Might not be the saddle, might be the shorts.

I found with saddles like Adamo's, less padding is better. I found Zoot and SkinFit to be the most comfortable in that area.

I can't speak for women's parts, but I'm more comfortable in tri shorts with less padding than a pair of bike shorts with more padding.

I've been on a split nose for a couple years now (currently the Cobb JOF55).

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Proud Member of Chris McDonald's 2018 Big Sexy Race Team "That which doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger"
Blog-Twitter-Instagram-Race Reports - 2018 Races: IM Florida 70.3, IM Raleigh 70.3, IM 70.3 World Championships - South Africa, IM North Carolina 70.3

Which models of saddles has she used? The entire range from ISM, Cobb, etc?

Shorts - also important as noted.

Fit - how good is her position on the bike?

Alternatively, post pics of her girl parts...for "evaluation," of course...and you'll get plenty of traffic to this thread :)

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Eliot
blog thing - strava thing

I'm in the same boat. My wife tasked me with finding her a new saddle for the same reasons. Based on a recommendation from a friend, she told me to look at Terry saddles. I just ordered the Terry Butterfly Century for my wife. Hopefully that saddle will solve her issue.

Torero wrote:

She needs your help ladies.

So point her to the Slowtwitch Forums: The Womens where you will find several threads with responses from subject matter experts:

Saddle question - lady parts
Yet another saddle post

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My wife uses the ISM prologue on her TT bike(She loves it) and has been using the attack on her roadie. She will prob start using the prologue on the road bike to. Attack starts to bother her a little on longer rides. I have a cobb plus coming as well for her to try. What type of bike is she riding?

Not sure how in depth you went with Cobb, but they have a full women's section and guide.

http://www.cobbcycling.com/womens-corner/

And if you haven't, feel free to give them a call. They have tons of information and are always willing to help.

Does she have any genital numbness? Has she had kids?

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Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works
Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador

I might be able to help please PM me a picture of wife's ass...... ;)

How long has she tried the ISM? The ISM hurts like hell during and after rides for the first week or two that you use it because it puts pressure on different areas than you're used to. I think it even says on the ISM site that it won't be very comfortable the first few times you use it because it takes some getting used to.

HOWEVER, if she sucks it up and suffers a little bit for the first few rides, the tenderness goes away and NEVER comes back. I've done several IMs and many 100+ mile rides on it and I can't imagine ever using anything else. You just have to give it time to get used to the difference.

I really like the SMP Glider.

What is her issue? Not all issues are the same so solutions can be different. I have a spot with blood vessels close to the skin and if my saddle hits that spot, I'm miserable on and off the bike. A saddle with a large cut out works best for me. I used a wider SMP saddle for a year or so then went to the Glider and it worked better.

You May want to try tipping the saddle nose down in small increments. Been through the same issues. Once she found a saddle she liked this was the only thing that really helped. Takes a while to get it right

I think I'm author of one of the referred to posts on The Womens... Anyway, here's my current thinking.

There seems to be a line of thought that goes 'women have wider pelvises, so...'. IDK what your wife's build is, but I'm 5'3" and not overweight, but have solid thighs (think hockey/skater). I find greater happiness on *narrower* saddles.

I currently have an ISM Evolution on my road bike and a Power Expert (narrow) on my TT bike. I was on the middle width PE and felt that I couldn't sit on what seemed to be the sweet spot b/c the saddle was too wide and hit my legs. Couldn't sit forward as that put pressure in bad places. I had an Adamo Typhoon, couldn't stand it; for me, it was too wide. I tried a Cobb V-flow, I believe. felt good for 1 h, then I couldn't take the leg rubbing any more. Moving forward on it reduced the width but again, changed the support. But the narrow PE, that seems to be the winner (bike re-fit pending).

So aside from all the other good suggestions you're going to get, I'd suggest some time on a narrower saddle, just to see if that provides some direction. Has she tried your saddle?

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

she has had two kids. she is currently riding a ism prologue. we are thinking about demoing a Cobb Randee. when she rides she says lots of pressure or bruised feeling. i emailed ism and the had us move it back which helped. thanks all for the info.

Sounds like you sound a solve, but for future readers, I love the Fi'zi'k Arione Donna. Made for women.

Also, when I first started riding, hubby (aka my bike guy) tilted my saddle WAY down for me which put less pressure on sensitive areas and more on my butt. Eventually as I rode more and more, we've tilted the saddle back up to normal / level as my body got used to the saddle pressure (also, because at that point I started riding distances where the tilt down in the saddle was creating pressure in my shoulders/upper back).

I'm a guy, and after demoing a ton of saddles, settled on the Randee. In my case, I have the Redshift Switch moveable seatpost, so I needed something that worked well in both road and aero positions. For road, the nose is just narrow enough not to chafe my thighs, and the generous cutout and padding on the cushy side work well for me. For aero/tri position, the split nose is a tad narrow compared to pure aero/tri saddles, but it works. But I'm pretty inflexible and my position isn't super low, and I'm skeptical of the junk-off-the-front position many adopt, I'm in a sort of hybrid semi-low position. The nice thing about Cobb is you can demo as many of their saddles as you like for 90 days and return them for a full refund, a pretty incredible policy.

 Check fit - a good fitter will check all of her contact points first.

And part of checking the contact points is finding a saddle that works and then building the fit around that saddle.

Right now, it sounds like you are trying to just swap saddles out and the underlying issue may be saddle too high, to far back, too far forward - who knows.

You could try posting some pictures for some general comments here - but I would start with a good fitter who has a wide variety of saddles they can swap out as they work with her to find an optimum position that works for her body type.

Tim, please have her call Rachel Olson at Cobb Cycling, 903-253-8555. Rachel is a very experienced female rider herself and specializes in helping women with their seats - her actual title is Women's specialist. If she can't help nobody can.

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I would highly recommend the Pro Aerofuel TT Saddle. Never have issues. Can move fore/aft easily and not be stuck in one position. Narrow for a female as well.

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Angela Naeth
http://www.angelanaeth.com
http://www.iracelikeagirl.com