Soreness from the saddle of your bike seems to be a lesser talked about piece of a proper bike fitting, but a change in the seat can tremendously impact the comfort of the ride. This blog is written from the perspective of a cis female rider, but can be related to anyone with a pelvis to help them achieve a smoother feeling ride.
Starting with “Why?”
A great way to begin searching for a saddle is to consider what you enjoy about riding and where your rides take you. You may be riding to commute to work or around town, you may bike up on the mountain tops, or down in the valleys on the road. Are your rides long or short? Vigorous or easy-going?
There are two main types of saddles that differ in the amount of cushioning to accommodate you in different terrains and positions the rider may be in. The two types are performance and cushioning. Which type you may find works best for you may depend on the amount of time you spend riding and the terrain you are riding on.
Cushioning saddles
These have more shock absorption and padding, usually better suited for recreational and commuting rides because they absorb bumps in the road.
Performance saddles
Typically have a longer nose and very little added padding to help a rider gain maximal power without abrasive irritation during road touring or mountain biking.
Starting at the bottom
Between the bony parts of your bottom that you sit on is an area called the perineum, which is a medical term for your “privates”. This area has muscles and an extensive network of nerves, and arteries that require protection when riding. For some, protection of this area may come in the form of a saddle with a cut out in the center. For others, the slit down the center may add to their discomfort and instead, a completely solid seat may be more comforting. In my search for a bike seat, I found an interesting article that discussed some research Cobb Cycling founder John Cobb performed. He found that for riders with female anatomy structures, determining if their perineum extended further out away from their pelvis, or stayed in close proximity to their pelvis was more effective to figure out if they would prefer an opening in the seat or not. To read more about his findings, check out this article.
Sizing your Saddle
To size your saddle, you would measure the distance between the two boney spots at the bottom of the tush called the ischial tuberosities or “sits bones”. The width of these bones is important because saddles come in different sizes for allowing these supportive bones to be the area the pressure is centered over during most types of riding. At home you can easily use cardboard and a ruler to obtain the width of your sits bones, and online there are charts or conversion calculators to figure out what saddle width would fit you best, but also remember nothing beats trying the seat in person. In Portland, we are blessed with many bike shops and most have some form of try-before-you-buy options for saddles.
These tips and tricks helped me in researching what saddle type would make my rides more comfortable and my hope is that the deep dive I did to find this information out will help you too.