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Saddle good, cover bad

Old 02-21-21, 02:31 AM
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Bikewolf
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Saddle good, cover bad

I used to cover my saddle with a bike gel seat cover. With the idea of sitting more comfortably while cycling; it would help absorb the shocks. Not always a good idea ...

I experienced saddle pain and tried to address it in different ways.
But I did not occur to me that it could have something to do with the cover on the saddle. Apparently my bones benefit more from a hard seat.
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Old 02-21-21, 09:23 AM
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I never liked those gel covers. They always manage to squish their way to parts of your legs and butt that wouldn't normally have pressure on them during a ride on a hard saddle.
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Old 02-22-21, 09:03 AM
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Most people who ride often seem to do better with hard seats, but I am not one of them. I used to do okay, but in my mid 40s I found I needed a little padding, just as I began needing some padding on the handle bars.

The big issue with padding seems to be chafing, but that has not been an issue for me.

With a gel cover I am good for about 5 hours of saddle time at which point my sit bones start to ache.
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Old 02-22-21, 09:16 AM
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You walk into a good bike store and there are like 20 saddles on the wall. 19 of them look like what we're used to, one is wider with a soft cover. This, again, is natural selection showing its effects. All these other seats look alike for a reason.
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Old 02-23-21, 10:28 AM
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I had to go to some sort of padded seat years ago. I never liked the slip covers as they never stayed in place no matter what I tried and went through several brands and styles of padded seat before I found one I liked. I do still have a racing style seat on my mountain bike, but I don't spend much time on the saddle for it to make a difference. FYI, Cloud9 makes some very good padded seats with a variety of shapes and a few with spring suspension.
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Old 02-27-21, 08:46 PM
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Yup, in general, the more you ride, the more you'll want a harder saddle. I went to the doctor complaining of achy balls. He suggested a saddle with a cutout, but I decided to try a different saddle. I had been using a saddle with too much padding. I went back to a hard saddle. Problem solved. The weird thing is that I didn't associate the pain with the soft saddle, because the pain came a day later.
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Old 03-01-21, 07:49 AM
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Flat, firm, narrow - those qualities describe the right saddle for me. Whether it's slung leather, or of modern design, it must be flat (in the sit area), firm (so, even if lightly padded), and narrow to suit my build.

In my experience with family and friends, those gel pad covers never work out for long.
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Old 03-06-21, 10:14 PM
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The great Sheldon Brown (RIP) likened the padded saddles to sitting on a coffee table with a pillow betwixt your cheeks, the padding will create pressure points and those pressure points create pain. My cheeks happen to really love the Brooks Cambium C17 Carved. It is hammock-ish for comfort but without being so soft it doesn't support. It is nice as there is no padding so no extra pressure points and the newer versions are all weather. I have tried a multitude of other saddles and this one seems to be just right though a touch heavier than some might want the comfort is more than worth it.

For more info:
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/saddles.html
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