Severe Ever Increasing Butt Pain

[Ecdycis]

So I am fairly new to riding started last summer and road quite a bit until school started then just did some spinning indoors when the whether was no good which is quite frequent in Lubbock very windy and dusty here which is not good for asthma. But to get to the point, I have but pain that starts getting pretty unbearable at 10 miles and numbness in my phallus starts at about 15 miles in I have tried different shorts castelli and pearl izumi. The more expensive castellis did seem to help but went on a ride the other day and the pain is getting bad enough that I can pin point where it is and its only one side. This leads me to believe that my seat is slightly too narrow and my sit bones are not centered. I also feel that perhaps another factor is that my glutes are pretty much non-existent; completely flat. I was wondering whether I should just go ahead and start trying new saddles or if I should trying building up my glutes first.
For my commuter bike raising the saddle and angling the nose down seemed to help quite a bit with rear pain. Would this help with numbness at all on my road bike?

 

[marc216]

I had the same issue. I couldnt ride 10 miles without the pain. So, I bought the "Selle SMP' saddle http://www.smpselle.com
Now I can ride for hours and no problems! Its awesome...

 

[tonyzackery]

Agree that the SMP is a pretty awesome piece of bicycle engineering. Had one a while back and it was great, but after pinning my rearend (pun unintended) pain down to saddle height (too high) I was able to sell it with a good return.

Butt pain, IMO, always originates from a saddle that is too high causing too much pressure to be borne in too concentrated an area. The SMP has that area relieved (cut out) so that your "junk" can sink down into the crevasse. Essentially, the SMP lowers your "junk" height without lowering your entire saddle height. So, my first suggestion always in these situations is to try lowering your saddle several millimeters and test for a ride or two. No money spent this way...but I won't dissuade you from a SMP as they're bling-worthy kit - and come in all sorts of cool colors too...

 

[swampy1970]

Is this a problem that happens regardless of whether you're sat up on the tops of the bars, on the brake levers on in the drops?

There's a Specialized "Body Geometry" dealer in Lubbock - Velocity bike shop. If they carry the Specialized saddles, which they should since they're a BG dealer, then they should also have the butt-o-meter which you can sit on the measure your sit bones. Policies seem to change from store to store but the couple of stores I went too when I last looked for saddles all gave the option to return the saddle for one of similar value as long as there were no significant marks/damage. The BG system worked very well for me and I've had no complaints with the Toupe carbon I've had for the last couple of years. I can ride the bike from dawn till dusk without issues - it's like it's not there, except you know it is there just cause you don't have a seatpost stuck up your rear.

Even if you don't end up with a Specialized saddle - the butt-o-meter will give you a good idea of how wide your saddle should at least be... however, I have a Fizik saddle of similar width which I no longer use as it kinda rubs me the wrong way and not in that happy special way either, sadly.

 

[doctorold]

So many different factors to consider but here's one for you: Are you sitting on the saddle properly? I believe many people just plop down on the saddle with the bulk of their weight on the perineum. You need to have good posture and put your ischial tuberosities (sit bones) on the wide part of the saddle. Of course this requires you to have a saddle that is the proper width. Too narrow a saddle and this can't be accomplished. And the saddle needs to be in the correct position. Get with a good LBS and have them help you figure this out.

 

[Ecdycis]

Velocity is the shop from which I originally purchased the bike actually. I am thinking my saddle is too narrow do to pain only being on on side or the other and have been looking at the Specialized Romin Saddle but really as long as I can enjoy a good and long ride I don't care which saddle I get. I guess I just need to figure out their return policy on saddles and just suck it up and go and get fitted for one and try it out.

 

[doctorold]

Some shops have a rental program where you can try out a saddles and then if you buy from them the rental fee comes off the sale price of the saddle. Shop where I bought my bike has Fizik and WTB and you can swap out as many saddles as they have until you find the right one. Find a shop like that if you can.

 

[woodguy1975]

I had the exact same problem. Measure my sit bones width... the seat was right... Bought a new seat... Didn't help....

My pain was always on my left side... I kept thinking about it and decided to measure my leg lengths. What I discovered is my right leg is slightly shorter than my left so I was putting pressure on the left side of my seat to accomodate it. I bought cleat shims and solved the issue. Might want to have your leg length measured.

Good Luck,

John

 

[Ecdycis]

I had my sit bones measured and I had a proper size saddle but tried a new one just hoping put about 300 miles on a Specialized romin saddle with no problems so far may drop the nose down just a hair more for the other sensitive areas but so far so good.
Also I found that if I pull my shorts so that the chamois sits just a bit more towards my back that helps a bit.
Thanks for all the replies