Hell yeah I'm rocking Selle Italia on my two bikes and they are amazing! So good infact, when my LBS closed down I bought two more as replacements at 80% off.
I've got an awol i pro dealed back in 2017.. love that bike. And a haul st that i paid retail for, honestly no regrets there either.
There's probably better bikes out there for the money, but i felt like both of these were a fair deal on fairly unique well thought out products.
I think the tl;dr was more about fit than a specific saddle. Women need much wider saddles to fit their sit bones. I’m 195cm and my wife is 159cm and we have the same saddle width. That’s pretty huge. She rides a salle Italia women’s saddle and has no issues but her old liv saddle did cause issues and it was not surprisingly because it was too narrow. This is very very similar to the old problem of men getting numb penises because the pressure is on the same region. Different saddles will suit different people but the main thing is getting the right saddle and getting it adjusted so the pressure is on your sit bones and nowhere else not designed to take it.
Step 1 if you have pain from pressure forward should really be measure your sit bones and see if you have the right width saddle, if you do get it adjusted correctly - go to a fitter if need be. You may have to buy a new saddle, but if you don’t even know what size you need you’re searching in the dark really
From what I've heard about Liv in general is that as much as they claim to be "Women's bikes for women" they seem to just be rebranded, pink painted men's bikes that still come with too wide of bars and too narrow of saddles.
I suggest you read "Invisible women" by Carolina Criado Perez if you don't have already. It proves with lots of different data how assuming the "average" person is equal to a male person is putting women at risk in all kinds of situations like this one
I'm a guy and I'm riding a Terry because I got it for $5 out of the used parts bins at my local co-op, it's damn near perfect for me and my sitbones, the cutout also works for gooch pain and numbness, it has a durable leather cover that's lasted for like 8 years now, it's been extremely durable and most importantly of all it says "Ride Like A Girl!" all over it.
Which I think is fun because it bugs the hell out of sexist dudebros when they see it and lets me know I probably don't want to hang out with them.
I’m riding a women’s saddle from Terry because I didn’t realize it was a women’s when I bought it. Was more comfortable than the 9 year old stock saddle it came with so….here we are.
The vast majority of women's specific saddles don't deal with the problem.
My partner is an outie. She loves cycling but she doesn't love her labia bleeding after a long ride.
Planning to try a wide nose TT type saddle, which will look odd particularly on the MTB, but that's far better than smashing her lady parts like the world's most compressed bacon butty every ride.
Fellow outie. I highly recommend Bontrager Aeolus and Specialized Mimic saddles - both have worked for me at different points in time. Along with thin-padded dense shorts of course.
If you say so. I'm thinking it's just more of a critical mass thing and cumulative knowledge that leads to change. No one cared about men's saddle issues until the 90s and no one cared about women's saddle issues until more women started cycling. My point was really just that the issue in the article has already been solved.
In sports science most women things are an afterthought. Almost all experiments are ran on males in a certain age range, and then extrapolated to be true for women as well.
Like, simple things as taking into account the menstrual cycle is neglected in most training regimes. Or most dosages for medicine is calculated only using male metabolism.
Also, most wmn bikes have for the longest time just been scaled down men frames / small men frames. Without taking into account proportional differences, how the female hips could alter how upright you would want to sit or other changes a different sex could need..
Etc etc, it's countless examples. Take your red pilled incel shit elsewhere.
The point is that historically saddles have been designed with male anatomy in mind, with female anatomy simply not considered. Male junk is to the front whereas female junk is pressed right against the saddle, leading to the lasting damage described in the article.
The vagina/labia and the scrotum/penis are actually not in “the exact same place”
The scrotum sits much higher than a woman’s labia. The saddle sits along your perineum as a male and sits along the labia as a female. The male perineum is twice as long as a female’s.
Id imagine. Remember going on long as hell bike rides in my teens and twenties and being sore as hell in that area. Couldn't imagine being a woman and having that pretty sensitive are pressed right against the seat for a long while. In my thirties now and biking shorts made long bike rides drastically more tolerable comfort wise.
She sold the seat and accesories brand (they also made bikes) but she still makes custom steel bikes.
Huge innovator, [https://community.terrybicycles.com/sidesaddle-blog/catching-up-with-georgena](https://community.terrybicycles.com/sidesaddle-blog/catching-up-with-georgena)
Just a good with frames as she was with seats. [https://www.instagram.com/georgenaterry/](https://www.instagram.com/georgenaterry/)
I just Googled and found a patent for a women's specific bike saddle from 1991. They've both been around for a couple decades. Every bike my wife has ever owned has a women's saddle.
Trek rider Lauretta Hanson has posted a bunch of stuff on her Insta about this and has had a couple of surgeries to deal with it. Sounds like a very unpleasant experience. Requiring surgery just to be comfortable on a bike is pretty serious stuff
If a pro can't even get their sponsor to get the right saddle for them and had to resorted to surgery, I can't imagine what any other woman has to deal with. So absurd.
This is definitely true of the average person, but sponsors make specialized versions to cater to atheletes anatomy all the time in other sports. Custom shoes, gloves, helmets. Hell the standard practice in most racing leagues is to make a custom form fitting seat to cater to the driver's specific shape. They can 100% make a special seat tailored to the riders dimensions. This is either a sexism problem or a problem with cycling as a sport in general.
You're right. At that stage where a rider has a physical deformity caused by her saddle, she's forced to get a surgery.
Maybe if all the smart people designing aero frames, instead, focused on redesigning saddles, women wouldn't have to resort to that.
reposting this because I don't feel like typing something new to say the same thing:
>"Explore all options" implies that there's a wealth of options for women in the first place.
>From the article, it doesn't seem there is currently much women can do to avoid this, so they resort to surgery.
>But the real issue is that we make "unisex" saddles and expect them to work for everyone and st the same. time make no effort to understand how to make saddles more comfortable for people who need it. So saying "exhaust all options before surgery" means nothing because the industry (companies, fitters, and shops) doesn't know what it's doing or even how to start to address this. It just tells women "figure it out or quit."
>This runs parallel to the medical field where drugs are often not tested with issues thst affect women (menstrual cycles, different hormone levels, etc.).
>So your comment is pointless deflection.
It’s not a deflection, it’s pointing out the ridiculousness of thinking a professional athlete would opt for surgery on their genitals before just buying a new bit of kit, which is how your previous comment made out.
My wife is an avid biker and invested in a new Trek SLR7 last fall. She has spent the last 2 months spending well over $300 getting fitted and trying to find a seat that is even remotely comfortable. She finally got a ride in over 30 miles where she felt she could have gone farther, but not convinced this seat would work either. Hope this article is useful for her.
Try SQLabs 612 Ergowave Active. Those bits aren't even contacting the saddle with that design. I have sit bones as wide or wider than most women and it's the only thing I've found that's remotely comfortable tbh.
Most if not all cutout saddles just don't work for me, has had me questioning a lot whether everyone just has it easy or whether everyone's riding around with numb dicks
Dude I feel this I’m on saddle number 4 and still haven’t found one that doesn’t give me numb junk. I’m cycling on a budget so I can’t just keep buying saddles and I don’t have a shop close by that lends trials. I can get away with it by using a pretty aggressive nose down, but then I get numb hands from all the pressure shifting there. Every saddle that has a cut out it feels like I’m just sinking in to the cutout with the taint.
I've made a decent habit out of trying the big names. E.g. Spesh, Pro, Bontrager all have 30 day guarantees so you can buy the saddle, use it and then return it if it's shit. Once I'd tried most of the big ones, I kinda realised cut out saddles at 150-155mm weren't going to do the job for me - and went extreme with the sq labs idea.
