Currently, on my race bike I ride a Fizik Arione Tri 2 (http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/components/saddles/product/review-fizik-arione-tri-2-saddle-30846/) - this is the most comfortable saddle I have been able to find, although I have it at a crazy angle, at about a slope of 25% to the front. Looks odd - but it works.
It's a problem. Okay, I'm big boned for a cyclist, and have wide sit bones (http://yoga.about.com/od/howtospeakyoga/g/SitBones.htm http://www.artscyclery.com/learningcenter/measuresitbonewidth.html) but how can this still be a problem after all this time? How can there not be a saddle that suits me, someone who has done a lot of miles on different bikes? Clearly, I am a lot of kg heavier than the average pro cyclist whom most saddles are aimed at, but this situation seems crazy to me.
And it's not just me - many pros suffer from the same problem. One recent well publicized issue was with seasoned pro Ivan Basso who missed the 2013 Giro D'Italia with a golf-ball sized sore and ended up with a month off the bike - an absolute disaster for a professional bike rider.
I've tried a lot of saddles - The Specialized Romin, Brooks, the list goes on, but I have yet to find something that really suits me on any bike,
Fast forward to now and I have a huge problem. Currently I am riding a fully laden touring tandem around southeast Asia,
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| Fully loaded tandem touring |
There is a routine that we are into. For the first 10 minutes the bike seems heavy and twitchy, and the legs are cold and stiff to get going. After a while we get into a routine. Then the hands start to get sore - holding all that weight on standard road handle bars is tricky and not for the faint of heart. The saddle I have chosen is the standard one that came with my bottom of the line Claud Butler mountain bike in 2006 (150GBP new for the entire bike - similar to this http://www.evanscycles.com/products/claud-butler/cape-wrath-2005-mountain-bike-ec004575?style=5801) - it is a heavily padded wide saddle, and in my tests prior to leaving on this Asia tour, it was the only one that was comfortable over 50 miles. After about 30 minutes the bottom feels something - a quick shuffle and it's ok again for 10 minutes. Then the time between shuffles gets shorter and shorter, decreasing to me needing to perform the bottom shuffle every minute. After more than 4 hours on the bike, it becomes extremely painful all the time, with the only relief coming from a short break. This limits the distance we can ride, and the pain that I am in after riding is done.
Interestingly, despite the angle of the saddle being tipped crazy forward (25-30% - I have played with this a lot), the pain really goes away when cycling up hill. Maybe it's not going away, and then focus shifts to the legs as we struggle to get that beast of a bike up another hill.
Another approach I have tried, is simply going slowly. Going hard builds lactate - I find this on my road bike - when I sprint, the lactate in the big muscles - backside, quads, hamstrings - builds up quickly - and the pain comes in more quickly. By going slowly I am playing with a delicate (!!) equation - there will be a longer time in the saddle - so more time for the ass to hurt over. By going quicker, there is less time for the ass to hurt, but the lactate builds up quicker, and the pain comes on quicker. When the pain comes on more, more breaks are required and ends with a longer ride distance.
The last few days, as we have gone over the 1000 mile mark in this trip, the pain day by day has come on quicker and harder, and I have to do something. I have been imagining new designs saddles as I am riding along.
I have ordered a saddle from kickstarter that will be arriving to me in 2 months time - the Infinty Saddle (http://www.infinitycycling.us/) - this is a new approach to saddle design and does away with padding and uses a broad frame - when this arrives I will be providing a review.
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| Infinity Saddle |
Of course, the Sheldon Brown site provides an excellent review of saddles (http://sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html) and the one that I am most interested in with my experience right now is the concept of split saddles - they are cast aside by him, but there are plenty out there - with names such as Spongy Wonder, and Moon saddle (http://www.bikeforums.net/fifty-plus-50/150921-has-anyone-used-spongy-wonder-spiderflex-seat.html). The reason they are rejected from the racing world seems to be due to the nose being essential for control, leaning and steering. This may not be a problem on a touring tandem.
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| Spongy Wonder |
And then of course there is the Brooks Champion Saddle - a sprung leather saddle that is well loved by many tourers.
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| Brooks Champion Flyer |
I will be trying different saddles as I can get my hands on them - at my current state I sill be struggling to continue riding in a few weeks so need to do something drastic.
I've snapped a few images of some saddles that I've seen on working bikes in Thailand - how these guys can continue pedaling working bikes and pedocabs just defeats me! Maybe I am being soft and need to "Zitto e Pedala" - shut up and pedal!
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| PedoCab in Thailand |
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| Close up of PedoCab saddle, Thailand |
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| That's gotta hurt! Thailand |
For me it has now reached desperation point. Today as we were cycling along I saw a manky discarded broken flip flop on the side of the road. I jumped off the bike, ran down the road, picked it up and put it on my saddle. The result? Heaven!!
It is now taped on to my saddle, and working so much better than without. I don't know how long it will last, and if the comfort level will stay, but I will be experimenting as much as I can to find something acceptable in the forthcoming months - watch this space!
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| The discarded flip flop taped onto my saddle |
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| Pleasure! Relief! Ahhhhh! |
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