Searching for the Perfect Saddle

Comfort.

Let's face it, that is probably the biggest factor in how much someone participates and enjoys cycling.  If getting on a bicycle causes pain somewhere, most people don't want to get on a bike very much.  The story goes as follows: person remembers that riding their bike was a lot of fun when they were a kid, they dust off their old MTB/roadie/cruiser and pump up the tires, they go for a ride Saturday or Sunday afternoon, everything goes well at first, then there's this pain in the hands/feet/knees/shoulders/rear, they go home, it takes a day or two for the pain to subside, they forget about the pain, they ride again some other weekend, the pain comes back, this happens a few times, so they roll the old bike back in the garage, and they call it a day.  Riding a bike was fun when they were a kid, but unless they're just going for an easy spin in the neighborhood or the park, it's not really for them anymore.  Cycling becomes just something to do with the kids for a couple days here and there in the summer.  The bike spends most of its time with soggy tires and a layer of dust on the saddle. *Sniff

What a lot of people don't realize, even people that do a lot of riding, is that serious discomfort on a bicycle isn't supposed to be a part of the activity.  Unless you're really pushing yourself physically or riding for a long period of time or in adverse conditions, you shouldn't be "suffering."  Your bike itself shouldn't cause you pain.

Now, there are a lot of reasons why you could be uncomfortable on your bike depending on what hurts.  Getting a proper bike fit can solve a lot of those problems.  But, one of the most common problems, especially for women, is pain in the rear.  While sometimes this is caused by saddle height or position, usually the real problem is the saddle itself.  For women that ride road or mountain bikes, this problem is even more common than it is for those who ride upright commuters, city bikes, or cruisers.  Why? Because the saddles don't fit.

Usually, we figure out pretty quickly that our saddles are the problem, but oftentimes we don't know why they are a problem.  Many people think that there isn't enough padding so they switch out the stock saddle for one with more squish.  However, the most common reason for the discomfort is that the saddle is too narrow.  Ok, let's talk anatomy for a minute.

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When we sit down, our weight is distributed over two points of bone on our pelvis called the ischial tuberosities or more commonly "sit bones."  If we're not sitting correctly, for example slouching, that puts pressure on parts of the body that aren't supposed to be weight supporting- like the lower back.  When we're on a bike saddle that doesn't match up with our sit bones, the pressure is often on our tender regions and can cause all sorts of unpleasant sensations.

The thing is, most people don't know this, so they suffer along for years on saddles that don't fit, women especially.  Why? Because most saddles out there are designed for people with a smaller distance between their sit bones- men.  Yep, one of the things that set men and women apart are their pelvises.  For obvious reasons, women generally have a wider pelvis and therefore a greater distance between their ischial tuberosities.  The distance between your sit bones has nothing to do with your weight or whether you've had children (though women may see a change in distance after childbirth).  Even if you are super skinny, you can still have a sit bone distance that would be called wide.  It's just your skeletal structure.  Oh by the way, fellas, you can have wider sit bones too.

If your saddle isn't supporting your sit bones, you end up sitting on your nerves and soft tissue which over time can cause serious pain or numbness.  For me, a long ride on a narrow saddle causes a tingling sensation and pain in my right leg that eventually reaches my foot.  A nerve is being pinched.  If this sounds familiar, you may be using a saddle that is too narrow as well.

So, the first step to saddle comfort is getting one that is the right width.  But, you have to find out what the correct width is, right?  To do this you have a couple of options.  No. 1 go to your local shop that does saddle fits (Specialized dealers often have a nifty setup for this purpose) or No. 2 figure it out yourself.  If No. 2 is what you are left with, there are a few ways to go about this.  You can put a piece of tin foil on a carpeted step and rock back and forth on your tuberocities to leave an impression.  Or you can do something similiar with memory foam, damp tissue, or a bag filled with a little flour.  I tried just about all those methods before I was able to get a clear impression of my sit bones.  After I had an impression, I measured the distance between the two centers of the impressions in millimeters.  That is my sit bone measurement.  Lo and behold, I finally knew exactly why I was getting pain in my right leg.  Nearly all of my saddles were too narrow, a good 20 millimeters too narrow.  All my weight was being supported by my soft tissue while my sit bones were in contact with just the edges of the saddle.

Next, I set about locating road saddles that matched up with my measurements.  Reading through forums and getting advice from other ladies directed me to a few different companies who made saddles with the dimensions that I needed.  It turns out, that while many saddle companies make women specific models, not many make ones that would actually work.  In many cases, they're just a smidge wider with a touch of pink in the design.  While those saddles may work for women with narrow sit bones, they aren't going to help most women out anymore than the mens saddles.  My measurements fell on the wider end of the range so that left me with only a few options.  From there, I narrowed my choices down to two companies- Selle Italia and Brooks.  There were a few other choices out there, but they either fell right on the line of width (I wanted to have some wiggle room) or I just didn't care for their appearance.

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Selle Italia's Lady Gel Flow seemed to be the best option from the company's range.  I heard a lot of good things about it and thought it's appearance would match up well with a road bike.  So, I picked one up.  Saddles are like shoes.  You won't know it fits until you try them.  Alas, while this saddle works great for a lot of women out there, we didn't get along very well.  I tried it out over a week's time on long and short distances and each ride resulted in discomfort.  While the width was right, other aspects of the saddle didn't work well for me.  One of those things was actually the length.  The shorter nose limited where I could sit forward and back.  Another problem was the padding.  For me, the three layers of plastic, gel, and leather were too much.  There was too much give and not enough support.

So, my next option was something from the Brooks line.  However, before I committed to the granddaddy of saddles, I had an idea.  I already own a leather saddle with the same dimensions as the Brooks B17 model.  It was on the Varsity.  So, I popped it off the Varsity (which won't come out of the garage until the weather clears anyway) and set it up on the Revenio.  While it certainly isn't a traditional road saddle, it had the advantage of having the correct dimensions while lacking all that extra padding.  Presto!  We had a winner!  While it didn't have all the bells and whistles of the other saddles out there, it was exactly what I needed to have a comfortable ride.

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Now that I know this style is what works, I'll be putting an order in for a Brooks B17 in black.  As comfy as the Varsity's saddle is, brown just doesn't work.

Some of you may be saying, "Gah!  How could you put a heavy old school Brooks on your modern road bike?"  Well, yes, Brooks' saddles are much heavier than other road saddles out there.  But, I'm a recreational cyclist who has no interest in getting up a hill or past a line before anyone else.  My bike is a base aluminum model.  It's not the fastest nor the lightest to begin with.  As to the style, well attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder and I happen to like the vintage look.  In fact, my husband's Ridley Icarus came stock with a riveted saddle and it looks just fine.  But the bottom line is, this saddle is the most compatible for my needs and comfort is the ultimate goal.  On the plus side, Brooks saddles have an extremely long life so not only will it be comfortable, it will basically last forever.  It will probably outlast the bike itself.

The way I look at it, finding the right bicycle saddle is like finding your soul mate.  For some of us, it doesn't take very long and they're the first one we meet.  But, for most of us, it takes a little searching and a little "dating around."  Eventually, if we keep looking, the right match will turn up.  It may not be one that everyone else agrees with or likes, some may even say it's unattractive.  But, as long as the two of you are happy together, that's all that matters.