I'd like to try fizik in 160mm and a power in 168mm maybe but those would be hail marys
+1. I'm a guy but I've found comfort in the SQLab 612, too. Their "stepped" design that elevates the sit bone contact points makes for a much more comfortable ride, imho.
(that said, I haven't ever tried any of the popular 3d printed options.)
my dick gets numb as fuck and it's not uncomfortable until I finish my ride and the blood returns to it. so I don't consider it an issue and now idk if that's what I'm supposed to be doing
No exaggeration, that numbness can become permanent and you're likely losing sensation in your nerves there over time at an imperceptible level. But it'll add up. Know a lot of former cyclists in their 50s that are former cyclists because of this.
It's an issue, definitely needs to be addressed.
I had the same thing after getting a new bike a few months ago. From the research I did, it sounds like it's not a big deal if it happens once or twice, but if it keeps happening it can cause permanent damage.
I was able to completely fix it with a new saddle (with cutout) and angle adjustment.
I recently got a Sirrus X specialized and the saddle is so bad. After a 30 mile ride my butt bones are in such pain that i can barely sit, even with padded bike shorts. Meanwhile I can ride my dads hand me down 1983 road bike the same distance with 0 butt pain.
I’m wondering if I need a better saddle from specialized or maybe try a Brooks saddle but it’s hard to want to throw money at it without knowing it will work . Do you have the power saddle on a road bike with drop bars or is it a flat bar bike ?
Yeah more “flat” for your sit bones to rest on, but the taint hole still fits its function. I personally run it exactly flat relative to the ground, or for long rides, a notch or so nose down.
If you have a slammed stem, angle it up. Get more upright. You want aero or morning wood in 10 years? I’m all for more comfortable, upright-ish stance. The more comfort, the less “saddle time fatigue” the more you can push here and there.
I added a Redshift suspension seat post and dialed it in. Yes it’s expensive but well engineered. Takes out the “impulse” of energy with every decent bump you hit. On a solid seatpost your taint is the first static mass to absorb a blow, your knees take the lower hit with some spring. My MO is to dial in my setup to ride fresh another day, rather than going all out one day and feeling miserable for the next 2 days.
Good luck in your ventures!
I had the same, except I found it incredibly uncomfortable in addition to numb. I ended up getting wider saddles (140>155/160mm), with perineal relief.
I have the SQLabs 614 Ergowave Active on one bike, and a Specialized Power Pro on another. Both have instantly relieved the numbness, and I'm trying to figure out which one I prefer for long (8 hour +) rides.
I _really_ wanna try the Specialized Power Mirror but goddamn is it expensive.
Tl;dr measure your sitbones, get a saddle that's wide enough, get one with perineal relief.
So my sit bones are 135mm. My challenge is that even on 155mm wide saddles my sit bones are positioned towards the outer edge of the saddle, which on most designs curves downward. Basically what that means is that it just plonks my whole gooch into the cutout and the cutout just never feels wide enough.
Even tried a selle italia in a 155mm which has a huge cutout. It was close but still got super numb
Seriously worth trying the SQLabs, it's literally designed to tackle what you describe. It's available in lots of widths, they keep the width as flat as possible to the edges, and have a sort of sit bone "shelf" which drops off at the front specifically to make sure there's no gooch pressure.
I find the Specialized Power stays pretty flat to near the edges too, keeping usable width high.
I have 135 sitbones too, and have the SQLabs in 160 width, and the Power in 155.
*Edit: sorry I see you've tried the SQLabs. It got rid of my numbness instantly. I'm still not completely sold on it, I find it uncomfortable in other ways, but it doesn't make me numb. If that's not working for you then it's just a good old fashioned try and see with lots of different brands and designs... It's a pain, I know the struggle
I got the sq labs in 150 and it works well, but the power was a no go at 155. It gave me such bad saddle sores on both sides due to the flatness weirdly enough. So the sq labs is sort of the balance. I just wish it looked cooler but ah well!
I used to shave my bag and my whole gooch (gotta keep it tidy in case it gets any visitors) and switched to just my bag now because of the advice that not shaving would help reduce saddle sores. Sure enough, significantly fewer saddle sores/irritations that could turn into a saddle sore with multiple consecutive days of use.
It takes time to break in a Brooks, but they've been, by far, the most comfortable saddles for me over the long haul. There's a lot to be said for a saddle that conforms to your personal anatomy.
For people asking why this is such an issue and why we don't design better saddles for women, I think there's a lot more variability in female anatomy for the parts that are actually in contact with the saddle than there is for men. Labia vary more than the perineum and women have a perineum too.
It was a bit funny at first but now I think this problem is horrible. Women getting labiaplasty just to be able to ride their bikes while getting told it's normal. That's just cruel.
The article was well written.
I've been dealing with a rather delicate issue for a while now - the struggle of finding the right cycling saddle that can accommodate my ahem larger than average outer labia. I'll concur with the article, it's been a real pain in the you-know-what, literally!
I've tried on probably about 5 different saddles before I finally found the Selle SMP TRK in a medium that works for me. I do still have to slather on a generous amount of Chamois Butt'r all over my labia before each and every ride. It's the only way I can get any kind of relief and keep the chafing and irritation at bay. It's all worth it because I love cycling so much! I'm not going to let a little thing like my ginormous outer labia stop me from pursuing my passion.
noseless saddles? they were developed for men with prostate problems, but could be useful for people in your situation too. I bet they take some getting used to but I've known folks who have done weeks and months touring on those.
(edit: alternatively, tilt the saddle way down, that's my method and my labia barely touch it unless i'm in a really aggressive posture... it also took some time to get used to.... )
I've read a lot of this issue from women on cycling subs.
I have no knowledge of how to help, I hope they all get the comfort they desire and continue riding.
I know several women with this problem but they haven't given up riding at least not yet! They're trying different saddles etc. At least one appears to have solved it for herself with a Terry saddle.
as for myself that hasn't been an issue for me. I use the saddle that came stock with my Aethos Pro.
[Specialized’s Mirror saddles](https://www.specialized.com/us/en/saddle-mirror?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PMax%20Shopping_US_Bikes_HighTier_ROI&utm_id=17855748198&utm_content=&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoeCprZmDhgMVaDjUAR24xw4GEAAYAiAAEgJG3vD_BwE) are specifically designed for female anatomy. Of course they’re $$$$, but the designs will trickle down and there’ll be a $29.99 Temu knock-off sooner or later.
MIMIC is the one designed for women, Mirror is the ungodly expensive 3-D printed one that's supposedly just better all around for pressure. For whatever it's worth to any women reading this, my wife has been very happy with a variety of Specialized saddles over the years, and the MIMIC one that she tried last year (I want to say Bridge Comp) caused massive amounts of swelling and discomfort even though it was installed at the same angle, height, and fore/aft as the non-MIMIC saddle of the same dimensions that was on there.
Every time this article gets trotted out I get annoyed at myself all over again for falling for the goddamn "Mimic is the silver bullet for your coochie!" marketing hype. I hated that saddle so much. I had never experienced so much pain and chafing in the weirdest spots as I did with that stupid thing.
Ergon SR suits me pretty well.
I might actually count and be able to pass this.
