This post might seem rather "well DUH" to some readers but I thought it was worth sharing.
Since getting into cycling about 8 years ago, like many women I've struggled to find a comfy saddle in that time. Pretty much all saddles I tried rubbed uncomfortably at the front and no combination of saddle height/angle/fore-aft placement seemed to help. I know that most of a cyclist's weight is meant to rest on the sitbones but I've never been able to get that to happen properly on any setup. That said, pretty much every saddle I've tried has had at least some padding on it. I'm not freakishly sized or mis-proportioned and have had the same problem with men's and women-specific bikes.
I've been making do for the last couple of years with a Selle SMP Pro saddle. The dramatically dropped nose and giant cutout at least fixed the problem of pressure at the front, but I was still struggling to get my weight onto my sitbones and it was too wide and caused soreness where my inner thigh meets my body.
Anyway, last week I finally decided to try a Brooks (a B17S). I thought it was worth a punt, since nothing else had helped. I got it setup on my road bike and tried it out without padded shorts so that I could properly 'feel' it to help with setting it up. Initially I was a bit disappointed because although I was finally resting on my sitbones (hooray!), there was still some uncomfortable pressure from the nose. Thankfully, this went away after flipping the stem. I rode about 40 miles on this setup over the weekend (in unpadded shorts) and am not remotely sore, not even in my sitbones. It's a miracle
I may in time try a different Brooks with a similar rear width but longer nose, as the rails on a B17S are really short and don't allow the saddle to be pushed as far back as might be best for me. Sitting on the sitbones really does seem to lift everything else up so that there's no pressure there, especially with no padding in the shorts.
I suppose it's no coincidence that for decades, bikes came with unpadded Brooks-style leather saddles and people rode them quite happily in normal trousers. I'm very pleased with my Brooks. Definitely worth borrowing or buying one to try if you've struggled to find a comfy saddle!
Since getting into cycling about 8 years ago, like many women I've struggled to find a comfy saddle in that time. Pretty much all saddles I tried rubbed uncomfortably at the front and no combination of saddle height/angle/fore-aft placement seemed to help. I know that most of a cyclist's weight is meant to rest on the sitbones but I've never been able to get that to happen properly on any setup. That said, pretty much every saddle I've tried has had at least some padding on it. I'm not freakishly sized or mis-proportioned and have had the same problem with men's and women-specific bikes.
I've been making do for the last couple of years with a Selle SMP Pro saddle. The dramatically dropped nose and giant cutout at least fixed the problem of pressure at the front, but I was still struggling to get my weight onto my sitbones and it was too wide and caused soreness where my inner thigh meets my body.
Anyway, last week I finally decided to try a Brooks (a B17S). I thought it was worth a punt, since nothing else had helped. I got it setup on my road bike and tried it out without padded shorts so that I could properly 'feel' it to help with setting it up. Initially I was a bit disappointed because although I was finally resting on my sitbones (hooray!), there was still some uncomfortable pressure from the nose. Thankfully, this went away after flipping the stem. I rode about 40 miles on this setup over the weekend (in unpadded shorts) and am not remotely sore, not even in my sitbones. It's a miracle
I may in time try a different Brooks with a similar rear width but longer nose, as the rails on a B17S are really short and don't allow the saddle to be pushed as far back as might be best for me. Sitting on the sitbones really does seem to lift everything else up so that there's no pressure there, especially with no padding in the shorts.
I suppose it's no coincidence that for decades, bikes came with unpadded Brooks-style leather saddles and people rode them quite happily in normal trousers. I'm very pleased with my Brooks. Definitely worth borrowing or buying one to try if you've struggled to find a comfy saddle!
