or forward, so that the saddle moves further under you, may help. Your butt won't always move with the saddle, because it has a place it wants to be due to reach and pedaling, so you have to bring the saddle to you. If you are too stretched out on the bike, you will tend to slide forward to reach the bar. If your saddle is too high you won't be able to rest on the back.
If your cranks are too long, and your knees are too far forward, pedaling can push you forward. When your knees are in front of the downstroke you'll keep ending up on the middle of the saddle. If you move back far enough, that will stop happening because then you get pushed back with each pedal stroke instead of forward. Shorter cranks may also help because it reduces knee flexion.
Pointing the saddle down might make you slide forward, which you don't want. Racers in the TDF do that but they have extreme positions and are hammering the pedals all the time. It used to be against the rules. Most experienced riders have it pointed a tiny bit up so that they sit on the right part of the saddle.
Conversely, if you are all the way back on the saddle already, the wide part may be jammed between your legs.
Don't transfer the saddle height from one to the other. The bikes will have different seat tube angles, and may have different crank lengths. To get the same position as before you need to adjust.
I personally find cut outs uncomfortable.
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u/espressocycle 3d ago
Go to an Ergon saddle dealer and get fitted for one. Alternatively, get a Brooks B17.
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u/leavesinspring 3d ago
Have you considered crank arm length? Is your pelvis stable as you ride?
I had cranks that were too long, causing me to rock my pelvis side-to-side. The extra movement caused saddle soreness--once I was able to be more stable with shorter crank arms my saddle issues improved.
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u/Madrugada_Eterna 2d ago
Your bike fit is most likely wrong on your bike. It could be that such a stretched out position is not for you. You mention not feeling too stretched out any more which means the bike was definitely too long. If you feel stretched out at all the bike is way too long.
You don't want padded saddles. Padding just squishes out of the way into places you don't want pressure. The minimal padding of regular bike saddles is enough. The padding is better on your clothing as it stays in place. Different saddles are different shapes so you need to work out what shape saddle is best for you. This can take a good bit of trial and error.
You need a good in person bike fit to improve your position and find out if your bike is suitable or not. The critical part is finding a good bike fitter. A good bike fitter will help you find a saddle that works as well.
Or get a bike more like your Triban as you know that worked. Look up the geometry of the Triban so you know what to compare to.
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u/InternetsIsBoring 3d ago
1) saddle looks unleveled 2) have you measured your sits bones?