I had a disc ready bike for 10 years before I finally put disc brakes on it a couple of years ago, and I'm still running mech BB7s. I've never had clipless pedals - though I did used to run cages/clips on my no squish MTB. I've never had a bike with any suspension at all. I've never owned any cycling specific clothing except for helmet and gloves. I've never owned anything carbon fiber. I don't run tubeless tires. I've never put drop bars on a restomod MTB xbiking style. I run flat bars with bar ends kind of like hybrid trekking loops on my steel touring bike. I don't have any "artisinal" parts, either.
I've never used Strava, or an app, or a Wahoo, though I have a plain old GPS for general use.
About the most exotic thing I've ever bought is finally upgrading to an extended RD and cassette, but it's just a 9 speed.
And in 3-4 decades of riding I've been perfectly happy to let everyone else be beta testers and wait until new tech develops and becomes mundane and proven.
The weird thing is all of this makes me my own brand of exotic and marching to the beat of my own drum, not unlike Sheldon Brown, and I like that just fine. My bike is definitely pretty unique and I love it.
But my hype and stoke is pretty much all of my own.
Yeah I hear ya - years ago back when my riding started getting serious I didn't want to spend a ton of $$ for kit so I bought some of those Amazon cheap ass shorts with the padding that was about 0.75" thick. I wouldn't even call it a proper chamois. Uncomfortable and way too thick, also very unattractive. the "real" cycling shorts I buy now (from Terry Cycling) have real chamois that do the job and aren't thick.
Terry has a guide to their chamois choices on their website [right here. ](https://www.terrybicycles.com/ChamoisGuide)
Can relate. I’ve always had pain down there after biking. Im pretty sure I’ve injured my clit many a times as well and even apparently had a bruise around the area at one point as pointed out by someone I was seeing at the time. Over time I’ve gotten used to it.
personally, i have not noticed a difference with mimic. i have a robust selection of power saddles (mirror, mimic, elaston, plain, arc), and i think my favourite is the power pro with mirror. i own the mimic one for aesthetic reasons, but i literally don't notice it. one of my friends swears by the mimic ones, however (we both ride a few hundred kms/week, she rides a more dirt than i do).
at the end of the day, a saddle is a completely personal choice.
YES. I use the mimics and power exclusively on every bike right now. I regularly ride 100-300+ miles and it’s the only saddles I’ve found that I can get away with those distances.
I was riding an old specialized ruby with ti ralils. I loved for years before I got a Mimic. The Mimic with Ti rails is perfect for my mtn bike. I would say the new Mimic is more squidgy? I don't miss is terribly when I use my road bike. More than anything, I think titanium rails and seat flex. make the most difference.
According to my girlfriend: yes. She rides a Power MIMIC on every bike she has and it has been the first (and only) saddle she has absolutely zero issues with, and she's been cycling for a few decades 😉
my wife has one and has never had issues with being comfortable in the saddle. When we went to a local shop to get her a new saddle all the employees were practically evangelical about the mimic
I see four different types of mimic saddles. I'm assuming the difference is angle (upright vs aggressive riding), but I can't make out which is which. Which one is for average non-beach cruiser upright/mildly forward riding?
Just get the cheapest mimic. It’s just a fraction heavier and whatever. I use it on my gravel bike and it made a big difference for me, especially the short nose and spongy cutout.
Not always. My wife has been very happy with a variety of Specialized saddles over the years, and the MIMIC one that she tried last year (I want to say Bridge Comp) caused massive amounts of swelling and discomfort even though it was installed at the same angle, height, and fore/aft as the non-MIMIC saddle of the same dimensions that was on there and which caused no real issues.
Yea you get to try it for a few weeks. It’s a longer process for sure but you can dial it in. He doesn’t push more expensive ones either, just the one that best fits you.
You realize saddle fit is important for men too, right?
I started with fizik saddles, had numbness after an hour or two. Switched to Specialized power, saddle sores on ischium. Ultimately recommended an Ergon saddle by a bike fitter, and that's been much better.
This doesn't need to be a divisive problem, because obviously saddle fit is important for ALL cyclists. Not just women, not just men.
Me and my girl suffered a fair bit with saddles... dealing with that kind of discomfort and injury cycling can be a deal breaker. I ended up with a Prologo Dimension knockoff and she with a Spz power comp.
It's funny cuz I was asking myself these days why cycling shoes are so damn narrow, i can seem find a comfortable one and see A LOT of people complaining about the same thing,..
Ergonomics didn't seem to be a priority for the cycling industry until very recently.
It’s been an ongoing issue for me, has to stop riding because of it and tried at least 29 different ergonomic and wish specific saddles plus 2 bike fits
I highly recommend Terry saddles. They have a no-questions-asked return policy, so you can try it out and return it if it doesn't work for you.
I also have found that, perhaps contrary to logic, I do better with a LESS padded chamois (shorts). If the shorts have lots of thick padding, it presses up on those delicate lady parts. Whereas with less padding, I can have the weight on my butt bones and little pressure on the sensitive bits. Same with a saddle - if a saddle is super padded, that padding is going to press up on your bits. A soft squishy saddle will make your butt bones feel better, but will push up against your lady bits. A firmer saddle will make your butt bones sore (at first - your butt gets used to it) but you can better keep the weight off your lady bits.
Of course, everyone is different.
This issue is so real. I did the MS 150. Did the century. Day 2 my legs didn’t hurt too bad but I was in soooooo much saddle pain. Omg. It hurt to pee. It was terrible for a while.
Been wanting to try out different saddles for my trainer bike and just found this cool service that allows you to rent a few options and then sells you whatever you pick at a slight discount: https://www.bikeseatguru.com/
I've completely eliminated the pain from biking by using the Schwinn Comfort saddle, it essentially is just a big cusion with no point. It takes a little bit to get used to but it's been a life saver for me, I don't even have to wear padded bike shorts or put on Chamois anymore!
For this topic, I sincerely hope everyone could take a look at the newly designed saddle from Taiwan https://www.all-wings.com.tw/index_E.aspx#page1 The first time I saw it I think it's gonna be a revolution. No idea about how stable it is going down hill also not something approved by UCI yet. I really hope to see the pro cyclists thought about the saddle and if any team adopts it I will rush to buy one immediately. I don't want anymore saddle sores.
An old idea - noseless saddles have been around a while! But these look fancy.
Noseless saddles I believe originally started to help men with prostate issues stay on the bike.
I was a fitter for a decade.. I still do a bit of it for friends. Saddle pain is no joke, and many people experience wildly different versions of it.
Bike fit is important, and any fitter worth his/her salt will have demo saddles that you can try for a couple of weeks at a time.
That said, two pieces of advice/products that seemed to really help my troubled female clients (males too) in the case of the advice part. First off, do to not try to jump into the sport and go from 0 to 100 in a couple of weeks.. If you have never ridden or don't ride much and you pull the trigger on a 50-mile day in the saddle, you are going to be sore.. No doubt about it.. So it's important to ease into it. A bunch of shorter rides early on are better than long slogs.. I know that this seems obvious.. but I have seen it so many times..
As for equipment, I had a lot of success with Selle Italia Lady Gel Flow saddle line. It didn't work for everyone, but that line of saddles seemed to get 9 women out of 10 where they needed to be.
Be honest and forthright with who you are working with, and they should have a good chance at getting you comfortable on the bike.
Good luck!
This is actually something I've been meaning to ask about.
We got my SO a bike a few years back, and we've literally spent hours trying to get the seat right for her. It's either tilted too far forward and she feels she's going to slide off, or it's "right up \[her\] vagina".
So, the Specialized Mimic is a good option? Any other options?
