Texboy

I feel a little pain when I sit on a saddle on my bike. Is it because the saddle is too narrow? It has a little cushion. Which saddle would you recommend? There are so many on the market especially in my local biking store.

hillyman

What's your riding style, what's your bike and what's your budget? Then fun can begin. Hope you have years.

Paul Barnard

One of the best ways to approach this is to ask your LBS if they have take-off saddles for demo. Many do. This will allow you to try a lot of different styles without buying them first. Your anatomy will dictate the correct saddle width. Seat comfort is one of the most difficult things for cyclists to nail down, because what works for me may not work for you.

Bill in VA

Plus I would also caution OP that the presence of padding, cushioning, etc., has no real bearing on whether a saddle will be comfortable. I learned the "soft way" that when you bottom out the padding (not hard on a cheaper saddle) it will begin to hurt. I initially has a saddle that was great for a 12 mile ride. By 16 miles, it was a bit uncomfortable, but at 20 it was awful. I switched to a Brooks Cambium (no padding) and it is fine. I would also recommend that whatever you choose, get a good seat post that allows fine adjustment of tilt and consider fore and aft or setback capability of the saddle rails and/or setback of the seatpost itself as this can be an issue for some.

Texboy

Thanks guys. I have a Diamond Back mountain bike. The saddle according to the picture below seems the cushion is very thin.

jlmonte

i completely agree, and would add that you should get measured (I like to say the width of you pelvic bone). There was a sale on saddles with different width, and styles, and I asked what’s my size. The shop had me sit on this pressure pad that created an indent to measure where my pressure points are. From there, I bought a saddle for my Mountain ebike. That was last summer, but my favorite road bike saddle is a 1990’s generation Selle Italia Flight Ti, on a 1996 Colnago, and a 2015 Specialize Roubaix. While my touring bike has a Brooks leather. Another, favorite is a Selle Italia Turbo on another road bike. The key for me has been experimenting and adjusting the saddle for the riding posture. In general, getting the saddle to contact the bone and tilted flat or slightly up to slide my weight onto the bone. On my upright position beach cruiser, I have a large spring saddle which resembles a stool. So thanks for letting me share, I hope you succeed in finding and installing a new saddle.

Phil_gretz

What you're feeling is completely natural. Your bike is very clean and new, indicating to me that you haven't ridden much yet. Keep your saddle until you've ridden some substantial number of hours on it. Exact number? Who knows...maybe 20-30?

The key is starting out for shorter rides, taking a day off, and very gradually increasing the time that you're on the saddle. Short rides are 6 miles or so. Work your way up to twice that in a few weeks. As your fitness improves, more of the weight will be on your pedals and less on your saddle. You'll be fine.

noimagination

(Me pulling a number out of my rear...)

98% of saddle problems have nothing to do with the saddle. They are due to either (a) lack of fitness; or (b) poor saddle position (height, tilt, fore/aft) - which can also be due to a poor fitting bike (can't get the saddle positioned correctly if the bike is too big/small, or stem is too long/short, etc.). Lots of people waste lots of time and money looking for a different saddle when it has nothing to do with the saddle.

If your butt is not conditioned to long periods of time in the saddle, your butt will hurt no matter what saddle you are riding. If the position of the saddle is incorrect, your butt will hurt no matter what saddle you are riding. Do yourself a favor and rule these factors out before you go looking for a different saddle. I know it's not as fun as looking at cool bits of gear, but it is far more likely to lead to a solution.