TiHabanero

Been riding Turbo saddles since 1986, in fact still riding the same one and have one on several bikes. Never have had pressure points or saddle sores with it. This year by mile 35 I am ready to get off, and by mile 45 I have to get off of the thing and stay off for a day. What do you think has changed?

My guess is that I only spent a week on the rollers this winter and we have had a late spring so my mileage is about 700 miles less than normal. It all adds up to a soft bum. Lost the calluses.

canklecat

We get older, bodies change, we lose elasticity in the skin, and some muscles are more difficult than others to keep toned. The butt is the most troublesome. Ask anyone who's done patient care, especially with older folks. Butts get saggy quicker than almost any other body part, and skin gets fragile.

It's also exposed to more cooties, no matter how clean we try to keep ourselves. Just wearing clothes is enough to hold just enough moisture to contribute to fungus, bacteria, etc. My youngest grandson used to get diaper rash so bad we'd let him run around naked, or just tie a towel around his waist and let him go caveman style. He'd be fine one minute and then break out in horrendous red welts from his own urine. Fortunately by then he was a toddler and had pretty good bowel control so the only accidents were wet spots. Eventually he outgrew that phase.

The little bit I've ridden trainers in gyms, the main difference I notice is I sit more heavily. I don't need to use my legs to act as shock absorbers over rough pavement. That puts more pressure on the butt.

My butt used to be indifferent to saddles. I could ride anything and it was tolerable. But by late 2017 I couldn't get comfortable with the Turbo style Terry saddle I'd been riding. Oh, the Lycra fabric over foam was comfortable. It breathes well. But the shape just didn't suit me anymore.

My best guess is I'd lost enough weight and body fat that I didn't have the same padding on my butt. Also, the saddle shape was a sort of fish-nor-fowl thing, never quite right for me anyway.

Oddly, switching to a Selle Italia with minimal padding suited me better. It was much narrower -- turns out a 130mm or so width is right for me. The nose was longer. It's flat with very little up flare in the back. I could plop my butt down and not need to squiggle around to find the sweet spot. Mostly I wear AeroTech Pro shorts with minimal padding, but must admit the Pearl Izumi's with thicker sculpted padding was a bit more comfortable with the Selle Italia.

Hondo Gravel

fietsbob

Skin Hygiene is important..
I wash 'those parts' with surgeon's scrub, a concentrated liquid soap.
knocking back the bacteria level on the skin,

used a topical ointment on a hot spot and had clean shorts to put on daily every morning.
9 month bike tour.

(Rode in temperate, not hot, climates, live in one now.. )



...

berner

Sometimes a seemingly minor change, either on the bike itself or on the cyclist will have an outsized effect as I was reminded of, yet again, during this mornings ride. Earlier in my cycling career I lost a mere 10 pounds that caused considerable discomfort. Evidently the weight was lost from what I sit on.

Several days ago I moved the saddle forward about 3-4 mm and suddenly was experiencing quite a bit of discomfort even on a short ride to the library. This morning, early, I tipped the saddle nose up a bit and suddenly heaven. In fact, the result was better than hoped for as I rode without gloves with no hand discomfort.

sch

All of the above. Thinning skin and even more important, decreased thickness in the subcutaneous tissue contribute. Bike short padding can 'wear out' and
the seams, which previously were fine become sites of irritation. The vast majority of 'saddle sores' are abraded skin with exposure of the sensitive dermis.
There may be a bit of bleeding but mostly just tissue juice. Infected areas will be much more painful and usually a little swollen although a hair follicle infection
will look like a small pimple. Antibiotic ointments are not needed for most saddle sores, unless the depth of the abrasion is well into the dermis (ie bloody).

Like Ti and cankle I have in the past few months had some problems with irritated areas, usually at 25-35 miles and gradually worse from that point but not
to the point of needing to stop the ride. A few red spots noted on exam, all attributed to shorts friction. The annoying thing is this has also occurred on the
recumbent, but mostly on the DF bike with a relatively new Terry saddle. Terrys have been my preferred saddle for ~15 yrs. So far my feeling is that the
shorts/undershorts are the problem, still under investigation.

IronM

I live in a hot, humid environment & get sores frequently. I clean before riding & always wear clean, high quality bibs. But the way I sit on the saddle - it just irritates this one spot. I try to shift off from it, but I always find myself going back.
Once I get a sore & still need to ride, I've used moleskin on the afflicted area to moderate success.

MoAlpha

canklecat

From my perspective in health care, butt sores all come from the same origin -- pressure. Bed sores, saddle sores, same thing. Pressure, loss of circulation, followed by opportunistic critters -- bacteria, fungus or virus.

Chafing and abscesses follow the pressure problem. Same whether it's hair follicles, clogged pores, sweat glands, etc. It usually starts with pressure. There may already have been a clogged sweat gland, pore or hair follicle, but the pressure aggravates it.

Sometimes it's not direct pressure between butt and saddle but a seam or wrinkle somewhere. Or a fold of skin that traps sweat, salt, oils, etc., and gets aggravated.

Reminds me, I'm about to set up my road bike on a trainer for indoor use. I'm still recovering from a broken and dislocated shoulder but can finally put a little pressure on the arm. I'm betting I'll need to either swap saddles back to the more heavily padded Terry with Lycra fabric over foam, or wear thicker shorts with the Selle Italia. I've lost a month of conditioning and probably won't be able to support my weight with my legs like I could back in April.

nesdog

I've been wondering about this myself. Rode an SMP saddle for several years, no problems. Suddenly, I'm getting sores. No change of weight or anything. I finally flipped out the saddle to a Spec. Power....no luck. Now trying a Spec Romin, but it's pretty solid. Maybe a Flyte Gel next if this doesn't work. Arggg!

TiHabanero

"Thinning skin and even more important, decreased thickness in the subcutaneous tissue contribute." This makes a ton of sense, sch. I don't have skin abrasion, but pressure trouble on the IT's. Did 40 yesterday and by mile 35, again I was ready to dismount! One thing to note is that I am riding much slower due to a sore knee. I wonder if this is causing more pressure on the sit bones as I am not lifting myself off the saddle as much with each pedal stroke (think Paris Roubaix riding style of the pros).
Perhaps more miles will toughen things up down there.

Garfield Cat

Change everything including the type of riding.

rydabent

Not a problem on bents with their full seats. Being in the snow belt, I was off my DF bikes years ago for 3 months plus. My first ride in the spring yielded a sore butt for about a month. No problems at all with my bent bike and trike.