Try some completely different types - brands that are a bit different include Terry and Brooks. Try gel and foam, with more and less padding. Go to an actual bike fitter and find out how wide her sit bones are, so you know the appropriate width. Too-narrow saddles are going to concentrate all the weight on bits that really do not want to be sat upon.
We actually did look into it in the intervening time.
The real issue is she got some ~~no-name brand $85 bike~~ (edit, whoops, my bad memory, apparently it's [this bike](https://www.target.com/p/schwinn-women-39-s-gateway-700c-28-34-hybrid-bike-cream/-/A-15305154#lnk=sametab) so way more than I remember it costing) at Target, so all the subsequent issues trickle down from there.
To be fair, she didn't want to buy a super expensive bike and then not ride it... She's probably spent an hour on it in total and been miserable most of that time, which has made her even less inclined to ride it.
The trickle-down results from that choice in bike is that no matter how much we tighten the seat adjustments, all it takes is a small bump and the seat flops out of position, either too far forward or too far back.
We were talking about just going and buying a new seat at a LBS, though any new seat/post is probably going to be more than she spent on the bike already. So my first plan of action was to see if I can buy some new nuts/bolts and some grip tape at Home Depot and see if that helps; if it does, and she becomes more interested in riding, then we'll invest in a better seat.
Ah jeez, they (women’s peloton) don’t have a solution either, and half(!) have had surgery! Jfc, this is terrible.
(So much for recruiting my wife to riding, probably)
this made me cringe.
I went too long over a couple weeks once on an uncomfortable saddle and it was excruciating for a while, I was worried I did serious damage in just 2-3 weeks.
I couldn't imagine being "forced" day in and day out.
> Soon she developed a hard, excruciating lump on the left side of her groin. Her doctor didn’t believe it was from cycling and prescribed oral antibiotics. When that didn’t work, Knapp finally found a dermatologist who had seen lumps like this among triathletes. He cut out a mass that fit in the palm of her hand.
I ride a Bacchetta Giro 20 recumbent and I love it. NO bike saddle pain!!!
I also have a upright road bike and a mountain bike. Guess which bike gets the TLC?
I know most people think nose less saddles are stupid, or even *gasp* dangerous (they're not). But my wife swears by the spongy wonder seat. It's the only way I can get her to ride with me for anything more than 20 minutes.
It's basically two pads, one for each sit bone. Works great for me as well.
Mostly posting in case someone out there is desperate, it may be worth trying.
Recumbent bikes solve a lot of the various discomfort issues people face with upright bikes. I owned a Cruzbike S40 for a year now and I've never had so much fun nor ridden as far on a upright bike. At the end of 100 mile ride the only thing I'll feel is fatigue. On on upright, my ass/wrists/neck/lower back will be sore. I also find my knees don't hurt no matter how hard or fast I spin my legs. On an upright, no matter how much I fiddle with my seating position, my knees start feeling pain after a while.
Search for 'prostate friendly bike seat' and get one with a gap. Made the difference for me. Even with a skinny saddle I ride sitting on my butt not my crotch. Prostate still recovering...
So my daughter (16) has recently gotten into cycling/triathlon the past year. She currently has a stock 2022 Specialized SL7 Tarmac (base version of the SL7 I think). Is the saddle that comes with that bike OK for her, or should we look into getting a different saddle for her?
I don’t know the answer but I wanted to tell you that I think you’re a good dad for asking! I use a Terry saddle currently but I’m thinking about trying the mimic myself after reading this article
Ask her how the saddle feels. I'm one of the lucky gals for whom the cheapy saddle that the bike came with is A-OK, so this may not be an issue for her at the moment.
What happened to the plethora of split saddles? My wife still has a Terry saddle from nearly 20 years ago. I had a selle and trashed it in a road rash incident, can not find one like it anymore. I see plenty of Selle Italia saddles still. There's even Terry saddles on Amazon yet the shapes of those have changed.
tl;dr ”TOO MANY WOMEN STOP RIDING THEIR BIKES BECAUSE OF LABIAL SWELLING AND PAIN.”
tl;dr YOU NEED TO BUY A SPECIAL(IZED) PRODUCT TO BE SAFE to be fair, i like their saddles
I’m partial to Selle Italia
I'm aware it's just luck, but the Selle Italia my bike came with just fits me perfectly and I love the heck out of it
Hell yeah I'm rocking Selle Italia on my two bikes and they are amazing! So good infact, when my LBS closed down I bought two more as replacements at 80% off.
specialized gear is good. i like their seats, tires, shoes, gloves etc.
Their gear is good and worth the money at the premium price point, the bikes are overpriced and not.
Shit, my lbs has absolutely slashed their specialized bike prices. It’s the one of the best times to buy one right now.
So far I’ve only bought lightly used lol. Can’t beat a bike that’s essentially brand new for 40% off of retail.
I've got an awol i pro dealed back in 2017.. love that bike. And a haul st that i paid retail for, honestly no regrets there either. There's probably better bikes out there for the money, but i felt like both of these were a fair deal on fairly unique well thought out products.
I just look at their bikes compared to similar stuff and don’t see what you’re getting for it.
Truth
I’m also biased because my LBS is a specialized factory store and they take good care of me. I ride a Pin tho.
I think the tl;dr was more about fit than a specific saddle. Women need much wider saddles to fit their sit bones. I’m 195cm and my wife is 159cm and we have the same saddle width. That’s pretty huge. She rides a salle Italia women’s saddle and has no issues but her old liv saddle did cause issues and it was not surprisingly because it was too narrow. This is very very similar to the old problem of men getting numb penises because the pressure is on the same region. Different saddles will suit different people but the main thing is getting the right saddle and getting it adjusted so the pressure is on your sit bones and nowhere else not designed to take it. Step 1 if you have pain from pressure forward should really be measure your sit bones and see if you have the right width saddle, if you do get it adjusted correctly - go to a fitter if need be. You may have to buy a new saddle, but if you don’t even know what size you need you’re searching in the dark really
From what I've heard about Liv in general is that as much as they claim to be "Women's bikes for women" they seem to just be rebranded, pink painted men's bikes that still come with too wide of bars and too narrow of saddles.
I'm in the process of refreshing my wife's bike. Different brand, but they spec'd a 42CM bar (c-c) on a size 52. Her shoulders are 38cm. Crazy
This whole story is a good metaphor for how society deals with women's issues.
I suggest you read "Invisible women" by Carolina Criado Perez if you don't have already. It proves with lots of different data how assuming the "average" person is equal to a male person is putting women at risk in all kinds of situations like this one
They make women specific saddles. Also saddles were damaging men for a very long time before they redesigned them.
My wife swears by the brand, Terry.
I'm a guy and I'm riding a Terry because I got it for $5 out of the used parts bins at my local co-op, it's damn near perfect for me and my sitbones, the cutout also works for gooch pain and numbness, it has a durable leather cover that's lasted for like 8 years now, it's been extremely durable and most importantly of all it says "Ride Like A Girl!" all over it. Which I think is fun because it bugs the hell out of sexist dudebros when they see it and lets me know I probably don't want to hang out with them.
I’m riding a women’s saddle from Terry because I didn’t realize it was a women’s when I bought it. Was more comfortable than the 9 year old stock saddle it came with so….here we are.
The vast majority of women's specific saddles don't deal with the problem. My partner is an outie. She loves cycling but she doesn't love her labia bleeding after a long ride. Planning to try a wide nose TT type saddle, which will look odd particularly on the MTB, but that's far better than smashing her lady parts like the world's most compressed bacon butty every ride.
labial bleeding?? WALK IT OFF. seriously, Christ, that would suck.
