cycling seat.

john_doe.

Just bought a spin bike and have to say I like it apart from one thing. The saddle gives me a sore arse. Can anyone recommend a good gel seat cover for a bike?

Darkglasses

Padded cycling shorts are a much better solution if you don't already have them. Gel covers aren't good for much. A well fitting pair of cycle shorts and a decent saddle should be all you need

nc19

any particular make of seat you would recommend?

ive gone through 2 so far and my arse keeps getting more sore.....

cycleoin86

nc19 wrote: »

any particular make of seat you would recommend?

ive gone through 2 so far and my arse keeps getting more sore.....

Did you fit the saddle the right way around?

What saddle do you have on your bicycle?

bambergbike

Saddle sizing depends (mainly) on two things.

1) How far apart are your sitbones?
Get a piece of corrguated cardboard and sit on it, on a hard surface. Put as much pressure on the cardboard as you can, if you're sitting on a step on wooden or metal stairs, use your hands to really pull yourself down. You should end up with a piece of cardboard with two dents. Measure the distance between them.

2) How far foward do you lean when sitting on the saddle? In a really low, aero, TT position with your back parallel to the top tube, the number you get in (1) will be the width of saddle you need. On a completely upright sit up and beg bike, you need a saddle up to five centimetres wider. Everything else is somewhere in between.

If your sit bones are squarely on the saddle, there will be less pressure on your delicate bits. If your saddle is already the right size and you are sitting squarely on your sit bones and not squashing anything delicate, add padded shorts and make sure the insert in the shorts is big enough (or the saddle small enough) to avoid putting any weight on the edge of the insert.

It can be worth having a squishy gel saddle on a bike you often use without padded shorts, but the combination of squishy gel saddle and squishy gel shorts insert can spell trouble - you end up with material bunching up and exerting pressure where it shouldn't.

nc19

cycleoin86 wrote: »

Did you fit the saddle the right way around?

What saddle do you have on your bicycle?

p1.jpg

p2.jpg

p3.jpg

there you go

thebouldwhacker

Two suggestions,
1- your not used to cycling much and you need to harden up your arse a bit. This can take a few spins and is a pain in the arse (pardon the pun) but will pass and is worth it.
2- you are used to cycling and so this gel saddle is too soft. It looks like a nice comfy saddle to head to the shops on but any more than that and you will become uncomfortable. A bit like having an sofa armchair as a desk chair, comfy at the start but a pain in the arse (pardon the pun) after a while.

Also by the look of the pic the saddle isn't level, sloping a tad up in the nose, level your seat and this may help.
Good luck.

diomed

That saddle looks too wide, certainly too wide at the front, and without touching it it or sitting on it I would say it looks too soft. Soft "comfy" saddles are uncomfortable.

You need a narrow, firm saddle, something like this
http://www.treefortbikes.com/images/raw/SA5302.jpg

bambergbike

Maybe you have a saddle that doesn't and never will work for you. Maybe the actual saddle itself is fine but your bike fit isn't.

If you have the wrong saddle, it could be too wide, too narrow, too soft or too hard. If you have the right saddle, but in the wrong position, it could be too high, too low, too far forward, too far back, or tilted too far up or down. Or some other aspect of your bike fit could be wrong. Your handlebars could be too high, or your stem the wrong length.

Your saddle is quite a bit lower than your handlebars in the image. That which might mean that the saddle is taking a bit more of your weight than it should be, because you aren't using your hands to support yourself on the bike. Making changes there could trigger new issues like sore wrists, or sore shoulders, or a sore back, so it isn't a magic solution. But it might be worth adjusting your bike fit so that your weight is distributed more evenly across the bars, the pedals, and the saddle rather than resting mostly all on the saddle most of the time.

You could try asking your LBS, or experimenting, or just waiting for the problem to go away as you toughen up, or getting new shorts and seeing if they help.

Seweryn

Good suggestions above plus I would add the bike / bike fit itself. From looking at the setup I believe that either the frame size is to large or the bike incorrectly fit for you, so start from there. And then try a different saddle. This one is cheap and has very good reviews.

nc19

i am new to cycling and the bike frame is prob 2" bigger than id like but it was a second hand bike and i wanted to make sure i would enjoy it/stick with it before i spent a fortune on a new bike. im still getting used to the bike and find im still highering the seat as i go.

thanks for the suggestions

the saddle in the pic is not the saddle that came with the bike. that one was skinnier and i think now, a bit more comfortable!! ill stick it back on tomorrow and see where im at then

cycleoin86

nc19 wrote: »

i am new to cycling and the bike frame is prob 2" bigger than id like but it was a second hand bike and i wanted to make sure i would enjoy it/stick with it before i spent a fortune on a new bike. im still getting used to the bike and find im still highering the seat as i go.

thanks for the suggestions

the saddle in the pic is not the saddle that came with the bike. that one was skinnier and i think now, a bit more comfortable!! ill stick it back on tomorrow and see where im at then

I worked in a bike shop growing up and when people were looking at buying their first "serious" road bike / MTB one of the first things that they would comment on was the size of the saddles, i.e. how small, stiff and unpadded they were.

I think thebouldwhacker is right... You just need to get used to the smaller saddles, the couch at the desk analogy is a good one.

Big gel saddles / covers are grand for a spin to the shops but over greater distances they are a nightmare. Being big, gel, forgiving means some cushioning for your arse but it leads to a lot more movement which will end up giving you a bad back at worst or a sore back on a long ride at best.

There's a reason why the pro's and serious cyclists who cover big miles don't use big gel saddles.

Stick it out with the original saddle and you might be surprised how quickly you get used to it!