What exactly is the function of the anterior protuberance on my bicycle seat? All it seems to do is punch me in the nuts. Freudian anxieties aside, is there any reason I shouldn’t just saw the damn thing off?
It’s there to make you sterile. It’s a conspiracy by the automakers to limit the procreation of bicycle riders.
Aside from that, good question. Have you tried sawing it off and finding out what the riding experience is like?
I would assume it’s to allow you to slide forward a bit (eg, while climbing), without effecting your legs as much (thus the narrow width).
I’ve never seen a bike seat with a pommel. Perhaps to keep you from sliding forward and on to the frame if you brake suddenly? I’m thinking a metal bar in the junk is probably more painful than a plastic/vinyl pommel.
I should clarify. I’m not talking about any vertical projection, just the narrow front part that all bike seats seem to have. Maybe I sit wrong, but my weight seems to be coming down on the middle of the seat, through my “sit bones”. What’s the point of having anything forward of that?
I thought it was for stability. When I ride (which is admitedly not often), I sort of “grip” with my thighs, lightly, especially on turns and such. I’m afraid if there was nothing there, I’d lose control of the bike.
Ah, right. In that case, I’d also nominate “slide room.” The narrow width would naturally be so that it doesn’t get in the way of pedaling, and you have room to slide forward a bit of need be – also when braking hard, for example. Also, if you stand on the pedals while you coast, sitting down is made easier by the fact that there’s more seat there so you don’t misjudge your trajectory and end up “hot-dogging” the frame.
wince
I agree with this. The protuberance in question makes the seat sort of T-shaped and therefore difficult to slide off (to the left or right) of without raising one leg or the other.
That’s why the extra-scary rides at many amusement parks use bicycle seats as part of the passenger “compartment”, so you can’t just slide out to the left or right since the seat sticks out beneath your naughty bits.
They would be a lot better with a seat that removed the front piece and made the back piece twice as wide.
If your bicycle seat is causing problems, may I suggest “The SEAT” at www.thecomfortseat.com? I use one and it is the most comfortable bike seat I have found yet, and I’ve tried a few.
It is basically a seat of regular width but no “horn”.
Thanks, Zambini57, that looks like something I might be interested in. I still wonder why the conventional design got to be so standard, though. Who ever looked at that shape and thought it would be a good thing to sit on??
Edited to add: the anti-sliding idea is quite plausible, but I’m not convinced it’s a major issue for the casual, everyday cyclist. I don’t usually ride at terribly high speeds or make very sharp corners.
I think it’s a holdover from the racing bike craze of the late 60’s-70’s. You weren’t supposed to actually sit on them much, but rather lean forward and reach down to grab those low handlebars. When handlebars went back to a sane design, the seats didn’t follow.
Maybe it’s vestigial from when they had unicycles, and the seat needed to ride up between your legs as you angled the bike under you.
I looked at this and the design is intriguing but why not build one made with leather and of solid design? A “soft” seat is not necessarilly a better seat. There’s a reason why serious cyclists don’t use soft seats. Vinyl is an inferior material to leather for that application. I would try one but I’m afraid it would be a POS made for someone that doesn’t ride a lot of miles.
Great, now I have a Max Splodge earworm.
“Life would be oh, so sweet,
If I was a bicycle seat.
Ride, Ride, little cheek!
Sit on me, I’m a bicycle seat!”
The more correct term here is “nose of the saddle” instead of calling it the “horn”. The nose of the saddle is there to (1) keep you from sliding forward and off the saddle; (2) give you room to move along the saddle during various types of riding. It shouldn’t really be crushing your nuts. If you have this problem, you need a bicycle fitting to get your bike set up to fit you.
The Comfort Seat that was linked to may be fine for casual riding but you will find that you tend to slid off the front of the saddle, especially during hard efforts on flat ground. If you are an experienced rider, you will tend to sit more forward on the saddle when you are trying to ride fast on flat ground or do a sprint for the finish line. This is caused by the rider trying to use the upper body to try to keep the body seated. Sitting further forward also emphasizes the usage of the quadricep muscles. When climbing a hill, you will want to sit further back to emphasize the usage of the muscles on the back of the thigh. This will allow you to use different muscle groups to try to minimize fatigue.
Additionally, the nose of the saddle gives you more control over your bike if you ride no-hands. This is important if you are trying to eat or change clothing with both hands on the bike.
When I’m going around a corner, especially on my mountain bike, I keep my outside foot close to the ground so my inside pedal won’t catch the ground. I use my outside thigh on the “horn” to keep the bike under control, giving me two points of contact on the bike frame instead of just one (counting the handlebars seperately). Especially on tight turns or when you’re going downhill, you can control how much your bike is leaning and how tight the turn is vs. how far the handlebars are turned. The seat Zambini57 linked to would be great for casual rides and commuting, but I guarantee you’ll never see it on a competition bike.
Well, if you’re out roping dogies, you need a place to anchor your lariat.
Sharp corners don’t matter in the least. When a bicycle makes a turn, it leans to the angle needed to cancle any sideways thrust, otherwise the whole bike would topple to the outside of the turn. To get any sideways force, you’d have to “hang off” to one side or the other.
This is NOT true of tricycles, which is why they are prone to tipping over.
The intention of the horn is to prevent you from dropping onto the top tube of the frame, should you slide forward on the saddle.
This is an oversimplification. You are quite correct that the net of all the forces is always as you say and, were that not so, you’d fall over. However, there is a great deal of movement, and consequently complex dynamic forces, between bike and rider, particularly when pedalling hard and cornering hard, and even more so if the corner is complex or bumpy.