The Perfect Combination?

Whenever I start to push the mileage, I end up with a distinctly sore back-side. I’ve tried all sorts of different saddles and different set-ups - tilted up, down; moved fore and aft, a little higher & a little lower, but to no avail . . .

. . . until now.

Here’s what seems to work for me - based on the experience of Sunday’s ride :

  1. New shorts that haven’t had the padding pounded out of them by a thousand miles or so in the saddle. I was actually wearing the liner-shorts that came with a pair of Endura Humvee shorts . They’re kinda a freebe with the baggy shorts that I live in all summer, but they really do the trick…
  2. A Brooks saddle. What other make would do? In this case, it was a Brooks B17 . . . as they say on the Brooks site, "The B17 is our flagship model, ideal for long distance sports touring, trekking and atb use. It has been on the market for over 100 years, being featured in as early as the 1898 catalogue ." On the market for over 100 years - a case of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
  3. Assos chamois creme , AND Sudocrem antiseptic cream . The former was applied liberally to the chamois of the shorts the night before the ride . . . and the latter to my . . . uh . . . derriere when I was dressing for the ride.

Too much information for you? Well that depends - if you’ve suffered from a sore and chafed bum on a long ride, it might give you an insight into a combination that’s worth trying. One thing I do know is that Tall Robbie who did the same ride as me, but afterwards, with far fewer preparations made involuntary wincing noises as he walked, and seemed keen to avoid sitting at all costs . . .

Filed under: Bike Culture, Injury, Too Much Information

7 Responses to “ The Perfect Combination? ”

  1. Jayson on September 2, 2009 at 10:10 pm

    2 sets of biking shorts helps too. just a bit of extra padding to ease the pain.

  2. Von SmallHaussen on September 2, 2009 at 10:54 pm

    chamois and sudocrem? Does it give the same oh so good but oh so bad burning sensation of just using chamois?

  3. Doug Greisen on September 2, 2009 at 11:04 pm

    I agree! Chamois cream is key. Lots of it. I use Chamios Butt’r, but have also used Assos. Both work well for me. Keeping one’s shorts new is good too. And I hav found that a slightly lower saddle than prescribed has helped me too.

  4. Brad Hefta-Gaub on September 2, 2009 at 11:50 pm

    you know what odd…

    I have become so accustomed to my “triathlon” style shorts with thinner to nearly non-existent chamois… that I can’t ride with traditional bike shorts… in fact I have removed the padding completely from a couple of my favorite shorts.

    So… although it may sound counter-intuitive… you may find that LESS padding is more comfortable. You never know. It’s worth a try… (tri?)

  5. Rob D on September 9, 2009 at 8:51 am

    Of course the real solution is stop riding a bike the design of which was fixed in the 19th century by the UCI - get a recumbent instead, comfort, ease, the world hour and speed records - you know it makes sense ;-)

  6. acline on September 10, 2009 at 7:59 pm

    I really like my Hobson seat. I’m not sure how it would be for road cycling. But for basic transportation it’s very comfortable even on very long rides.

    http://hobsonseats.com/

  7. Ailor on September 11, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    I really like my Hobson seat. I’m not sure how it would be for road cycling. But for basic transportation it’s very comfortable even on very long rides.

    http://hobsonseats.com/...