Bike Fits and Sore Bits

The best piece of advice I have ever been given was this:

“The best place to spend money is on the things which you sit on; your shorts and your saddle”

Until you’ve ridden a long way in shorts which don’t sit right, you won’t know what I’m talking about. Cycling shorts, you see have a strategically placed piece of padding (a chamois). Don’t be riding a bike in denim jeans with those unforgiving seams, or your running shorts unless you want lacerated lady bits. You can get away with it on short rides, no fear – if you want to go to the pub in your Daisy Dukes, go for it, just don’t go on a long or hard training ride and for God’s sake, don’t go out in the rain in them!

To be honest I’ve never suffered terribly with saddle soreness, the odd day of rubbage after spending hours in the saddle, or during a 4 day ride to Paris, which is bound to smart a little.  I’ve heard some horrific stories of people with weeping open sores. My top tip – Sudocream. Don’t waste money on expensive chamois creams, Sudocream is designed specifically for nappy rash, which is essentially what saddle sore is right? Before/during/after. Soft as a baby’s bum.

Invest in a pair of good quality cycling shorts/tights and prevent your lady garden ending up like a warzone.

The other thing to spend time getting right is your saddle, which brings me to my latest anecdote.

A few weeks back I arranged a bike fit with my local tri shop, I have a good relationship with them luckily. I had been having problems getting down onto the drops on my road bike, and had suspected maybe I needed a longer stem. I decided to get a professional opinion on my whole set up. The result was a new longer stem, a slightly raised seat, being told to ride with me heels down, and also being told that my (fairly new and expensive) bike was a little on the small side for me. Alas a new longer stem helped massively, and my new instruction on riding position gave me a touch more power.

I went away, but the following week my left knee was a tad sore – I’d forgotten to mention this the week prior, so the bike shop owner checked out my cleat position on my shoes, and adjusted it slightly. He looked at me ride on the turbo from the front and noted that I drop my right shoulder, I concurred, “I’ve always done that, I think it’s where I lean slightly on my saddle to avoid rubbing”

He told me that wasn’t ideal, whereby I was then forced to tell him the real reason why I lean slightly – a piercing no less. After the embarrassed sniggering passed (mine) I was chided for not telling him this the week prior. “How can we help if we only know half the story?”

So we discussed different saddle options, and it seemed logical that the best type for me would be the type with a hole in the centre. So I left my saddle as collateral and went home that evening with a really ugly blue demo saddle to try out for a few days.

After a club ride the next evening, and consequently a sore under carriage, I put on my spare saddle which seemed much better than even the saddle I’d been using for the last year (albeit not perfect) I took back the demo saddle and said I hadn’t got on with it, he seemed surprised and looking at it’s geometry, it looked fairly wide even for my child bearing womanly hips.

There were other saddles I could try but the next one he suggested was out on demo at the moment, and if I’m honest, was the ugliest saddle I ever did see. I said that I was expecting a “Thunderbolt” effect when I finally found the saddle I got on with. I thought deep down this wasn’t going to happen, but still I wasn’t prepared to part with any more money until I found something that stopped me leaning. I joked that maybe I’d just get the pliers out and solve all the issues that way.

So since then, I’ve been riding my own, comfortable 90% of the time, continuing to pitch slightly to the right to avoid chaffing.

I had been discussing the scenario with a friend I train with, who said I could try out one of his he wasn’t using, so I said yes please. Got to keep trying right?

So this morning I put on his saddle and the most unexpected thing occurred:

THUNDERBOLT!

Wow, I could sit straight on the saddle and not feel any discomfort, I’d been riding as I have for such a long time I had forgotten how it was to ride “properly”  I rode over some rumble strips seated to test it out (I normally lift off the seat to avoid wincing) and nothing but a  smooth comfy ride.

The saddle is similar design to the one I demo’s but flatter and more narrow and seems to suit my...erm...shape better. So I can forget about the pliers now and keep my ironmongery and hopefully continue my cycling habit saddle sore free!