Bike seat pain

[Bikerjon]

Not sure why but recently my seat is giving me a lot of pain and is taking all enjoyment out of rides. I need to try something else. Have there been any notable developments in bike seats that I should look for? Any recommendations? Current one is made by Selle and is quite soft which I've heard is generally a bad thing although I found it fine up until now.

I ride a hybrid so it’s a fairly upright bike and I’m a fairly big chap so it needs to be something quite substantial I would think. Keep reading how some people always rate an old-school leather seat and even though it would look strange I’m wondering if it might be worth a go?

[numtumfutunch]

Q1) Are you wearing padded cycle shorts?

[gazza285]

Leather seats are good, but only after you have broken them in to your own arse. I have two, one has been with me four five years now, and is a lovely thing, the other is proving more of a bd, and is still bedding in after two years and nearly two thousand miles. A quick fix they are not.

[Gareth79]

Have you played with all the various adjustments yet? You have the basic saddle height, the fore/aft and then the angle. They all affect each other so changing one at a time and seeing how it feels is a good idea.

A few weeks ago my saddle nose dropped slightly without me noticing and I got a sore sit-bone after a few days of long rides. I figured out what happened and raised the nose and the pain almost instantly stopped.

[DukeDickson]

gazza285 said:

Leather seats are good, but only after you have broken them in to your own arse. I have two, one has been with me four five years now, and is a lovely thing, the other is proving more of a bd, and is still bedding in after two years and nearly two thousand miles. A quick fix they are not.

Two years & nearly 2k .

I currently have a Billy basic Decathlon saddle on an ancient MTB (because I broke the old one and desperately need a new bike, but in can't quite decide mode) and have no issues after next to no time at all by comparison. A multiple year running in period would have me giving up TBH.
There does seem to be so many different factors - bike fitting, choosing the right saddle for you & your body, decent padded shorts, appropriate lube down there and so on. Seems better to pay a bit of attention to all of those things on isolation first.

[smifffymoto]

My wife was suffering badly on our tandem ,she tried 5 saddles including a B17,now she has found a good fit with a SQ Labs saddle from their trekking range.

[Bikerjon]

numtumfutunch said:

Q1) Are you wearing padded cycle shorts?

Yes, for all but the 10 minute rides to the local shop/post office. I mostly do two or three 10-15 mile rides per week, so not huge distances but last week was the first week in a long while where I just couldn't face getting on the bike at all!

[Bikerjon]

Gareth79 said:

Have you played with all the various adjustments yet? You have the basic saddle height, the fore/aft and then the angle. They all affect each other so changing one at a time and seeing how it feels is a good idea.

A few weeks ago my saddle nose dropped slightly without me noticing and I got a sore sit-bone after a few days of long rides. I figured out what happened and raised the nose and the pain almost instantly stopped.

I don't think the adjustment has changed at all. I found an older seat in the garage yesterday and have put that on in readiness just to try something different. This one has noticeably less padding than the Selle and no cut-out down the middle and much more flat. I'll see what happens...

It's annoying because I've been riding bikes over 30 years and although some bikes had better seats than others I could get used to most of them with a bit of adjustment.

[bigdom]

Bikerjon said:

Yes, for all but the 10 minute rides to the local shop/post office. I mostly do two or three 10-15 mile rides per week, so not huge distances but last week was the first week in a long while where I just couldn't face getting on the bike at all!

Have you used your mileage? If so, it could just be the sit bones getting acclimatised.

Is the saddle old - https://road.cc/content/feature/254356-when-should...

Have a look here, for different types - https://fabric.cc/findyourfit/

Other seat manufacturers have similar, I’m in excess of 100kg, and work fine for me.