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Tweaking Saddles

03.18.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 6 Comments

“Yesterday, I stopped at the new bike shop for some lube,” I said as I passed my wife while out on a morning ride. “They’ve got some saddles in there you should check out.”

“That’s OK, I feel pretty good now,” she replied.

Wow, that’s a turnaround. Just last week she was complaining that her saddle was so uncomfortable that she wanted to get a new one. Why the sudden change of heart?

Well, after she complained last week, I took a look at the saddle. It’s the original Trek gel that came with the bike when we bought it in 1992. But it hadn’t been on the bike for some years — not until I put it back on after the saddle she’d been riding failed on a New Year’s Day ride. As I suspected, there was a problem with the saddle’s set up. The nose was sticking up. I must not have tightened the set screw tight enough when I installed the saddle, and her riding had pushed down the back, and pushed the nose up.

I got out the carpenter’s level and set about correcting the problem. Just before I finished, Pat came out of the house to take a look.

“It’s perfectly level now,” I told her.

“You know, I’d like it if you lowered the nose a little bit from where it is.” she said.

I complied. “It’s half a bubble down from level,” I said.

Which brings us to the ride that started off this missive. I questioned her closely about the saddle and its feel.

“Lowering the nose made all the difference,” she said. “This feels just fine. You don’t have to change a thing.”

Once again, the big difference made by a small adjustment hit home. But I had my own version of the story. Just before that morning ride, I had once again tweaked my saddle position — edging it back ever so slightly. I’d been doing that over the last two weeks, a little bit at a time. Each time, it felt better, but each time, I thought things could improve even more. This time, it felt pretty good.

I’ve had a chance to confirm that in subsequent days. My rides on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were all good ones, with no discomfort on the seat. This morning, I led a B ride out into the country for a 36-mile round trip. I think I’ve finally found the magic spot. The saddle stays right where it is.

It’s a game of millimeters, but if you have the patience to keep at it, eventually you’ll get it right.

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Categories // Bike fit Tags // saddles

Noseless Saddles – My Two Cents Worth

06.30.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 17 Comments

Caveat:  I do not own a noseless saddle, and I don’t know anyone who does. I did do some research to determine whether they’re the kind of thing road bikers would like. These are my conclusions based on that research. Take what I say here with a grain of salt.

A recent New York Times article extolls the virtues of noseless saddles. They mostly eliminate pressure on the perineum (the soft tissues down below) and make for a more comfortable ride. They also prevent erectile dysfunction in men that can result from repeatedly squishing your naughty bits against a saddle’s nose.

Nexride – it pivots.

I was intrigued by the article, and followed its links to different saddle makers to learn more about what’s out there. There are a lot more of them — by more different makers — than I thought.

Some offer what amounts to a bench. The Nexride is one of these, but pivots 15 degrees left to right as your butt flexes with each pedal stroke.

Others make a special effort to cushion the sit bones. The Hobson Easy Seat is one such example. Two padded cushions cradle the sit bones, and there is no saddle nose to squish the perineum.

Easyseat

Or, the seat could be shaped like a crescent, to cushion the sit bones in a slightly different way. The ISM Sport model exemplifies these types.

One recurring theme soon became apparent:

Noseless saddles are mostly for upright riding.

The saddle websites say so. Here’s just a sample of what you can find:

The ISM Sport.

The Hobson Easy Seat: “NOTE: The best position for the seat is sitting upright with handle bars positioned upward.”

Comfort Saddle: “The Comfort Saddle is best suited for cyclists who prefer to sit upright.”

ISM Sport: “Designed for more upright types of riding such as hybrids or light trail riding.”

But most readers of this blog are roadies. We don’t sit upright on our bikes, except to take a few minutes rest during a long ride. So as good as these saddles sound, they might not be the solution for us.

However, one of the companies in the noseless saddle business — ISM — might have the answer. They make the upright kinds of saddles just as their competitors do, but they also make oddly-shaped saddles with a split nose that is supposed to accomplish the same thing — take pressure off the perineum.

ISM Adamo Road.

