Just Thought I Would Butt In

Comfort is a big deal when it comes to cycling.  Anyone who rides, from a very casual rider to a seasoned pro, knows how bad it is to be on a horribly uncomfortable bike.  Being comfortable or uncomfortable can be the difference between winning a race or running out of steam.  It can mean getting to your destination on time or stopping every few seconds to adjust in a hopeless attempt to make the pain end.  For beginning riders it can be the difference between catching the cycling bug or forsaking the bike forever to a life of collecting cobwebs in the garage.

I don't mean to tell you fellows how to do your job, but I don't think my saddle is supposed to feel like this!

In my experience, the biggest hurdle to reaching a decent level of comfort for most riders is their saddle.  There isn't necessarily a rule of thumb about what makes a good saddle, and nearly every person will have a different opinion of which saddle is the best.  Unfortunately, I will not reveal myself as the holder of absolute saddle wisdom, handing down the secret to saddle nirvana for anyone that reads this.

What I can offer, however, is my recent journey to find the right saddle for me, and hopefully it will be of benefit to anyone out there who is constantly seeking more posterior comfort.

Keep reading to find out more!

Like my bike, but not quite as cool.

My main bike is a Specialized Allez.  I love it and have slowly but surely made it my own.  I have had to change the handlebars to something more comfortable, I have changed the stem, changed the wheels, and have made some other mechanical changes that I will get to in a later post (I'm not posting a real picture of my Allez yet because it will give the secret away before I post about it).  But the most important, yet most frustrating, process has been trying to find a saddle that I can sit on and just forget about.

While I don't exactly believe it yet, I hear that it is possible for a rider to find a saddle that is comfortable enough to endure long rides without pain or discomfort.  This has certainly not happened for me, and I am starting to think it is only wishful thinking.

This is apparently what Google says Utopia looks like, but I don't see any perfect saddles.  I also didn't imagine that flying, greased up, silvery dolphins would signal Utopia.

Initially I had a stock Specialized Rival saddle on my bike.  It is a relatively conventionally shaped flat saddle, but has a somewhat shallow channel running along the middle.  The idea behind the channel is that it will keep the saddle's top from pressing too hard on the rider's "sensitive areas", which can cause numbness or pain.  When I first started to take riding more seriously and aimed to become faster I was only riding about 10-15 miles, and the Rival seemed okay.  It wasn't super comfortable but it would do.  That is until I started to ride even longer distances.  I guess 15 miles was my limit on the Rival, because a mile more started to cause me massive pain.  From what I can tell the saddle starts to sag a bit more at that point and causes perineum pressure.  For those that don't know, the perineum is the "sensitive area" I was referring to earlier, and if you have felt saddle pain you probably have an idea what I am talking about.

It is hard to see until you sit on it, but this thing sags!  Say no to the sag if you like your man bag!

So I had a problem.  I wanted to ride longer but I just could not tolerate being on the bike because of the saddle pain.  I began scouring the internet for saddle info, looking for a magical saddle that would ease my pain.  Of course, this is when I discovered that finding a saddle is about trial and error and no one on the entire internet could help me because I, like everyone else, have a unique derriere.

I began to realize, however, that many people seemed to love the Fizik Arione.  I once had an old saddle that came with a bike my dad gave me, and the Arione's flat profile and thin, but supportive padding reminded me of it.  I was sure that the Fizik saddle would do the job, so I went to a nearby bike shop and got a great deal on one.  I tried it out a bit at the shop, it seemed okay, so I headed home ready to enjoy my bike again.

I went through a long process of adjusting my saddle, trying to find a sweet spot to park my rump on.  I did this on a trainer because I was still having to deal with some cold spring weather, and it seemed like I had it dialed.  Long trainer sessions were no problem and I thought I found my dream saddle.  Then the weather got a bit nicer and I decided to give the saddle a try out on the road.  That is when I discovered it was an absolute ass-hatchet.  No matter what I did in the ensuing days I was in massive pain.  I was lucky enough to get the saddle from a shop that allowed saddle returns, and I was back onto the Rival saddle so I could get in even a miniscule amount of miles.

