Now, this may sound silly, but I DO mean it seriously…
So there I was at the YMCA, taking a cycling class. I haven’t been on a bike in forever and normally do aerobox and step. These stationary bikes (couldn’t tell you the brand) had the exact same types of seats I remembered from regular bikes. Riding on them was sheer pain and torture!~!!! 45 minutes of this was like the Bataan Death March for the Behind!!! Now, understand, I’m in great shape and I’m actually hoping to get my ACE cert to teach group fitness next spring-- so this wasn’t a case of “well, she never gets OFF her butt, so naturally it was sore after a little exercise.” My question is, WHY would anyone design a bike seat this way? Is there actually a reason? I fled to Target and got a gel seat for later use, but why in the world is a bike seat NOT just designed so that it isn’t amazingly painful to use in the first place? Does it cause the bike to be more aerodynamic? Easier to handle? What??
Do a web search at <dogpile.com> for “Design of bicycle seats.” There is something new and better on the market now. Your health & fitness center and/or bike shop ia way behind the times.
Hmm. I don’t know what kind of seat was on your exercise equipment, but the most complained about saddle I know of is the standard racing saddle found on your better ten-or-more-speed bicycle. This saddle is designed to be lightweight, and to be small and out of the way of the huge thighs found on bicycle racers. It doesn’t need to be comfortable, partly because racing doesn’t involve all that much sitting down – most of your weight is on your pedals, but mostly because comfort is not a top consideration in designing competition sports equipment. On the other hand, I do recall seeing a video of a long-ago Tour de France, wherein an English translation (in a French accent) was provided of all the things the cyclists were saying as they passed. At the end, as he tottered off his mount, one cyclist was heard to say “Oh, my ass … oh, God, my ass hurts…”
Hmm. I don’t know what kind of seat was on your exercise equipment, but the most complained about saddle I know of is the standard racing saddle found on your better ten-or-more-speed bicycle. This saddle is designed to be lightweight, and to be small and out of the way of the huge thighs found on bicycle racers. It doesn’t need to be comfortable, partly because racing doesn’t involve all that much sitting down – most of your weight is on your pedals, but mostly because comfort is not a top consideration in designing competition sports equipment. On the other hand, I do recall seeing a video of a long-ago Tour de France, wherein an English translation (in a French accent) was provided of all the things the cyclists were saying as they passed. At the end, as he tottered off his mount, one cyclist was heard to say “Oh, my ass … oh, God, my ass hurts…”
The seat is narrow because your thighs need room to move. The nose keeps your thighs from scraping against each other.
As for the other stuff in this thread:
Spongywonder and other very similar seats have been around for a long time. There’s a good, obvious reason they have never achieved market share.
Racing saddles are designed to be lightweight, but very few cyclists (even top-level racers) have huge thighs. Huge thighs are reserved for track sprinters. As for “my ass hurts”, more than just my ass would hurt after one 150 mile race, let alone 20 races over 22 days.
As for what I’d recommend. Take yourself to a good bike shop, that knows a thing or two about fitting bikes. Look/ask for these things.
Proper saddle. You need one that fits your behind. Generally, women need wider saddles, men narrower, but every body is different. Unfortunately the only way to find out what works for you is trial and error.
Proper position. Too low and you are on your arms and shoulders too much. Too high and you are on your butt too much. You want a position that distributes the weight. A good shop should help you get setup on a real bike, and you can transfer that setup to the exercise bike (hopefully - see below).
Good shorts. You can’t go wrong with Pearl Izumi. Take a look at these, then you have something to compare other brands against. Pearls are expensive, but you might find others that are reasonable quality for half the price.
I have never found a stationary bike that I could be comfortable on. There just seem to be too many things wrong, and not enough adjustment to make things better. Most that I see have the seat way too far forward (in relation to the pedals) and the handlebars way too close to the seat. This position works reasonably well for runners who rarely bicycle, but it is horrible for cyclists.
Bike seats for women need to be designed differently than bike seats for men due to the differences in the male and female pelvic structures.
