theery

While very much a hobbyist, I consider myself pretty well-educated in general bike fitting, and comfort. I've been riding for years, and gotten better and better and getting my bikes to feel good, and comfortable. I've never had a professional fitting, but I've read and experimented a lot.

I ride a minimum of 8 miles a day, usually more. Even just couple miles in, my butt sometimes hurts below the bone, right about where my leg come down on the edge of the saddle when my leg is extended.

Everything I read about saddle sore seems to talk about soreness after riding, but I'm fine after. It just hurts while riding, and more often than not it's after riding hard, or uphill for a bit. I have several bikes, have tried various saddles at various heights, and this continues to happen. My main saddle though, is a Brooks B-17 on my Salsa Vaya.

I've been doing some longer rides lately, and it seems to pretty much go away after 12-15 miles.

Is this common? Any suggestions?

Thanks

Carbonfiberboy 

Muscular pain or from saddle friction?

theery

That's a good question. It's a little hard to tell. I think it's muscular, but seems strange that it's right where my leg presses against the edge of the saddle. Maybe it's just the muscle expanding, and getting pressed into the saddle, which would make sense. But strange that I can't find other complaints of this. I tried lowering my saddle but that didn't help.

berner

I have been sore in the very same place. It took a while but finally figured out that I need a wide (155mm) saddle under the sit bones but it needs to be narrow just in front of the sit bones. As a tinkerer, I love to mess with my equipment. My latest innovation is to apply a clamp to the saddle just where I want it narrow and use a heat *** to soften the plastic. When it cools, the saddle is narrower and more comfortable. It was necessary, initially, to be ready to fail.

theery

@berner
That's interesting... I'm pretty slim (6'3", 155lbs), so I was thinking maybe I needed a narrower saddle, but your suggestion makes sense as well. I'll see what I can come up with along those lines and see how it goes. Thanks.

Carbonfiberboy 

If that's the problem, there are stock saddles which are like that. I had a similar problem with friction sores there. Besides narrow, I need a saddle with a very smooth rollover there. I did a saddle hunt, testing maybe 20 saddles before I found one that worked. It's not made any more, but it's similar to this one:
Forté Pro SL Saddle
I had the foresight to buy three of what worked.

One of the Romins might work also as they have a similar shape:
Specialized Bicycle Components
They come in widths and are only available through LBS, but they'll measure your sit bone width and suggest a saddle width.

JohnJ80

I don't think there is much correlation between the width of your sit bones and your weight. You need to measure them or try some different saddles.

J.

berner

I like the Specialized saddles because they have a range that are very similar but just enough different to make a difference. I have another Specialized saddle that has not quire worked for me. A few days ago I did the heat-*** mod on it and will try it out soon before the old one comes to the end of it's useful like. Now that I have a very good idea what to look for I can tell at a glance if a saddle is a good candidate for me.