More Thoughts about the Saddle Woes

I recently went into the TrySports store in Raleigh. I asked the sales guy if they sold spacers for cleats. He asked me why I thought I needed spacers. I briefly explained my saddle woes and how someone off my blog told me that I might needed to correct a leg length discrepancy. Oh boy, did I open a can of worms by saying that!! He said adding spacers can do more harm than good and he only recommends them if you’ve been to an orthopedist to have your bones measured properly. I wasn’t about to question his expertise, even tho I did really want to try the spacers!

Anyway, he went on to explain how he does bike fits. Which is basically to spend a ton of time with you, letting you ride on the trainer for 45 minutes in the store, spending more time talking about how it felt, more adjustments, going home to do a 3 hour ride, another visit for more tweaking, etc. He charges by the hour. That sounds really great – I wish I could afford to do that! Since I can’t, I will have to do my own tweaking.

So…I went back to square one with my new V-flow Plus saddle. I got out the detailed instructions that came with the saddle. (click image at right to see page 1). I re-measured my inseam, and then re-measured the height of the saddle to make sure was correct. It was. I hadn’t changed the height between my “good” 3 hour ride, and my “bad” 3 hour ride.

Then I measured my forearm length and checked the forward/back position of the saddle. It was pretty close to specs, too. I had fiddled with that a little bit, but not much. The thing I changed most the day I tweaked my saddle position was tilt the nose of the saddle up. I got out a level and measured it…it was definitely titled up. The new saddle sore I have is in the front part of my butt, so I decided to tilt the nose back down to where it was level.

After that, I got on the trainer to do a hard Spinervals workout: The Uphill Grind. After riding a bit, I found myself wanting to inch forward on the saddle, to get a more powerful pedal stroke. However I also feel more pressure on the pubic bones in that position. I think what happened in that painful 3 hour ride last weekend was that I had moved forward on the saddle for power, and was trying to stay put – so as not to cause friction by ‘scrubbing’ forward and backward. Friction is bad, right? But staying forward like that for 3 hours lead to alot of pain and pressure in my pubic bones. I HTFU’d because I was operating on the assumption that my bones just need to get tougher.

Maybe not. Maybe I am sitting incorrectly on the saddle. Pubic bones aren’t meant to be sat on for 3+ hours! Sit bones are, tho…so today, after titling the nose down, I slid back to where my sit bones are bearing most of my weight and my pubic bones felt less pressure and started spinning. But I felt less powerful in that position. So, I got off and moved the seat forward a little. Then got back on and continued the hard trainer ride. Repeated this one more time, moving seat forward a bit more. Seemed to feel really good – both powerful and my sit bones bearing most of the weight. Did one hour and 20 minutes on the trainer without discomfort.

Oh, and today I also used a buttload (hehe) of Chamous Butt’r as my friend suggested. Two tablespoons.

I hope to get in a 3 hour ride this week. I will use my bike shorts and lots of But’r.