Psychbiker

Since dating now three years later getting married this October, my riding has suffered. I picked it back up this summer to get into 'suit shape' and was doing 18-20 miles few times a week but getting numb and sore in the man areas.

Riding a carbon Giant road bike that had a Forte Pro SLX saddle on it. Did a few 50 mile rides and lots of 20s without issue years prior. This summer it was bothering me so I swapped it with a forte tri/noseless at performance bike. Felt really nice but pain at the 18 mile mark, took that saddle back.

Did some research, measured my sitbones, 125mm I believe and found a deal on a barley used SMP Drakon locally.

How long should I give this saddle a fair try? Feels great, I can get into the drops but I am getting minor discomfort kind of where the seams of chamois ride. It's not the seams but the I think that's where the saddle has most of the pressure. I've done maybe 70 miles with this saddle in 3 total trips and plan to lower the saddle and bump it forward just a tad and see how that does. I read SMP saddles can be picky for position. Maybe the 209 is better for me with more padding or this drakon isn't wide enough?

I'm thinking it's time I get fitted again as sometimes my toes will go numb too.

woodcraft

That saddle is on the wide side already.

If it feels good, but you feel discomfort on bony pressure points, then give it at least a month for those spots to toughen up.

If there's friction, circulation issues or numbness, then adjust position or try something else. (All IMO of course)

If you haven't been riding much, it can take a bit to get the muscle tone back in the legs to avoid pounding the butt against the saddle over bumps-

especially later in the ride when fatigue set in. Lower saddle might help with this by giving more 'shock absorber' room.

Carbonfiberboy 

Saddles are personal SMP are ass hatchets for me. Try a different saddle. If you can't ride 3 hours comfortably, it's the wrong saddle.

philbob57

Have you seen the stuff on fitting SMPs by Steve Hogg, Colby Pearce, and albacicli.com? The front-back tilt angle on the SMPs can be critical. I've got a 2-bolt seatpost, and it took turns of a wrench down to 20 degrees to get the right tilt.

Wheever

+1

I ride a Drakon and love it, but tilt is really critical with SMPs. I mean, critical to the point that you need to be really diligent about being consistent in measuring it. (By which I mean, making sure the bike is level by laying a 4' level across the hubs, and using something digital to check the level of the saddle itself.)

I used to use my iphone and a clipboard across the top of the saddle to check the level, but realized that there were too many variables, so bought a cheap digital level off Amazon. For me the saddle has to be 3.3 degrees nose up. 3 degrees is acceptable, 4 is too much. Maybe my butt is just really sensitive, but it's the difference between endless butt bliss (lol) and feeling the saddle after 20 miles.

Start off with the saddle level, as measured across the tops of the hump and the tail, them make TINY adjustments. Also, in positioning, place the saddle so that your sit bones are on the wider part towards the tail. From your description, it sounds like your saddle does need to come forward, as you said.

Clem von Jones

The SMP Drakon is 138mm, a bit on the narrow side for someone with 125mm sit bones. You need something 145mm~ish.

woodcraft

SMP only makes 3 saddles that wide, & 2 of them are pretty much pillows.

woodcraft

Leveling across the high points doesn't tell you much since you don't sit on the raised rear.

I use a 4' straight edge across the those high points and set the saddle so the straight edge lines up with, in my case, the top of the bars (~2 1/2" drop on the main road bike).

This is easily repeatable, can be done by eye, and works well across 3 bikes that have various SMP saddles.