I got a bike seat/cover thing for Christmas this year; a TRICO Sports “painreliever gel saddle pad for spinning, ATB and road,” that’s basically gel-based, has a small groove cut out in the middle for the family jewels and such, and has some “doctor recommended memoflex gel” seal of approval on the packaging. It seems like it’s a decent seat cover, but I am skeptical. Should I take it back to get a real bike seat (not merely a cover), one that has a much deeper basin in the middle, and maybe a slightly larger ass-part, or is this good enough? I know there are some cycling enthusiasts out there who know what I’m talking about and understand the need to protect the soft tissues which are the basis for life as we know it.
If anyone can either verify whether or not this is a good bike seat cover or not, or knows of a really good one (for cheap!) that would be even a little bit better, I would love their help.
here is the product in question: http://www.tricosports.com/C_detail.cfm?iD=11-100
I love to ride my bike, all hail Gary Fischer and the great Santa Cruz trails, thanks for the help, ride on!
Please don’t think badly of me, but that thing look cheap and nasty. It looks like it was designed for fat asses who think three miles is a long way, so you’re probably better off not using that thing at all.
As for the question on saddle design, just about every single serious biker out their goes with skinny and hard -(mine). Just like our asses (I wish). If you’re going off road, then surely your suspension is taking care of the bumps.
Oh, I’m a bike snob BTW (check out my new baby), so feel free to ignore this advice.
You may look at the groove in the middle of that and some other seats, and say, “Wait a minute, that’s barely big enough for one of my Soft Tissues, let alone the pair.” Actually, the soft tissue in question is the pudendal nerve, the one that, when ridden upon, will cause your penis to feel numb. A gel saddle without the groove will cause the gel under your sit bones (two projections on the pelvis called something-condyles) to bunch up in the middle, pressing even harder on the pudendal nerve. I haven’t used the seat cover in your link, and I don’t know if the valley between the pads is deep enough to help you.
I’m not a bike snob, I just ride for fun. My rides average 10-15 miles a day. I don’t ride hard or fast, and I often stop to take pictures along the way.
I found that a gel-seat cover helped a lot in the comfort department on longer rides. I’m a girl so I skipped the cut out middle part. I bought mine at Target (on sale at the end of the season) for $10.
You didn’t say what kind of bike you ride, or how much you ride. I have found that different bikes require different saddles for comfort.
My mountain bike saddle, doesn’t work on my road bike. I would suggest that if you want a good seat, go to a good bike shop that has a large collection of saddles on display and talk to them. Many stores will let yout try out a saddle for a week or so to make sure it is correct for you. The few extra bucks you may spend is well worth the ability to exchange for a different saddle.
I’ve read many discussions about bike seats and there’s never an agreement. It seems that you just have to try a few until you find the right one. But generally, wide soft seats are more comfortable for non-serious riders for short distances. Hardcore riders use their legs and arms more to support their weight, and put little weight on their narrow, hard seats.
I’m afraid I’ve never used seat covers. The seat I’ve found most comfortable is the Specialized Body Geometry Comfort - it’s the wide soft kind, but not too soft. (I don’t use that bike too often though, I usually ride a recumbent bike so butt pain is a non-issue.)
It clocks in at a mere 135 grams, two rails of titanium, a sheet of carbon fiber, and 4mm layer of padding. Or, go for the SLR Evolution, for no padding, and sit straight on the carbon to shave 10 grams. The suprising thing about these saddles is that they’re extremely comfortable. I personally think that the whole cut out for the vein/nerve is BS, and the SLR, a very classic cut saddle, is much more comfortable than my old Specialized Body Geometry. Some recent research published in Velonews (www.velonews.com) supports this: cycling can mean problems “down there” but the split saddles don’t help, in fact they may even be worse becasue they have more overall pressure in cartain areas.
Really, the best solution is to try out a bunch of saddles and go with the one you like best.
Saddles that are too wide, like this cover appears to be, simply make the critical region sweat more and chafe more, and absorb your hard work.
