Saddles: Bigger Isn’t Better?
Over lunch today, I had a flick through the Sunday Times, and found this article by Emma Smith about the perils of saddle sores, and how if you don’t deal withthem, they can get really nasty (the phrase “drained by a physician” was used - what if you’re not married to a physician? 
)
I’ve never got to that point, but I have had a sore butt on occasion (too much information for you? Best stop reading right now), but only in those times when I’ve been doing two or three, three-hour rides a week. After extoling the virtues of padded shorts and chamois cream, Emma thinks that her saddle’s to blame:
One look at my bike’s angry, pointy saddle tells me it is to blame. I remember those kindly old-fashioned lady saddles with their ample, big-bottomed proportions and springy undersides. I was thinking a padded gel cover might be enough to solve the problem
Here’s my personal experience on this (which might not be yours - feel free to disagree). Saddles that are used on longer rides tend to be narrower and more uncomfortable looking. But contrary to popular opinion, this isn’t to save weight on the bike, but to reduce the chafing and grating your butt gets when your legs are doing 100 rpm (or 6,000 butt-rubs per hour) for three, four, or more hours.
So if you are riding long distances I would always think about a smaller rather than a bigger perch for your buns. You need one that fits and provides support to your pelvic bones, so not so narrow that it looks more like an, uh, adult toy.
There’s a great article with the pro’s and cons of various saddles over at quickrelease.tv, if you’re interested.
One final point - in the Sunday Times Article, Emma Smith said that before discovering padded shorts and chamois cream, she was getting so saddle-sore after just half an hour that she had to stop. Half an hour!? If you’re in a similar situation, then I recommend you adjust your saddle height, fore-aft position and angle. No, you probably don’t need a ‘proper’ bike fit, setting you back just shy of what you probably paid for the bike in the first place. Just simple adjustments that you can make at home.
There’s a great article on setting your saddle up correctly, over at the Peter White Cycles’ pages. Personally, I wouldn’t fret with the stuff about crank arm length, but the rest talks a whole lot of sense!.
I replaced the chisel that came with my bike with a Selle Royal Gel saddle which hasn’t given me any trouble in 12 years. I think when it dies it’ll be replaced with a Brookes leather one. As to saddle sores and cream, I’ve not had them yet, but then I’m not an extreme cyclist.
Favour a Fizik Arione myself, but you’re right Karl, bigger saddles mean more chafing and less comfort ime.
Brooks
Aaron
^^^ That being said ;>) My favorite saddle is Brooks or a reasonable facsimile of one. I have a couple of Wrights saddles which were a contemporary of Brooks as well as least one Ideale. I have yet to find a more comfortable saddle for any distances. It depends on the bike, the more upright the ride the wider the saddle. I prefer the ones with the springs regardless the width.
Aaron
That’s a very good point - upright position = wider saddle. I’ve also found with the Brooks B66 on my tandem that an appreciable backward slope helps prevent me sliding off the front.
It may also be a girl thing. Wider spaced ’sit bones’ mean those knife-edge saddles put a lot of weight on some *very* tender parts of your anatomy. OK, OK, TMI…
The quickrelease.tv information was very interesting. I found a couple of saddles there I’d like to try — especially on my mountain bike. I use a Hobson and am very happy with it. For town-biking on my Redline R530 (upright seating position) it is comfortable even for rides lasting more than an hour (I rarely have need to ride longer/father than that). The independent cheek movement of this saddle take a some getting used to
I’ve had very varied experience on saddles and find that most things work for me these days.
I used to insist on relatively thin “sporty” saddles on the bikes I rode in the UK, and when I came over here and rented a bike I’d find the big fat spongy saddle provided to be incompatible with my back-side. However, I then started riding a 3 speed around town in the UK and I became used to it.
These days I’ll happily ride all day on a big spongy saddle with springs underneath (generally cheap plastic ones and not Brooks - I’m vegan so don’t buy leather) and have no trouble with it at all. In fact, I actually prefer it. What’s more I ride a lot more these days - including 5000 km last year on the previously mentioned wide spongy saddle.
Today I spent 22 km sitting on the rather unusual Rido saddle which I’ve fitted to my folder. Again, no trouble at all - though I’m not sure it’s the most comfortable thing imaginable.
Mind you, I’m most comfortable on a recumbent, and use that for most of the longer rides.
Are you an American by any chance? If not, then what’s all this “butts” and “buns” crap?
No, I’m not, but I can adapt my text to suit the majority of my audience. I could have used are rear-end, back-side, bottom, posterior, behind, arse, ass) but not as in quadruped), seat, or even fanny - but only for an American audience.
Buns is a great word for the bottom - I picked it up from Wally’s vernacular in the Dilbert cartoons.