Saddle recommendations
Hi
I am looking for some suggestions for a new saddle. I am currently using the ISM Adamo (2012 model I think). I like it quite a bit, as it prevents the man part numbness issue. However, it chafes the inner thighs quite badly. I do use body glide, vaseline and sometime DZ Nuts, nothing seems to help much.
Does anyone have any recommendations of a saddle that has the cut-out benefit of the Adamo but without the chafing?
Thanks,
David
0
Comments
http://www.cobbcycling.com/shop/triathlon-saddles/fifty-five_jof
I personally use the Cobb Plus since the Fifty Five was just released a few years back.
I have been using the SMP by Selle for a year. Comfortable for tri's, has a cut out and no chafing. The saddle also says "Extra" on it.
Some thoughts on saddles… several decades ago, articles appeared in the urological literature associating bike riding with perineal nerve impingement, resulting numbness, and even infertility. In response Georgeana Terry - a woman! - invented a bike saddle with a hole in the middle. This solved the nerve impingement problem, but the saddle was too wide and heavy for "real" cyclists to consider using. As saddle makers caught on, they started to put holes and/or depressions in the center of their standard road racing saddles. Those were too narrow, shallow, or short to be of much use, so makers like Cobb and Ism came up with the split nose, which allowed for a wider, longer depression, but presented issues of being too wide in the mid portion, causing the rubbing issues which started this thread.
There are three elements saddle makers are trying to juggle in their designs: 1. Being wide enough in the rear part of the saddle for the average man's "sit bones" to rest on. This is less important to us as triathletes on our TT bikes, as we do no really sit very much on those bony protuberances - we are leaning too far forward for them to be bearing much weight. 2. A hole or depression in the middle of the saddle which is at once wide long and deep enough to prevent (a) perineal nerve impingement and (b) chafing on our midline parts - scrotum and perineum. 3. Narrow enough in the mid portion so that our inner thighs ("upper hamstrings") don't rub against the saddle with each pedal stroke - that's why saddles have historically had their half hour glass configuration.
Cobb and Adamo have been playing with these three variables over the past five years or so to try and get it all right. We each have our own top priorities. When looking at any saddle, I'd suggest measuring the depth, length, and width of the central depression. You'll find in some traditional saddle makers that this is much narrower and shorter than what Cobb and Adamo/Ism have come up with in some of their models. Next, measure the saddle width at both the mid portion (the end of the "neck") and at the widest portion of the rear. These will help you figure out how it might affect inner thigh chafing, and if its wide enough for your sit bones (IMO the least important factor).
The Adamo Attack has a width of 110 mm at its widest point, which is 2.5 centimeters less than any other Adamo model, and all Cobb models. Yet that's still 40 mm wider than the width of my sit bones, giving me a stable platform for those times when I am sitting up - which is not that often. And the depression width of 45 mm (the same as Terry's original "Liberator") is wider than the 30 mm which seems standard on most traditional road saddles (and which Terry herself went to when she started trying to make a normal looking saddle).
Thanks everyone. I hadn't heard of Cobb saddles before. The Gen 2 and FiftyFive JOF, and the Adamo Attack all look like they could be worth trying out.
Has anyone used the Specialized Sitero or the Dash? At $500 the Dash is probably beyond what I want to spend on a saddle mind you...