I’ve found that the best saddles are the one with virtually no sides, just a platform stretched across the fore and aft supports.
Such saddles are used by the six-day track race riders, whose pedalling rate is very high, and who keep going for long periods of time.
Brooks used to do one called the Swallow, there are a few modern day equivalents.
One thing that is important is getting the saddle height correct and getting it set to the correct angle for you.It may seem unlikely, but if the reach to your handlebars is wrong, this will make any problems worse.
Just so we’re all reading from the same page, the problems “down there” that are being referred to are impotence and sterility. In short, inability to have erections, and inability to get women pregnant. These are not minor-league problems, and frequent bike riding has been found to be associated with significantly increased risks of both.
I’ve pretty much dropped bike riding as an exercise program because of them. I really like riding bikes, but the downside here is seriously, er, down. I still ride occasionally for fun, that’s about it.
Sorry tough guy, gonna have to ask for a couple of cites. Not that’ll do much good because for everyone that says cycling hurts the boys, we can probably find one that says it doesn’t affect anything. With as many older cyclists I’ve known that can still pop out the kids, I wouldn’t give it up.
The two important things here are what type of riding is being done (cyclocross, road/track, mtb, just for fun, tours?) and the other thing is how does the bike fit. casdave is absolutly right, saddle height, angle, and push back can all affect the “fun between your legs.” Plus sometimes you just have to give it 4-6 weeks of daily riding before your butt adjusts.
THat’s funny, I posted to this earlier, but it didn’t show…
anyway, I like to do a little mountain biking now and then, and by that I mean nothing really balls-out gnarly, but some good trail-riding, cross-country tresspassin’, whoopin’, hollerin’ an’ carryin’ on n’ so forth. Mostly, though, I ride all over town, up hills and down hills, up curbs, down stairs, pavement, dirt, mud, et cetera. I’m 20 and I like to show everyone. I haven’t gone on any tours, YET, but I’d like to, eventually. In general, I’m a city rider, but I do a lot of varied terrain. I currently have a very nice G. Fischer Katai, with a cool shock up front, but it’s being borrowed and soon will be returned; I plan on getting a similar bike in the near future. I hope there’s still a few more suggestions out there in cyberland, thanks for the input so far.
and there are quite a few others to be obtained very easily by going to Google and typing in the words cycilng and impotence.
And yeah, there’s a debate on the topic, and no, I’m not surprised there is. It’s kinda like global warming, y’know? Some people are gonna be disposed to buy in a lot earlier than others.
That said, the health benefits of cycling are tremendous, no argument there. And it’s the most fun form of exercise I’ve ever enjoyed. But don’t think you aren’t taking a risk here, because you are. A lot of people grow old smoking cigarettes, too. Don’t mean cigarettes don’t cause cancer in a lot of people.
I think the best saddles, as recommended above, are the Brooks line.
If you can see the indentations in your current saddle from your ischeal tuberosities (sit bones), this will help you determine what width saddle to get.
The Brooks B.17 is 170mm wide at its widest point. This seems ideal for most riding, including relaxed road riding, mountain biking and commuting. If you want a narrower saddle, have a look at the Champion (150mm), Swift (145mm?), and Swallow(150mm).
Oh, and don’t believe all that hogwash about “breaking in” a leather saddle. A B.17 is comfortable out of the box if you set it up correctly.
If you can’t abide by a leather saddle, I’ve heard people say good things about the Avocet O2 Air 40 and Selle Italia SLR. These are narrower than 170mm, though, and are probably more suitable for road bikes.
The British newspaper link was pretty lame, though. (Sampling bias problems, since all respondents were from bike clubs.)
Some colleagues and I published a reasonably good epidemiologic paper on the subject last year:
Marceau L, Kleinman K,Goldstein I, McKinlay J. Does bicycling contribute to the risk of erectile dysfunction? Results from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study (MMAS). International Journal of Impotence Research 2001 13 298-302
This is not a great journal, and not widely available, so I’ll summarize briefly here: The sample size was too small to show statistically meaningful associations. However, biking more than 3 hours per week was associated with increased odds of erectile dysfunction.
