chrisgrigsby wrote:
While we are asking, how do those of you (males) who ride long and low deal with the increased pressure on the perineum and testicles? This is honestly the only limiting factor on how low of a position I can ride, and it is super frustrating!
After my fit, I tried almost every saddle on the market from ISM, Cobb, Dash, Profile, Specialized, Selle Italia, etc..both with tri and road shorts, but nothing really worked so I finally gave up and raised my front end which took the pressure off. The only thing I didn't try but would consider is a jock strap to keep things in check but I can't fathom trying to race in one.
How do you guys deal with this?
The saddle I use matters little in how I ride. Lets forget about Time Trial/Tri positions and focus on the road bike. I'm going to assume you have a "normal" saddle there. I use a variation of Brooks Cambium across my three road bikes to include my UP. When on the rivet, literally, I am not sitting on my guys I'm off to the side sitting on my sit bones still just from another angle, if that makes sense. In the file below you can see the ischial tuberosity highlighted in red. When back on the saddle and sitting up I am much further back on the sit bones but as I rotate further forward I move to the more forward portion. With a nosed saddle and riding forward I am one one side of those or with a split nose/cut-off saddle I am on both.
Now I brought up the nosed saddle on your road bike and riding the rivet as an example because if you're crushing your guys there then you probably aren't sitting on the saddle correctly. They should be forward and out of the way. Can this cause numbness and discomfort still? Well, yes. But it shouldn't be anything to do with your man bits. So, the key here is to make sure you're sitting on your saddle properly and if you are then just move forward until there is no pressure on your stuff.
A brief side note, I used to ride my Time Trial bike with a lot of saddle setback before I went to Di2. But due to their not being an elegant solution for the A-junction I switched to my forward offset seat post so I could drill it. Because of that I sit further back on my Dash now and have changed the bit I made level. Before with my ISM and latter my Dash, when I was more hanging off the end I had the nose more level. Now the nose is allowed to drop down and where I sit is the level bit. Therefore, the cutout and rolling of the nose gives me more room. I hops that all makes sense and is in some way helpful. Photo of my rig to so you can see how my saddle is set up. For a point of reference I am sitting directly above the saddle clamp portion.
Oh, on flexibility: I has none.
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