70sSanO

That may be. You might also need to change saddles.

It can sometimes be a fine line. I’ve gone to a 2 bolt micro adjust seat post. I changed saddles a little while back and over the course of a couple rides I’d stop and make a slight adjustment. It was a good investment for me.

A trainer can be a good place to get an initial setup. Ideally you would like to sit up hands free while on the trainer, can be tough with age, and not fight the saddle angle.

John

cyclezen

so, again, saddle tilt nose down - if you 'level' the saddle or get close to level, you will likely also need to Drop the saddle a bit.
your leg/hip/torso angles will change when you do this, the body will need to adapt to that... time...
at some point, after adaptation, you may find raising the saddle a bit will feel good again.

time in the saddle - 10-12 regular miles is what you're accustomed to ? then 15 is a significant change (worth making)
if you're average riding at 15 mph then it takes you 12 more minutes to do 15 miles rather than 12.
if you're average 12 mph it takes 15 minutes more to do 3 more miles (12 miles to 15)
if you average 10 mph, it takes 18 minutes more to go the 3 miles further (12 to 15)
that 25% or more longer ride... more butt on the saddle, hands holding up the torso... more time with pressure...
all good,
as noted by others, there are hand positions which reduce hand numbness....
ride on
Yuri

SpedFast

Ditto

pepperbelly

I will try that.
I think I am sitting too far forward on the saddle.
Where the saddle nose was putting pressure doesn’t seem right.
I will raise the nose and maybe move the saddle forward- or sit further back.
I am also going to rotate the handlebars more forward.

Basically it sounds like I am going to throw as many variables into the situation as I can. 😄

SpedFast

Before moving the handlebars, I would start with the seat. Like my dear wife likes to remind me, the entire world (of bike fit) revolves around my a.... A downward tilting seat actually puts more pressure on your perineum? area because your body is forced forward and down, also creating more weight on your arms and wrists. Note-I'm not a fitter by any stretch, but I've done a lot of trial and error over the years and I know what works for me. Hopefully some of the knowledge on this forum will work for you too. So far it appears that everyone is in agreement, so we're either all wrong or all right haha. Good luck, Smokey

pepperbelly

I went in my garage just now and made 2 adjustments.
When I checked my seat with a torpedo level it was nose down. I adjusted it to level. I can fine tune it from there.
I also rotated the bars so the bottom of the drops are level with the ground by eyeballing it.
This moved the hoods slightly forward. I will test ride tomorrow and see if the seat needs to be moved forward or back or down.
It was nose down enough that this might be the main problem. It was more than a full bubble nose down. I may have put it in that position due to this Cobb saddle having a slight “hump” near the front.

Kai Winters

I suggest a proper bike fit by someone who knows what they are doing.
Understand that it takes the body some time to adjust to a new position and may/will feel odd and possibly uncomfortable depending on how bad your current set up is.
Too many people make fit changes willy nilly and far to often without letting their bodies adapt resulting in never getting it right and constant problems.
A daily regimen of stretching should be part of everyone's life especially as we age but so few people bother to do so.
Same with strength exercises...so few people bother, especially the most important core exercises.
Until you get a proper bike fit and take the necessary time for your body to adapt...without changing something every day...and start stretching regularly you are never going to achieve comfort.

Road Fan

What you said here gives me a few clues. Pressure on your underside as you describe can be the result of your butt being too far forward on the saddle or the saddle being too far back. I would find your KOPS position, and adjust saddle fore -aft (with level saddle) so your sitbonesare on the widest portion of the saddle. Pedal backwards in that position (I am usually with upright back at this point) and raise the saddle until hip rocking just begins - a little motion but not pronounced. This is a plausible position for your saddle and hips. Now if as you pedal you are starting to slide forward, raise teh nose of the saddle just a little bit (less than 1/32") until you stop sllding You may need to raise or lower the seatpost just a bit after this. In these akjustment iterations, you will probably find you can't move it in a small enough increment to feel. That's the best you can do on that day, so congratulations!

This sort of cycling is hard to describe, but I feel it gets the job done for me.