ISM produces a range of different saddles, geared for riders from time trialists to recreational road riders. The saddle pictured here is the ISM Adamo Road. It has two “arms” in front with a relatively wide gap between them — and the arms do not meet at the front. The design is supposed to prevent blood loss from compression of the soft tissue, as well as keep weight off the perineum and on the sit bones.

A check of various equipment review sites finds anecdotal support for the benefits of the ISM saddle. It boils down to this: The wide cutout between the two nose parts eases pressure on the soft tissues. The fact that there is still a “nose” of sorts to the saddle allows riders to have a similar sensation as a nosed saddle.

ISM saddles retail for a low of $119 to a high of $224, depending on the model. I’ve said before that I’m happy with my $25 WTB saddle. But when it’s time to replace it, I’ll be looking closely at an ISM.
You can find a current selection of ISM Saddles here.

Update 2024: Many of these saddles don’t seem to be available any longer. You can find a selection of Noseless bike seats on Amazon here.

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Categories // Equipment Tags // saddles

WTB Speed V Saddle (Review)

05.13.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 12 Comments

It’s been a familiar pattern: Ride, get sore bottom. Ride, get sore bottom. What to do about it?

I’ve fiddled with different saddles.

Three years ago, there was a Trek gel saddle of some kind, that I appropriated from my wife’s bike when she got a new saddle for herself (an Avocet gel — too bad Avocet is no more). I knew the Forte Classic from Performance would be a big improvement. Nope. Then, the Specialized Alias that came with my new bike seemed to hold some promise. Until I did some really long rides on it, and started looking for an alternative. The Selle San Marco Ponza was the answer to my prayers — for about an hour.

Most of these saddles had one thing in common: Little padding. So when I decided to spring for a new saddle, I looked for something with a little more cush. A couple of lines in particular offer saddles with more padding than I’ve been used to: Serfas and WTB. I liked the looks of the WTB Speed V, so a couple of weeks ago, I paid a visit to the local Performance store, and bought one. The fact that it was on sale for $25 helped in the decision-making process, too.

The Speed V is wider across the back than the Ponza, which I figured I must need. I liked the feel of the Ponza’s narrow seat, but maybe a slightly wider platform would offer better support. The Speed V also has the distinctive WTB “Love Channel” (how could you not like that name?) — not a complete cutout, but not flat, like the Ponza.

It’s a comfy saddle, no doubt about it. I immediately liked the feel of the seat on my butt. The wide part of the seat has padding that gives, without being overly soft. The nose of the saddle is also padded more than I’ve been used to, which was welcome when climbing.

The first couple of rides were great. I actually went 16 and 18 miles without thinking about the saddle. But I knew the acid test would come on a long ride — something well over one hour.

That came last weekend at the Armadillo Hill Country Classic. I rode the 50-mile route, and was on the bike for over three hours, with only two short breaks. And I’ll admit it — there was some discomfort. However, I’m coming to the conclusion that the problem is not so much with the saddle as it is with my riding position.

The part that gets sore is my taint — that area between the boys and the uh, exit. On the Armadillo, I found myself standing on the pedals while coasting, just to take some weight off the taint. And it occurred to me that I shouldn’t be putting weight there anyway. After all, when getting fitted for a saddle by companies that use an ass-o-meter, or whatever it’s called, the key measurement is the distance between the sit bones — not where your taint hits the saddle.

I started deliberately putting more pressure on my sit bones, and sinking them into the Speed V’s padding. It helped. Ah ha! so this is the pelvic tilt I’ve heard about from time to time. Pressing down on the sit bones causes the pelvis to tilt forward, and relieve pressure on the taint.

Problem is, I’ve been riding the other way so long, it’s going to take some effort on my part to get the tilt down to where it’s second nature.

I figured I’d help it by adjusting the tilt of the saddle. I’ve always been meticulous about keeping the saddle level. After the Armadillo, I dropped the nose about half a bubble on the carpenter’s level. No definite conclusions yet.

For the time being, I’ll keep the Speed V. One of the reasons I bought it at Performance was their no questions asked return policy, so I do have other saddle options if the Speed V isn’t the answer to my saddle woes.

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Categories // Equipment, Review Tags // Review, saddles, WTB Speed V

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