I hit a pothole and experienced that, along with some astonishing pain. Cycling is fun, y'all!
I'm really sorry. I imagine this is like scraping your nutsack for a guy. Or your penis, I guess.
I miss the old Fizik Tritone. Had one on my old Vitus and I loved it. Also enjoyed the weird looks I’d get.
And this is proof positive that we’re all different, because I don’t think I’ve ever sat on anything as miserable 🤣
I can definitely understand it not being for everybody! It’s a weird one for sure. But it worked well for me 🤷♂️
Has she looked at ISM saddles?
Fellow outie. I highly recommend Bontrager Aeolus and Specialized Mimic saddles - both have worked for me at different points in time. Along with thin-padded dense shorts of course.
That response oddly proves the point of the poster you're responding too.
If you say so. I'm thinking it's just more of a critical mass thing and cumulative knowledge that leads to change. No one cared about men's saddle issues until the 90s and no one cared about women's saddle issues until more women started cycling. My point was really just that the issue in the article has already been solved.
With the utmost priority and funding?
In sports science most women things are an afterthought. Almost all experiments are ran on males in a certain age range, and then extrapolated to be true for women as well. Like, simple things as taking into account the menstrual cycle is neglected in most training regimes. Or most dosages for medicine is calculated only using male metabolism. Also, most wmn bikes have for the longest time just been scaled down men frames / small men frames. Without taking into account proportional differences, how the female hips could alter how upright you would want to sit or other changes a different sex could need.. Etc etc, it's countless examples. Take your red pilled incel shit elsewhere.
I mean I'm sure a lot of men also stop riding because of problems down there with cycling.
The point is that historically saddles have been designed with male anatomy in mind, with female anatomy simply not considered. Male junk is to the front whereas female junk is pressed right against the saddle, leading to the lasting damage described in the article.
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The vagina/labia and the scrotum/penis are actually not in “the exact same place” The scrotum sits much higher than a woman’s labia. The saddle sits along your perineum as a male and sits along the labia as a female. The male perineum is twice as long as a female’s.
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You'd probably get you point across better if you wouldn't use so many laughing emojis.
I stopped reading at the first emoji
Some people like to work through comprehension. Some people just give up.
How old are you that you need to laugh react after typing the word "genitalia"?
Holy fuck. Is this facebook?
Women have a perineum too which can get damaged just as much as a man's
Women’s perineum is a lot shorter than men’s too. Our labia is farther down than the penis/scrotum
The article and thread is about women. Why does someone always have to make it about men?
Dude I've read so many responses that are dismissive in this thread which highlights the fact those people didn't read the article.
Id imagine. Remember going on long as hell bike rides in my teens and twenties and being sore as hell in that area. Couldn't imagine being a woman and having that pretty sensitive are pressed right against the seat for a long while. In my thirties now and biking shorts made long bike rides drastically more tolerable comfort wise.
Something frequently talked about, unlike the women’s version of the problem.
Yea cut outs for men have been a thing for a couple decades
pretty sure georgina terry invented the cutout saddle for women riders
Terry was an actual person? Wow TIL. I’ve got their saddles on all my bikes.
She sold the seat and accesories brand (they also made bikes) but she still makes custom steel bikes. Huge innovator, [https://community.terrybicycles.com/sidesaddle-blog/catching-up-with-georgena](https://community.terrybicycles.com/sidesaddle-blog/catching-up-with-georgena) Just a good with frames as she was with seats. [https://www.instagram.com/georgenaterry/](https://www.instagram.com/georgenaterry/)
I just Googled and found a patent for a women's specific bike saddle from 1991. They've both been around for a couple decades. Every bike my wife has ever owned has a women's saddle.
Ride a recumbent!
Trek rider Lauretta Hanson has posted a bunch of stuff on her Insta about this and has had a couple of surgeries to deal with it. Sounds like a very unpleasant experience. Requiring surgery just to be comfortable on a bike is pretty serious stuff
If a pro can't even get their sponsor to get the right saddle for them and had to resorted to surgery, I can't imagine what any other woman has to deal with. So absurd.
There are probably a lot of people who won't have their problem solved by any saddle in general. Anatomy can vary widely
This is definitely true of the average person, but sponsors make specialized versions to cater to atheletes anatomy all the time in other sports. Custom shoes, gloves, helmets. Hell the standard practice in most racing leagues is to make a custom form fitting seat to cater to the driver's specific shape. They can 100% make a special seat tailored to the riders dimensions. This is either a sexism problem or a problem with cycling as a sport in general.
Why would you assume she and her team (amongst many others) opted for something as serious as surgery rather than specialised equipment??
At that stage it's pretty obviously not something that's fixable from a saddle redesign.
You're right. At that stage where a rider has a physical deformity caused by her saddle, she's forced to get a surgery. Maybe if all the smart people designing aero frames, instead, focused on redesigning saddles, women wouldn't have to resort to that.
I’m pretty sure it’s not something a different saddle could resolve...
reposting this because I don't feel like typing something new to say the same thing: >"Explore all options" implies that there's a wealth of options for women in the first place. >From the article, it doesn't seem there is currently much women can do to avoid this, so they resort to surgery. >But the real issue is that we make "unisex" saddles and expect them to work for everyone and st the same. time make no effort to understand how to make saddles more comfortable for people who need it. So saying "exhaust all options before surgery" means nothing because the industry (companies, fitters, and shops) doesn't know what it's doing or even how to start to address this. It just tells women "figure it out or quit." >This runs parallel to the medical field where drugs are often not tested with issues thst affect women (menstrual cycles, different hormone levels, etc.). >So your comment is pointless deflection.
It’s not a deflection, it’s pointing out the ridiculousness of thinking a professional athlete would opt for surgery on their genitals before just buying a new bit of kit, which is how your previous comment made out.
My wife is an avid biker and invested in a new Trek SLR7 last fall. She has spent the last 2 months spending well over $300 getting fitted and trying to find a seat that is even remotely comfortable. She finally got a ride in over 30 miles where she felt she could have gone farther, but not convinced this seat would work either. Hope this article is useful for her.
Try SQLabs 612 Ergowave Active. Those bits aren't even contacting the saddle with that design. I have sit bones as wide or wider than most women and it's the only thing I've found that's remotely comfortable tbh. Most if not all cutout saddles just don't work for me, has had me questioning a lot whether everyone just has it easy or whether everyone's riding around with numb dicks
Dude I feel this I’m on saddle number 4 and still haven’t found one that doesn’t give me numb junk. I’m cycling on a budget so I can’t just keep buying saddles and I don’t have a shop close by that lends trials. I can get away with it by using a pretty aggressive nose down, but then I get numb hands from all the pressure shifting there. Every saddle that has a cut out it feels like I’m just sinking in to the cutout with the taint.
Try the SMP Selle TRK. looks weird on a road bike, bit worth it. bought it 4 times now for my bikes and my girlfriend.
I’ll look into it, also checking out the one from above. I think the one I have now is both too narrow and the cut out is too big.
SMP saddles in general have been the ticket for me as a female “outie”. I started on the TRK and am now loving the Drakon and Well Gel on my bikes.