The Ass-Hatchet in its full glory.  Now including free vasectomies!

In my state of depression I decided to continue my search for saddles online.  And then it happened, I found a saddle that almost every reviewer seemed to love!  It was like a magical saddle that made everyone love riding!

The saddle in question was the Specialized Romin.  So far I had been trying flat saddles, but the Romin was quite curved with a kicked up tail.  It looked like it was designed to actually fit a human's undercarriage, so I ran out to my local shop and picked up a Romin Comp Gel.  It had only a thin layer of padding, but it also had a cutout (basically a giant hole in the saddle meant to keep the saddle from touching those pesky sensitive areas).  This saddle seemed like it would be perfect.  Finding the right setup was quick and painless, and I was extremely comfortable on the bike during my excursions into longer mile rides.  I was getting up to the 30 mile mark and still felt pretty good.  A little soreness, but nothing I couldn't deal with.

Just when I thought we were friends...

Then something sad happened...the middle of the saddle's shell cracked in half.  The roads I ride on aren't exactly smooth, and they managed to kill my saddle.  In a way this wasn't so bad though.  I was getting to the point where I could feel some soreness on my newly extended rides, and it seemed to stem from a bit too much padding where my sitbones (or less cordially referred to assbones) were resting.  I decided that the Romin was the right shape, but maybe a little less padding would do the job.

I don't have a picture of my broken saddle, so we will just pretend it went something like this.  It caused about as much pain as a seatpost up the arse when it broke.

Enter the Romin Expert!  Basically the same as the Romin Comp, utilizing the same shell, but with titanium saddle rails and a bit less padding.  It was perfect, no pressure points and it even managed to be a bit lighter.  My rides were back to being fun and painless, and my fitness began to dramatically improve.  I started to increase the frequency of my rides and 30 mile rides were the norm on my easier days.  And that is when yet another saddle related problem began to occur.

It just looks like the perfect rump rest.

I was aiming to ride 50 miles for the first time, and had to shorten my ride as I noticed a pretty obnoxious level of pain in my leg.  Not sure what it was I decided to just head home to check it out.  When I finally got a look at my leg I realized there was a groove ripped into my skin!  Needless to say it wasn't pretty and it was extremely painful.  I had no idea what caused this to happen.  I was wearing my most comfortable shorts and hadn't changed anything.

That red arrow is pointing to the root of all of my life's problems.  That area of a saddle is generally referred to as a thigh glide, and on the Romin it is not my friend!

When inspecting things further I realized this gash in my leg was caused by the edge of the saddle rubbing on my thigh with every pedal stroke, which in turn rubbed my shorts against my skin a bit.  Apparently upping the miles was a bad idea and my saddle made sure I got the hint.  The thigh glides on the side of the Romin were just to shallow and left a perfect edge to rub on my thigh (which of course is super strong and appears to have been chiseled by Zeus himself).

My legs look something like this, but...you know...even BIGGER!!!

So, now I find myself with the best fitness I have ever had and a saddle that starts to rip my leg off as I try to increase my miles and improve as much as possible before my leap into the world of bike racing.  As much as I hate to end a post on a cliffhanger, I have a new saddle on its way.  Once again it is a Fizik, but it is an Aliante (More specifically an Aliante Versus).  The Aliante Versus is somewhat similar in shape to the Romin, but it doesn't have a cutout and it has deeper, less jagged thigh glides.  It does have a relatively deep channel, so hopefully that will keep any pain or numbness issues at bay.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that a curvy shape, a full shell, and a channel will lead to a good result, but when it comes to saddles who really knows what will happen?

I really hope this saddle will help.  I am really getting sick of paying for Botox butt injections.  More detailed pictures to come in my review! YAY!!!

The good news is that I will be posting a review of the saddle once I get some decent miles on it and perhaps the review will help any other riders out there on their own endless saddle search.