Originally Posted by
downtube42
Issues: General pain during the 1200k, to the point of deciding to DNF (though I changed my mind), and numb dangly bits for a while afterwards. In 11 years of rando I've dealt with some stuff but I've never DNF'd a brevet of any length.
As far as my plan, I'll be doing a 200k every month, so those will be the long ride tests. Since I can only keep a saddle for a week, I'll use the weekly loaners to rule out the ones I really don't like. For the upcoming ride, I want to try a wider saddle with center cutout. I *could* do more than one 200k per month, but my resolve for riding dawn to dusk in 50F/rain/wind is limited.
"general pain" on very long rides can be a tough one. IMO a lot depends on butt structure, bone, muscle, fat, skin and the exact shape of bone and the blood perfusion of the rest. For me, neither too had nor too soft works. I need a very exact amount of padding, no more, no less. I know what it should feel like when I press a thumb into the padding, but that's after long experience with everything outside that very narrow range.
I've had issues with saddle sores, not friction sores, but compression sores, which are the same as bed sores. I think age has everything to do with that. Anyway, there's science behind how we can sit on a bike saddle for so long. When we sit on a saddle, we compress the flesh between the bone and saddle. That vastly reduces the oxygen available in the tissue and it doesn't like that. However animals are amazingly adaptable to conditions. We have an extremely complicated series of chemicals which, over time, reduce the amount of oxygen our tissues need. We call that "breaking in our butts." That's why frequent standing is so important, to give our tissues a needed oxygen dose. In my case, my butt got to where I could sit for hours and not feel any bad effects or pain from it. And maybe that was the start of my problem, somehow screwing up my butt's natural defenses. Or maybe not, maybe just age. Anyway, I know when I get tired, I stand less often. Something to think about.
I have ridden saddles which were so hard that my butt never broke in. There was always compression pain after 3 hours and that never got any better, no matter how much I rode that saddle. Too bad, because otherwise that saddle was a perfect fit. I have also rejected many saddles which didn't taper sharply enough from seat to nose. I have substantial hamstrings and they need space or they chafe up high. I also need very good quality padding which won't develop a pocket right where I sit or the forward edge of that pocket will cause a sore. Padding quality doesn't necessarily increase with saddle cost either.
The dangly bits have never been a problem for me. I wear the tightest shorts I can get over my butt so my bits are held well up off the saddle. My perineum in another story. I get a numbie if I don't have a wide enough slot. A little tiny slot is useless for me. I need something like what comes on the Selle Italia Boost Superflow saddles. I don't feel the edges of slots even that wide. The first time I did RAMROD on a slot-less saddle, my wife told me that I'm never doing that again.
I hope you find some of this useful.