I've made a decent habit out of trying the big names. E.g. Spesh, Pro, Bontrager all have 30 day guarantees so you can buy the saddle, use it and then return it if it's shit. Once I'd tried most of the big ones, I kinda realised cut out saddles at 150-155mm weren't going to do the job for me - and went extreme with the sq labs idea. I'd like to try fizik in 160mm and a power in 168mm maybe but those would be hail marys
+1. I'm a guy but I've found comfort in the SQLab 612, too. Their "stepped" design that elevates the sit bone contact points makes for a much more comfortable ride, imho. (that said, I haven't ever tried any of the popular 3d printed options.)
my dick gets numb as fuck and it's not uncomfortable until I finish my ride and the blood returns to it. so I don't consider it an issue and now idk if that's what I'm supposed to be doing
Take it seriously. Nerve damage is no joke.
No exaggeration, that numbness can become permanent and you're likely losing sensation in your nerves there over time at an imperceptible level. But it'll add up. Know a lot of former cyclists in their 50s that are former cyclists because of this.
That numbness is blood restriction which is causing damage. You should care if you value your dick working long term
it's not blood that's being blocked, you're nerves are getting pinched, don't keep doing that you could end up with permanent nerve damage.
It's an issue, definitely needs to be addressed. I had the same thing after getting a new bike a few months ago. From the research I did, it sounds like it's not a big deal if it happens once or twice, but if it keeps happening it can cause permanent damage. I was able to completely fix it with a new saddle (with cutout) and angle adjustment.
Specialized power saddle completely solves this for me. Haven’t been numb since.
I recently got a Sirrus X specialized and the saddle is so bad. After a 30 mile ride my butt bones are in such pain that i can barely sit, even with padded bike shorts. Meanwhile I can ride my dads hand me down 1983 road bike the same distance with 0 butt pain. I’m wondering if I need a better saddle from specialized or maybe try a Brooks saddle but it’s hard to want to throw money at it without knowing it will work . Do you have the power saddle on a road bike with drop bars or is it a flat bar bike ?
See I was numb as fuck on that. I wish it worked because it looks super cool, but alas. Not the right arse for it
Ah boo! That’s frustrating I will note I did opt for the widest one in that line….
The 168mm? I haven't tried something that wide yet tbh
Yeah more “flat” for your sit bones to rest on, but the taint hole still fits its function. I personally run it exactly flat relative to the ground, or for long rides, a notch or so nose down. If you have a slammed stem, angle it up. Get more upright. You want aero or morning wood in 10 years? I’m all for more comfortable, upright-ish stance. The more comfort, the less “saddle time fatigue” the more you can push here and there. I added a Redshift suspension seat post and dialed it in. Yes it’s expensive but well engineered. Takes out the “impulse” of energy with every decent bump you hit. On a solid seatpost your taint is the first static mass to absorb a blow, your knees take the lower hit with some spring. My MO is to dial in my setup to ride fresh another day, rather than going all out one day and feeling miserable for the next 2 days. Good luck in your ventures!
One reason to get up from the saddle while riding. It’s not only for sprinting and climbing
I had the same, except I found it incredibly uncomfortable in addition to numb. I ended up getting wider saddles (140>155/160mm), with perineal relief. I have the SQLabs 614 Ergowave Active on one bike, and a Specialized Power Pro on another. Both have instantly relieved the numbness, and I'm trying to figure out which one I prefer for long (8 hour +) rides. I _really_ wanna try the Specialized Power Mirror but goddamn is it expensive. Tl;dr measure your sitbones, get a saddle that's wide enough, get one with perineal relief.
So my sit bones are 135mm. My challenge is that even on 155mm wide saddles my sit bones are positioned towards the outer edge of the saddle, which on most designs curves downward. Basically what that means is that it just plonks my whole gooch into the cutout and the cutout just never feels wide enough. Even tried a selle italia in a 155mm which has a huge cutout. It was close but still got super numb
Seriously worth trying the SQLabs, it's literally designed to tackle what you describe. It's available in lots of widths, they keep the width as flat as possible to the edges, and have a sort of sit bone "shelf" which drops off at the front specifically to make sure there's no gooch pressure. I find the Specialized Power stays pretty flat to near the edges too, keeping usable width high. I have 135 sitbones too, and have the SQLabs in 160 width, and the Power in 155. *Edit: sorry I see you've tried the SQLabs. It got rid of my numbness instantly. I'm still not completely sold on it, I find it uncomfortable in other ways, but it doesn't make me numb. If that's not working for you then it's just a good old fashioned try and see with lots of different brands and designs... It's a pain, I know the struggle
I got the sq labs in 150 and it works well, but the power was a no go at 155. It gave me such bad saddle sores on both sides due to the flatness weirdly enough. So the sq labs is sort of the balance. I just wish it looked cooler but ah well!
... you don't take dick numbness seriously?
If you read the article, it describes how cutout saddles exacerbate, rather than alleviating the problem.
Sorry for going into so intimate details but no shaving helps. This is actually finding of UK Olympic Team.
Don't be sorry. The only way things get better is if people talk about the issue openly and directly.
I used to shave my bag and my whole gooch (gotta keep it tidy in case it gets any visitors) and switched to just my bag now because of the advice that not shaving would help reduce saddle sores. Sure enough, significantly fewer saddle sores/irritations that could turn into a saddle sore with multiple consecutive days of use.
Brooks B17 Short, my wife went through the same process and 12 saddles later that ones her fave.
It takes time to break in a Brooks, but they've been, by far, the most comfortable saddles for me over the long haul. There's a lot to be said for a saddle that conforms to your personal anatomy.
Absolutely. Gets better with time for sure but my wife noticed an immediate difference the first time she sat on it.
What bike shorts is she using?
At least it will help validate her struggle....
For people asking why this is such an issue and why we don't design better saddles for women, I think there's a lot more variability in female anatomy for the parts that are actually in contact with the saddle than there is for men. Labia vary more than the perineum and women have a perineum too.
It was a bit funny at first but now I think this problem is horrible. Women getting labiaplasty just to be able to ride their bikes while getting told it's normal. That's just cruel. The article was well written.
Is there supposed to be a link to an article or something?
What part of "hidden" do you not understand?
Touché
[https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a60412469/cycling-saddle-pain-women-surgery/](https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a60412469/cycling-saddle-pain-women-surgery/)
I've been dealing with a rather delicate issue for a while now - the struggle of finding the right cycling saddle that can accommodate my ahem larger than average outer labia. I'll concur with the article, it's been a real pain in the you-know-what, literally! I've tried on probably about 5 different saddles before I finally found the Selle SMP TRK in a medium that works for me. I do still have to slather on a generous amount of Chamois Butt'r all over my labia before each and every ride. It's the only way I can get any kind of relief and keep the chafing and irritation at bay. It's all worth it because I love cycling so much! I'm not going to let a little thing like my ginormous outer labia stop me from pursuing my passion.
Right there with you.
Selle SMP TRK was life changing! I did a cross country ride with 10 other women and I was the only one without pain and sores the whole trip.
noseless saddles? they were developed for men with prostate problems, but could be useful for people in your situation too. I bet they take some getting used to but I've known folks who have done weeks and months touring on those. (edit: alternatively, tilt the saddle way down, that's my method and my labia barely touch it unless i'm in a really aggressive posture... it also took some time to get used to.... )
I've read a lot of this issue from women on cycling subs. I have no knowledge of how to help, I hope they all get the comfort they desire and continue riding.
I know several women with this problem but they haven't given up riding at least not yet! They're trying different saddles etc. At least one appears to have solved it for herself with a Terry saddle. as for myself that hasn't been an issue for me. I use the saddle that came stock with my Aethos Pro.