The paper also includes a survey of the limited convincing previous research, which is inconclusive. Our work has its limitations as well.
If anyone is really interested, I’d be happy to scan and e-mail the article.
Finally, in response to a different post, the pudendal nerve isn’t necessarily all it’s about; physiologic studies have shown reduced penile blood flow resulting from sitting on a bike seat.
The bottom line, IMO, is that if you just need to bike, you might check out a recumbent. The makers of the grooved seats which provoked this thread don’t have any proof they do what you’d want them to.
The principal study citing a possible ED - cycling link is the Schwarzer study - AUA Abstract 952. This is adose-response survey study comparing the responses of cyclists and swimmers. The study found cyclists were twice as likely to suffer severe impotence than swimmers. Unfortunately, the report did not adjust the results for the fact the swimmers were on average 10 years younger than the cyclists, nor did the abstract detail the margin of error in the survey, which would push the impotency rates between the cyclists and swimmers into a statistical tie. In political terms, It’s too close to call. The final blow to this survey came when a colleague of mine, Bud Hoffacker, the owner of Avocet cycling products, graphed the impotency rates of the cyclists against the findings of the Mass. Male Aging Study and demonstrated that when compared to the general male population, cyclists were half as likely to suffer severe impotence and 1/3 as likely to suffer any form of impotence. The conclusion he drew from the study is that cycling may not be as beneficial as swimming at mitigating or eliminating impotence. Also he concluded, at a minimum cycling does not expose riders to a higher risk of impotence.
Personally speaking, I raced bikes for about 12 years, and in all that time I never knew anyone that had erectile problems (neither did I). These are people that rode thousands of miles each year. Some of them had multiple children as well.
I used to tour for days with full packs, lots of mountain highways, best day ever was 220 kilometers. I used a rock-hard leather saddle, an old Brooks with brass trim, and you can see two dents from my pelvic bone. Good positioning on rock-hard butt muscles protects your gentles, I’ve used a gel pad or sheepskin cover if I’m out of shape and usually carried one on tours but rarely used it. I came to the conclusion that tremendously well conditioned butt muscles are your protection down there.
So, a second-hand attribution of an financially interested party, cited in a verbal presentation and transcribed on a third person’s web site is, you feel, a convincing point? I have a nice bridge in Brooklyn you might like to invest in.
Even assuming you had first-hand knowledge of Mr. Hoffacker’s investigation, do you suppose that Mr. Hoffacker had access to the study data and was able to adjust for age, as the Schwarzer study was accurately criticized for NOT doing? Not that we could ever find out, since the work was reported third-hand or so and was never claimed to be peer-reviewed science.
I’m sure all you macho biking dudes were completely honest when discussing your ability to get it up, which you did all the time.
The increased odds ratio from biking is one relevant feature of the relationship (this is roughly, How many times more likely am I to get ED if I bike than if I don’t?) but the other relevant aspect is what’s the increased probability of ED (What the added probability of ED if I bike?) . If the original probability is small (as it is for young men in good cardiovascular health) then the odds ratio can be enormous even if the added probability is small on an absolute scale.
If the probability is small, then any individual person has no trouble escaping with their erectile ability intact, and I’m happy for you and your SO’s that that’s what happened for you. But don’t confuse your personal experience for a general recommendation. Lots of smokers don’t get lung cancer, but it’s still true that smoking caused lung cancer among most of the people who have lung cancer.
In addition, if I was a clincian, I’d warn Fryodor not to fall onto his bike. That kind of injury, a well-muscled butt won’t protect your parts from.
Besides selecting the seat, I think how it is adjusted is more important. As cykrider mentioned above, the angle of the seat can be adjusted if you are having, er, numbness.
I used to get that, then I adjusted the seat and haven’t had any problems since.
First, adjust the seat so it is level with the top tube or ground, if you are on a flat level surface. Next, angle the front down a few degrees. Don’t go so far that when you are on the bike you feel you are sliding towards the front.