New bike, old seat - having butt pain all of a sudden. Help!

[kaian]

Last year I bought a new road bike (Specialized Allez Triple) and hence got a new seat with it (an inexpensive women's Forte made by Performance with the cut-out). I had no problems with my butt hurting when the seat was on that bike. I ended up having to sell that bike because it was way too big for me and causing problems with other body parts, so I bought a Trek 1000 and put the same seat on. Since I've had the seat on the Trek, it's been causing me lots of butt pain - even on short rides.

There are several things different on the Trek than on the Speciazlied bike: 1) The Trek has 650 wheels, 2) The Trek has different geometry, 3) The seat post is carbon, 4) the handlbars are narrower, 5) The handlebars are more "upright" (I swapped the stem that came with it for a slightly longer stem that angles upward because I wasn't feeling comfortable and the guy at the bike shop agreed that I didn't "look" comfortable. And finally, 6) The guy at the shop adjusted my seat so that it's flat because he said the weight shouldn't be on my arms, but on my butt. On the Specialized bike, I had my seat tipped a tiny bit forward to save my frontal area from chaffing and to take some of the pressure off of my sit-bones.

I'm wondering if I should tip the seat forward on the new bike or if this will wreck my riding position and cause other problems or if I should just start trying various seats. It just seems weird that the seat felt okay on one bike, but not another bike. Last year I did a 40 mile ride in October with the Specialized with no pain at all and now, the pain immediately starts as soon as I get on it.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[TrevorN]

to me it sounds as though the saddle angle is applying pressue in different areas which is causing pain sometimes. Are you able to ride no handed with the seat tipped forward?

 

[lokstah]

to me it sounds as though the saddle angle is applying pressue in different areas which is causing pain sometimes. Are you able to ride no handed with the seat tipped forward?

Trevor's right in suggesting you address first-things-first, as they say. There are a million and one subtle biomechanical considerations that can lead to discomfort while riding, but where your a** is concerned, question number 1 is how that seat is positioned.

If you previously had the saddle nose down a bit, and that was comfortable, by all means, tip the damn thing forward a hair and pray that solves the issue. It's possible there's another combination of issues at play--changes in the relationship of the saddle to the pedals, or handlebars, could be bothering you--but start with the obvious.

The shop guy, BTW, is a hack. There's no rule when it comes to saddle angle, only suggestions and guidelines intended with comfort in mind. To come along and tell a rider with even limited experience that their saddle angle is wrong is fairly retarded.

 

[gclark8]

I agree with the above.

Try the bike in a wind/mag trainer, LEVEL, set up the seat,
height first, distance behind the BB second, angle third. Make sure your are comfortable at light and medium pedaling loads, hands off, sitting up.

Then rotate the torso to the hands on hoods position, check for any discomfort, adjust the tilt if the nose of the sadddle is too high. Check on the drops, some minor discomfort may be normal here with a flat back. Don't go too far with the tilt as you may start to slide into the middle of the seat instead of sitting on the pads designed for the sit bones.

If you decide to change the seat, make sure it has a cut out, Selle Italia Ldy GF and Serfas RX Ladies are good. Also,I recommend using a suspension seat post (zero offset) for lady and "older" riders.

 

[cdaleguy]

How about the difference between previously having a carbon seatpost, versus not now. Maybe he's getting more vibration, stiffer...etc...?

 

[mwinoski]

Last year I bought a new road bike (Specialized Allez Triple) and hence got a new seat with it (an inexpensive women's Forte made by Performance with the cut-out). I had no problems with my butt hurting when the seat was on that bike. I ended up having to sell that bike because it was way too big for me and causing problems with other body parts, so I bought a Trek 1000 and put the same seat on. Since I've had the seat on the Trek, it's been causing me lots of butt pain - even on short rides.

There are several things different on the Trek than on the Speciazlied bike: 1) The Trek has 650 wheels, 2) The Trek has different geometry, 3) The seat post is carbon, 4) the handlbars are narrower, 5) The handlebars are more "upright" (I swapped the stem that came with it for a slightly longer stem that angles upward because I wasn't feeling comfortable and the guy at the bike shop agreed that I didn't "look" comfortable. And finally, 6) The guy at the shop adjusted my seat so that it's flat because he said the weight shouldn't be on my arms, but on my butt. On the Specialized bike, I had my seat tipped a tiny bit forward to save my frontal area from chaffing and to take some of the pressure off of my sit-bones.

I'm wondering if I should tip the seat forward on the new bike or if this will wreck my riding position and cause other problems or if I should just start trying various seats. It just seems weird that the seat felt okay on one bike, but not another bike. Last year I did a 40 mile ride in October with the Specialized with no pain at all and now, the pain immediately starts as soon as I get on it.

Thoughts anyone?

My sugestion is to get a new saddle. The club I ride with has several women riders and it seem almost all of them ride the Womans Terry line. See if your local bike shop will mount your bike on the trainer and let you try one. Another idea would be to find a place that offers a pro fit where they again mount the bike in a trainer and you show up with riding gear on and they fit you to the bike. This will get you in the ballpark of the most efficient position on the bike. Good luck