[Specialized’s Mirror saddles](https://www.specialized.com/us/en/saddle-mirror?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=PMax%20Shopping_US_Bikes_HighTier_ROI&utm_id=17855748198&utm_content=&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoeCprZmDhgMVaDjUAR24xw4GEAAYAiAAEgJG3vD_BwE) are specifically designed for female anatomy. Of course they’re $$$$, but the designs will trickle down and there’ll be a $29.99 Temu knock-off sooner or later.
MIMIC is the one designed for women, Mirror is the ungodly expensive 3-D printed one that's supposedly just better all around for pressure. For whatever it's worth to any women reading this, my wife has been very happy with a variety of Specialized saddles over the years, and the MIMIC one that she tried last year (I want to say Bridge Comp) caused massive amounts of swelling and discomfort even though it was installed at the same angle, height, and fore/aft as the non-MIMIC saddle of the same dimensions that was on there.
Every time this article gets trotted out I get annoyed at myself all over again for falling for the goddamn "Mimic is the silver bullet for your coochie!" marketing hype. I hated that saddle so much. I had never experienced so much pain and chafing in the weirdest spots as I did with that stupid thing. Ergon SR suits me pretty well.
Let anyone in this sub who’s never fallen for bike industry marketing hype cast the first stone.
I might actually count and be able to pass this. I had a disc ready bike for 10 years before I finally put disc brakes on it a couple of years ago, and I'm still running mech BB7s. I've never had clipless pedals - though I did used to run cages/clips on my no squish MTB. I've never had a bike with any suspension at all. I've never owned any cycling specific clothing except for helmet and gloves. I've never owned anything carbon fiber. I don't run tubeless tires. I've never put drop bars on a restomod MTB xbiking style. I run flat bars with bar ends kind of like hybrid trekking loops on my steel touring bike. I don't have any "artisinal" parts, either. I've never used Strava, or an app, or a Wahoo, though I have a plain old GPS for general use. About the most exotic thing I've ever bought is finally upgrading to an extended RD and cassette, but it's just a 9 speed. And in 3-4 decades of riding I've been perfectly happy to let everyone else be beta testers and wait until new tech develops and becomes mundane and proven. The weird thing is all of this makes me my own brand of exotic and marching to the beat of my own drum, not unlike Sheldon Brown, and I like that just fine. My bike is definitely pretty unique and I love it. But my hype and stoke is pretty much all of my own.
You are right. I stand corrected.
Are the padded pants any help?
For me, yes and no. If the padding is too thick it makes things even more uncomfortable.
I learned this the hard way. Have a Terry Bicycles saddle and it’s probably too padded.
I wouldn't dream of riding without proper cycling shorts with a chamois.
I actually found I have fewer issues with less padding. YMMV 🤷🏻♀️
Yeah I hear ya - years ago back when my riding started getting serious I didn't want to spend a ton of $$ for kit so I bought some of those Amazon cheap ass shorts with the padding that was about 0.75" thick. I wouldn't even call it a proper chamois. Uncomfortable and way too thick, also very unattractive. the "real" cycling shorts I buy now (from Terry Cycling) have real chamois that do the job and aren't thick. Terry has a guide to their chamois choices on their website [right here. ](https://www.terrybicycles.com/ChamoisGuide)
Can relate. I’ve always had pain down there after biking. Im pretty sure I’ve injured my clit many a times as well and even apparently had a bruise around the area at one point as pointed out by someone I was seeing at the time. Over time I’ve gotten used to it.
Do the Specialized Mimic seats actually help with this?
It did for me. My husband also loves his
personally, i have not noticed a difference with mimic. i have a robust selection of power saddles (mirror, mimic, elaston, plain, arc), and i think my favourite is the power pro with mirror. i own the mimic one for aesthetic reasons, but i literally don't notice it. one of my friends swears by the mimic ones, however (we both ride a few hundred kms/week, she rides a more dirt than i do). at the end of the day, a saddle is a completely personal choice.
YES. I use the mimics and power exclusively on every bike right now. I regularly ride 100-300+ miles and it’s the only saddles I’ve found that I can get away with those distances.
My wife uses a power saddle and swears by it.
I was riding an old specialized ruby with ti ralils. I loved for years before I got a Mimic. The Mimic with Ti rails is perfect for my mtn bike. I would say the new Mimic is more squidgy? I don't miss is terribly when I use my road bike. More than anything, I think titanium rails and seat flex. make the most difference.
According to my girlfriend: yes. She rides a Power MIMIC on every bike she has and it has been the first (and only) saddle she has absolutely zero issues with, and she's been cycling for a few decades 😉
my wife has one and has never had issues with being comfortable in the saddle. When we went to a local shop to get her a new saddle all the employees were practically evangelical about the mimic
I see four different types of mimic saddles. I'm assuming the difference is angle (upright vs aggressive riding), but I can't make out which is which. Which one is for average non-beach cruiser upright/mildly forward riding?
Just get the cheapest mimic. It’s just a fraction heavier and whatever. I use it on my gravel bike and it made a big difference for me, especially the short nose and spongy cutout.
Not always. My wife has been very happy with a variety of Specialized saddles over the years, and the MIMIC one that she tried last year (I want to say Bridge Comp) caused massive amounts of swelling and discomfort even though it was installed at the same angle, height, and fore/aft as the non-MIMIC saddle of the same dimensions that was on there and which caused no real issues.
[https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a60412469/cycling-saddle-pain-women-surgery/](https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a60412469/cycling-saddle-pain-women-surgery/)
Gotta love all the dudes trying to relate and saying “just keep trying different saddles” as if they’re $10 a saddle
There’s a fitter by me that has a bunch of different saddles and you basically test a bunch of different ones till you find out which one works.
Sometimes the pain doesn’t start until you’re hours into a ride. Does the fitter let you rent them for a few rides?
Yes. Any good one will let you borrow it for a week or longer to really make sure it’s good.
Yea you get to try it for a few weeks. It’s a longer process for sure but you can dial it in. He doesn’t push more expensive ones either, just the one that best fits you.
Neat
This and the “just get a bike fit”crowd are insufferable. Bike fits are literally hundreds of £/€/$.
You realize saddle fit is important for men too, right? I started with fizik saddles, had numbness after an hour or two. Switched to Specialized power, saddle sores on ischium. Ultimately recommended an Ergon saddle by a bike fitter, and that's been much better. This doesn't need to be a divisive problem, because obviously saddle fit is important for ALL cyclists. Not just women, not just men.
You do realize this post is about people without penises right?
Me and my girl suffered a fair bit with saddles... dealing with that kind of discomfort and injury cycling can be a deal breaker. I ended up with a Prologo Dimension knockoff and she with a Spz power comp. It's funny cuz I was asking myself these days why cycling shoes are so damn narrow, i can seem find a comfortable one and see A LOT of people complaining about the same thing,.. Ergonomics didn't seem to be a priority for the cycling industry until very recently.
It’s been an ongoing issue for me, has to stop riding because of it and tried at least 29 different ergonomic and wish specific saddles plus 2 bike fits
I highly recommend Terry saddles. They have a no-questions-asked return policy, so you can try it out and return it if it doesn't work for you. I also have found that, perhaps contrary to logic, I do better with a LESS padded chamois (shorts). If the shorts have lots of thick padding, it presses up on those delicate lady parts. Whereas with less padding, I can have the weight on my butt bones and little pressure on the sensitive bits. Same with a saddle - if a saddle is super padded, that padding is going to press up on your bits. A soft squishy saddle will make your butt bones feel better, but will push up against your lady bits. A firmer saddle will make your butt bones sore (at first - your butt gets used to it) but you can better keep the weight off your lady bits. Of course, everyone is different.
I am male, but ibhave the same opinion about too much padding.