When I got my current road bike, a Cannondale, I took it for a dinky 10 mile ride using the seat it came with. The next day I had such pains in my pelvic area I could barely use the bathroom. I got a Terry seat, which is a bike seat made specifically for women. The new seat fixed the problem right away.
It’s the “haven’t been on a bike in forever” part that is important here. When I first started cycling again in my 40s, at about the 13 mile mark (about 45 minutes into a ride) my butt would definitely be in the throes of discomfort. But, it was just a matter of acclimation. Shortly my rides were longer with no discomfort, and nowadays I can do a 13-hour double century ride where my butt doesn’t start to get sore until ten hours into the ride–where it joins my sore neck, thighs, hands, etc., so it has plenty of company.
Both my wife and I use Terry saddles, but other folks have found other saddles that work for their physiology just as well. One fellow swears by his classic leather Brooks B17. Comfort is less a matter of sponginess, but more a matter of fit. Cycling guru Sheldon Brown has more on saddles here.
I agree with the previous poster. Having not cycled for 5 years I hopped back on a bike (with a much more comfortable saddle than before). After a 20 minute bike ride I could barely walk, I had visible bruises on my ass. It toughened up after a while though, keep at it.
spingears That saddle you linked to should be called the Deathride 2000 IMHO. Look at the picture, and visualize slipping off the front of the seat (coming to a stop, hit a chuck hole whatever) Picture just which part of a persons anatomy will contact that big U shaped piece of metal. That thing should have a Surgeon General’s warning on it.
::: shudder ::: I like my balls, I don’t want them forcibly removed by the Deathride 2000 bike seat.
I second the Terry seat suggestion, I have them on two of my bikes. Any good bike shop should let you road test a seat after purchase and return it if it does not fit.
And if you are a real man, you might try the saddle for real men
Here’s a problem; some of the stationary bikes in healthclubs don’t allow you to change the seat. I was a member of the Y about ten years ago and they had several lifecycles. They used a square post and different attachment than any other seat I’d seen. It was “use the seat we provide” or nothing. Naturally, these need to suit people from 95-305 lbs, so it’s going to fit about 10% of the population and hurt for everyone else, at least at the start. You will acclimate, but proper saddle and padded riding shorts make a world of difference.
And please, when you do start teaching, ask people if they cycle before putting them on the stationary for 45 minutes. That’s just frickin’ cruel. Limit them to ten or 15 first time out. Your instructor shoulda known better.
I didn’t check out the link first time through, but I thought I better check this out. Now, the later picture farther down the page gives a different view, and it don’t look too dangerous.
I had the same problem when I tried to ride a bike again after many years. When I was younger, I would ride 5-10 miles a day, then I stopped for a while. I bought a bike for college and tried 6 different seats, but none of the would stop the excruciating pain in the tuchus. Something with the way my pelvis moved when I grew up, or something.
Scroll down to the last picture See the shinny spot? It was polished on the scrotal hairs of the last poor bastard that rode that bike. If for some reason it did not get the family jewels, it would do interesting things for hemmorids.
The problem with this kind of alternative seat is that it provides little lateral support. On a regular (upright) bike, you need a narrow seat which you can push sideways with your thighs to control the bike. Try riding a bike with the seat removed; it’s hard to keep the frame upright with just your hands, and you’ll keep hitting your thighs with the frame.
If regular bike seats aren’t comfortable enough, you might as well go all the way and get a true recumbent bike. With a proper seat pad and seatback supporting all your weight, you have no problem with lateral control. Or butt pain.
I kind of thought it was the other way 'round. I’ve always found the racing saddles on road bikes to be pretty comfortable, given a few weeks of breaking in my pelvic area (breaking in = killing nerve cells).
On the other hand, the few times when I’ve had the displeasure of riding an excercise bike, with saddles that look like big tractor seats, my butt muscles are in excruciating pain after only about 30 minutes because they cramp from the pressure. I think the idea of a racing saddle is to get your weight off muscles and onto something more bony.