In your situation (I don't want to say "in your position" or "in your condition" since, honestly, who am I to talk?) I would want to have my PBH measured so I could use the 0.885 saddle height, KOPS, and saddle angle/hip rotation as first approximations of saddle placement. As an engineer we can say my whole career has ben bsed on numbers, but I think you only need one or two solid facts to get started when trying to solve a problem. I usually set this fitting baseline up whenever I want to play with a new toy or have forgotten what my old toys are like. Several rides are needed then, and then more with small adjustments as my distance/comfort confidence grows. I think this will be the first time in a few years, due to Covid, long covid, and some spousal reactions to all of this.

Road Fan

Kudos on the work done so far, but I would not just slide your saddle forward. The saddle affects a lot that has little to do with the bars. If your reach is too long, I would look for an affordable way to move the bars closer to teh saddle - maybe 1 cm? You may be able to find a used or take-off stem that is either adjustable or is a centimeter or so shorter.

Also earlier in this thread, it was noted that your brake levers were kind of high and hence pulled back on your handlebars. Often it is recomended that the tip of the brake lever be right on a line with the bottom edge of the handle bar drop This moves the top of the brifter (or Ergopower or whatever) forward, increasing your need to move the bars back toward the saddle by just the right amount. But if you are thinking about adjusting your reach, now would be the time to also adjust your brifter to handlebar positioning. It can be made to happen with a shorter reach stem or a shorter reach handlebar. FSA has a series of Compact designs which my wife likes a lot on her bike. A wonderful but slightly older design is the 3TTT Ergonova and Aeronova designs.

t2p

not a fan of the seat if it has a hump (or whatever) near the front

pepperbelly

If I can’t get it comfortable I will look for another saddle.

SpedFast

You might want to consider a saddle with the cut out to take the pressure off your perineum. I switched to a Body Geometry that I picked up used about 2 years ago and will never go back. What a difference.

pepperbelly

I forgot that I replaced my original saddle with this Cobb because my butt was hurting when I first started riding. I got it set pretty well then decided to install my original Specialized saddle again to try. It still wasn’t comfortable so I re-installed the Cobb. I think my original saddle was too narrow. M after I re-installed this Cobb it was a little taller than the Specialized but it felt ok. I may not have it correct forward or back.
I think my arms were sore back then too but I adjusted the saddle position and fixed it.
I have work to do.

pepperbelly

I originally had a Specialized Body Geometry Toupe saddle. If I can’t get this Cobb to work I may try it again. I swapped it because my butt hurt but I wasn’t used to riding then and I have better bib shorts now. They might be good now.

Jughed

All this bike fit advice is great...

But remember - you are a new rider and road bikes are not inherently comfortable machines. Bikes in general are not very comfortable...

Even with a pro top of the line bike fit - as you progress into longer rides, more saddle time - things will hurt.

You may get dialed in and ride a comfortable 20-30 miles, then attempt your first long ride - new things may (probably will) hurt at mile 50, then something else at mile 70...

pepperbelly

This pain was different from being uncomfortable. My arms are still a little sore.
This happened before. I think I posted here about it. I’m going to search my past posts and check what I did.

pepperbelly

I rode 12 miles today. With the handlebars rotated forward it felt a little different but nothing big. The nose of the seat started applying pressure but not as bad.
I still have a fair amount of weight on my hands. I will see how it feels tomorrow before I adjust anything.
My arms were getting sore but that may be left from Friday.

philbob57

Are you sure you've got your Cobb saddle set up correctly? I looked for a document on the website, but couldn't find instructions. It looks to me as if the seat is designed for you to sit pretty far forward. I recommend calling Cobb.

pepperbelly

No, I am not sure. I bought it new-old stock so it didn’t come with paperwork.

Trakhak

Many bike fitters say that a surprisingly high proportion of riders have their saddles too high. Adjusting a saddle's nose down in quest of comfort can be a sign that the saddle's height should be reduced.

pepperbelly

That is easy enough to try.

Road Fan

That is a very good way to say it!!!

pepperbelly

I didn’t think about that. I think I have a trainer in the garage.

pepperbelly

This Cobb saddle keeps putting pressure in a bad area.
I am going to put my original saddle back on. My original complaint with it was my sit bones getting sore but that was probably because I had just started riding.
It’s a Specialized Body Geometry Toupe RBX so it isn’t some cheap bad saddle.
I will take tools and work on getting it adjusted.

1979schwinn 

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