RFI Bicycle Seats

[Sanch]

Anyone here a SME on bicycle seats? I bought an air assault bike to stay in shape during covid and after 20 minutes my penis goes numb. I did some research online and it could be how I’m positioned or could be the seat itself. Putting pressure on the nerve around the perineum/taint. There’s some seats with the middle scooped out and some seats with two prongs.

Let’s assume my exercise bike uses an industry standard seat interface because I think it does, and if it doesn’t I can probably find an adapter.

The older I get, the more I realize every hobby has their 9mm vs 45 and AR vs AK debates and I don’t want to get sucked into spending 6 months learning about bicycles from the PF version of bikes. I also don’t want to go to a local bike shop and be tricked into the bike seat version of recommending a woman’s first gun be a snubbie j-frame revolver.

My budget is say up to $300 or so because this bike wasn’t cheap, and the penis numb thing can cause erectile dysfunction and if the bike is uncomfortable I won’t use it which will cause obesity. If there’s a Cadillac of bike seats that’s a few hundred bucks but is guaranteed to make riding comfortable without injury, I’m down. But I’m also not opposed to a $30 seat off amazon.

I am thinking of hitting up local bike shops who might have display models to try, but like I said I’m not sure how knowledgeable or trustworthy those dudes are. Like you wouldn’t send a person to a random local gun shop for gun advice.

Also not sure how much it matters that it’s an air assault bike so the positioning of my body might be leaning forward more than a regular seat.

Last comment, is I remember looking up bike seats a decade ago for a mountain bike and was told I wanted a hard uncomfortable seat to condition my glutes/ass muscle and it wouldn’t be uncomfortable once I got conditioned for it. I stopped mountain biking for unrelated reasons so I don’t remember if I ever got conditioned and I mentioned this to a bike enthusiast associate in passing recently who said that’s BS and comfortable gel seats are fine and he rides with gel short inserts that feel like a diaper but he enjoys them.

I want to buy the best bicycle seat within reason, I never want to think about it again after this purchase, and I don’t want to become a bike enthusiast. I want it to be a tool that I jump on for 30 minutes every morning to do a medium pace aerobic workout, occasionally doing a 5 minute HIIT routine, and I want it to be bombproof, and not even notice it’s there because it just works without pain.

[hufnagel]

https://www.amazon.com/Terry-Liberat...dp/B0188C1TYC/

I've had two of the regular liberator y for men, and I'm upgrading to liberator y gel next season. I already have that replacement saddle as well. I highly recommend it I've ridden on mine for about 5,000 mi. That's across two different saddles of the same type. Also, make sure you're sitting on the saddle correctly. You need to be as far back as you can sitting on your sit Bones on the thickest part of the saddle. I've seen a lot of people, including my son who I'm working on his position, sit too far forward which results in putting pressure on the perineum and creates the issues you're describing.

[revchuck38]

Ask the local hardcore road cyclists which local bike shop does fittings. You need to get properly fitted to the bike before you start replacing stuff. IIRC, your bike comes in one size that kinda fits most, so if you’re over about 5’10” you might be SOL. A non-computer aided fit will be about $100-150. You may well not need another saddle.

If you do need another saddle, I recommend the Specialized Power. They come in two versions, one pretty flat and the other more rounded (“Arc”), three widths and different levels of fancy. I used one of the Arc versions on a 204 mile ride from Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming that took 12 hours. My legs were sore but my butt was fine.

[JohnO]

I have first hand experience with your problem. I'm a former citizen racer who averaged ~200 miles/week on a road bike. A poorly adjusted saddle freaked me out once when everything down there was totally numb. One quick adjustment and problem solved.

You may need to change the pitch of the saddle. Make sure the the front is no higher than level. Based on your anatomy you might need to pitch it slightly downward but usually not such that it is immediately apparent. Also the saddle's position fore and aft relative to the bottom bracket (pedals axis of rotation) must be correct.

[taadski]

I'll second the recommendations for dropping the nose of the saddle some. This will accommodate having your weight toward the rear of the saddle. Like noted above, this will help keep your points of contact on the sitz bones, instead of your perineum. I'd try those two tactics before spending cash on a different saddle.

[Xrslug]

Bike fit can be more complicated than it might seem to be. Reach to the bars and height of bars affects how much pressure you’re putting on the saddle and where. The typical cycling position is too stretched out and aggressive for most people to be comfortable. You want to get your bars up fairly high and closer to your saddle if possible. You’ll need to play with fore / aft adjustment of your saddle and tilt up / down. Tilt of saddle nose is most important — you’ll usually have it pointing level or a little up, not down, which can seem counterintuitive (but note others disagree above, can depend a lot on your saddle). If I hop on someone else’s bike, my body can feel pretty wrecked after a pretty short ride — numb hands, neck pain, etc. As others have said, you want your weight to be on your “sit bones” and effectively no weight or pressure on the soft bits. Also, for bikes with tires, get some chubbier ones on the bike if they’ll fit, and run less air pressure in them.

[MichaelD]

There are a lot of guys on the site who ride more than i do, but that being said I do a bunch of 15-20 mile rides and weigh upwards of 225lbs. I don't suffer from numb crotch on my rides thanks mainly to my Serfas RX saddle: https://www.serfas.com/shop/products...rofiber-cover/

[0ddl0t]

Adjust your seat first. The nose should be flat (preferably) or one click down - unless you have one of those comfort seats with springs in the rear that sag when you sit on it in which case you might need to angle the nose down even further so the nose becomes level when the rear springs are fully sagged. You might also try sliding the seat forward a bit on its rails so you sit a bit closer to the handlebars in a more upright position.

[orionz06]

Go get fitted for a saddle. Most of the thoughts folks have on this cause more problems than they help. A properly fitted and adjusted saddle will do wonders. Don't be alarmed if it looks small, it should be, you'll be fine.

[LittleLebowski]

You are wearing good bike shorts, right?