Originally Posted by
ChillDilettante
I just bought a Selle Anatomica X2 for my Trek Domane road bike. Took it on a 30 miler yesterday, stopping a zillion times to make little adjustments. It feels horrible on my sit bones if I sit up (sometimes sit all the way up to stretch, or just more upright in general) at all...it's like rocks under there. If I tilt my hips more parallel to the ground in a more aggressive position, it seems OK, but I don't want to always be trapped like that. It does seem to be good for soft tissue at that angle (I'm female). I haven't had this super harsh sit bone issue with any other saddles.
I tilted the nose up a bit to avoid slipping, but am not sure if I'm sitting on the divots or not. How do you know if you're properly positioned on this thing?
I've had a few of these over maybe 10 years. I don't think you need to worry about the divots. I think you do need to worry about your sit bones (yes, those bony parts at teh widest area of the saddle. You should not have your weight on the hard metal bar (aka the cantle plate) that goes across the back, but on the somewhat elastic leather ahead of that bar. You also should not have those bones so far forward that the saddle pressure is ahead of and closer together than the sitbones are. When you know where this nice fore/aft location is, adjust the tilt so you are not sliding backward to rest your weight on the hard metal cantle plate, and not sliding forward off of the wide part of the saddle, because this will concentrate your weight where you are most sensitive - not good for either gender! "not sliding forward due to gravity" is the concern here, and yes that is a thing!
If you are sliding forward when you reach for the barsyou might need to locate your handlebars closer to your saddle location.
Selle AnAtomica also suggests adjusting the tension screw so the smallest gap is about 6 millimeters (1/4 inch). This tends to support your weight at the correct height. These saddles (all models and weight grades) tend to stretch , but they stop stretching as they are used more.
I hope this helps!
Then experiment with saddle height, moving it just a few mm at a time, to get good leg extension without toe stretching, not much hip rocking, and (for me at least) an easy spin.