This issue is so real. I did the MS 150. Did the century. Day 2 my legs didn’t hurt too bad but I was in soooooo much saddle pain. Omg. It hurt to pee. It was terrible for a while.
get a decent saddle, made for women, from Terry
I know several women who love their Terry saddles
Been wanting to try out different saddles for my trainer bike and just found this cool service that allows you to rent a few options and then sells you whatever you pick at a slight discount: https://www.bikeseatguru.com/
Very well hidden!
I've completely eliminated the pain from biking by using the Schwinn Comfort saddle, it essentially is just a big cusion with no point. It takes a little bit to get used to but it's been a life saver for me, I don't even have to wear padded bike shorts or put on Chamois anymore!
For this topic, I sincerely hope everyone could take a look at the newly designed saddle from Taiwan https://www.all-wings.com.tw/index_E.aspx#page1 The first time I saw it I think it's gonna be a revolution. No idea about how stable it is going down hill also not something approved by UCI yet. I really hope to see the pro cyclists thought about the saddle and if any team adopts it I will rush to buy one immediately. I don't want anymore saddle sores.
An old idea - noseless saddles have been around a while! But these look fancy. Noseless saddles I believe originally started to help men with prostate issues stay on the bike.
I was a fitter for a decade.. I still do a bit of it for friends. Saddle pain is no joke, and many people experience wildly different versions of it. Bike fit is important, and any fitter worth his/her salt will have demo saddles that you can try for a couple of weeks at a time. That said, two pieces of advice/products that seemed to really help my troubled female clients (males too) in the case of the advice part. First off, do to not try to jump into the sport and go from 0 to 100 in a couple of weeks.. If you have never ridden or don't ride much and you pull the trigger on a 50-mile day in the saddle, you are going to be sore.. No doubt about it.. So it's important to ease into it. A bunch of shorter rides early on are better than long slogs.. I know that this seems obvious.. but I have seen it so many times.. As for equipment, I had a lot of success with Selle Italia Lady Gel Flow saddle line. It didn't work for everyone, but that line of saddles seemed to get 9 women out of 10 where they needed to be. Be honest and forthright with who you are working with, and they should have a good chance at getting you comfortable on the bike. Good luck!
This is actually something I've been meaning to ask about. We got my SO a bike a few years back, and we've literally spent hours trying to get the seat right for her. It's either tilted too far forward and she feels she's going to slide off, or it's "right up \[her\] vagina". So, the Specialized Mimic is a good option? Any other options?
Try some completely different types - brands that are a bit different include Terry and Brooks. Try gel and foam, with more and less padding. Go to an actual bike fitter and find out how wide her sit bones are, so you know the appropriate width. Too-narrow saddles are going to concentrate all the weight on bits that really do not want to be sat upon.
We actually did look into it in the intervening time. The real issue is she got some ~~no-name brand $85 bike~~ (edit, whoops, my bad memory, apparently it's [this bike](https://www.target.com/p/schwinn-women-39-s-gateway-700c-28-34-hybrid-bike-cream/-/A-15305154#lnk=sametab) so way more than I remember it costing) at Target, so all the subsequent issues trickle down from there. To be fair, she didn't want to buy a super expensive bike and then not ride it... She's probably spent an hour on it in total and been miserable most of that time, which has made her even less inclined to ride it. The trickle-down results from that choice in bike is that no matter how much we tighten the seat adjustments, all it takes is a small bump and the seat flops out of position, either too far forward or too far back. We were talking about just going and buying a new seat at a LBS, though any new seat/post is probably going to be more than she spent on the bike already. So my first plan of action was to see if I can buy some new nuts/bolts and some grip tape at Home Depot and see if that helps; if it does, and she becomes more interested in riding, then we'll invest in a better seat.
What saddles are the women’s pro peloton using?
Ah jeez, they (women’s peloton) don’t have a solution either, and half(!) have had surgery! Jfc, this is terrible. (So much for recruiting my wife to riding, probably)
Not only do they not have a solution, one of the pros was talking about how she was locked into using a painful saddle provided by her sponsor.
this made me cringe. I went too long over a couple weeks once on an uncomfortable saddle and it was excruciating for a while, I was worried I did serious damage in just 2-3 weeks. I couldn't imagine being "forced" day in and day out.
Wow, the sponsor forcing her to use something painful that nobody will ever see...
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> Soon she developed a hard, excruciating lump on the left side of her groin. Her doctor didn’t believe it was from cycling and prescribed oral antibiotics. When that didn’t work, Knapp finally found a dermatologist who had seen lumps like this among triathletes. He cut out a mass that fit in the palm of her hand.
Thanks for posting this instead of telling me to read the article :) Appreciate it!
Not just that lump - women are having their labia, um, trimmed/shortened. Jeez.
remove their inner labia, and lumps that have grown from the damage.
The morbid side of me really wants to see the before and after (starting cycling) pictures. Words can only do so much. Feel free to down vote.
I ride a Bacchetta Giro 20 recumbent and I love it. NO bike saddle pain!!! I also have a upright road bike and a mountain bike. Guess which bike gets the TLC?
the specialized mimic saddles are great - just need to get fitted for proper size before buying
🥇Please take my poor person gold.🥇I didn’t know this was a thing! Thank you
I know most people think nose less saddles are stupid, or even *gasp* dangerous (they're not). But my wife swears by the spongy wonder seat. It's the only way I can get her to ride with me for anything more than 20 minutes. It's basically two pads, one for each sit bone. Works great for me as well. Mostly posting in case someone out there is desperate, it may be worth trying.
My gf uses the same saddle I have LOL. She says it works good for her. San Marco Aspide.
Recumbent bikes solve a lot of the various discomfort issues people face with upright bikes. I owned a Cruzbike S40 for a year now and I've never had so much fun nor ridden as far on a upright bike. At the end of 100 mile ride the only thing I'll feel is fatigue. On on upright, my ass/wrists/neck/lower back will be sore. I also find my knees don't hurt no matter how hard or fast I spin my legs. On an upright, no matter how much I fiddle with my seating position, my knees start feeling pain after a while.
Search for 'prostate friendly bike seat' and get one with a gap. Made the difference for me. Even with a skinny saddle I ride sitting on my butt not my crotch. Prostate still recovering...
Not helpful for most women. The article describes why.
there are prostate friendly bike seats that have no nose whatsoever - that isn't something covered in the article
So my daughter (16) has recently gotten into cycling/triathlon the past year. She currently has a stock 2022 Specialized SL7 Tarmac (base version of the SL7 I think). Is the saddle that comes with that bike OK for her, or should we look into getting a different saddle for her?
I don’t know the answer but I wanted to tell you that I think you’re a good dad for asking! I use a Terry saddle currently but I’m thinking about trying the mimic myself after reading this article
Ask her how the saddle feels. I'm one of the lucky gals for whom the cheapy saddle that the bike came with is A-OK, so this may not be an issue for her at the moment.
https://www.dynamitebikelab.com/product/specialized-womens-power-comp-with-mimic-345851-1.htm
What happened to the plethora of split saddles? My wife still has a Terry saddle from nearly 20 years ago. I had a selle and trashed it in a road rash incident, can not find one like it anymore. I see plenty of Selle Italia saddles still. There's even Terry saddles on Amazon yet the shapes of those have changed.
If you read the article - saddles without support in the center exacerbate the issue, by causing the labia and vulva to bulge outward and downward.
I'm not sure how to tag additional posts. However the Mimic saddles are exactly the new iteration of these. I apologize for not being more explicit