I'm using the ISM Adamo Time Trial on my TT and the Road on my road bike. Both saddles are great and feel so much comfortable. If the Cobb doesn't fit you, you should get a trial seat from your local bike shop and go from there....

There are lots of good saddles....but only a few that will be good for you. Your Cobb may just not be a fit (I've used two Cobb saddles, one fit me well, the other did not...it's saddle-specific, not brand-specific).

Cobb has great customer service. They take back saddles easily, and will recommend one that might work better. As the PP mentioned, make sure you can try saddles before committing.

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I am really loving the new specialized power saddle, as is everyone I know who has started riding it

For the issues you are saying, lower the seat height about 4mm and I think it will all get better. Because the base on the Fifty-Five does not flex much, it often is necessary to run them just a tad lower. If that doesn't help call "Seth" at 903-253-8555
J Cobb

Have my "long ride" tomorrow so I'll try to drop it 4mm, and see how it is. If not I'll give Seth a call.

As everyone mentioned: LBS.....yeah, I don't have one of those. Nearest bike shop is 500 miles away and have to travel by plane or boat... I know, one of my dilemmas on all of this. I don't mind "buying" a few to try out and see which works, as long as I can return the ones I don't need. REally don't want to be out $1k in Saddles...

If lowering it doesn't work, I'll need to move on to another saddle and see. Because the ache...is just...makes teh ride mentally challenging to push through.

For sure - I actually went into today Westpoint Multi-sport to look at the Bontrager saddle line-up, which they had. But they also had a saddle pressure diagnostic and mapping system that was really cool.

It's a force pad that is connected to animation software, and displays saddle load as you move through the pedal stroke. It almost looks like a CAT scan.

They showed me a rider Matt's starting point: left side bias, saddle hot spots appearing and disappearing throughout, looked pretty ugly. After working through saddles, the end point. Force distribution wider, smoothed out and uniform through-out the stroke. Impressive results.

The material I use for saddle construction - Ultralon foam, molds with heat and use in a similar way - to smooth out force distribution. I have been using a little too much foam for the sit bones area tho. Same thing for the leather of a Brooks saddle if you can handle the torture ( I got one to try).

Anyway- without this diagnostic info you are shooting in the dark a bit, other than the knowledge of what happened with each trial.

Tri saddles are quite a different mission than a road saddle, and as you move more upright, the saddle gets wider until you get to beach cruiser territory.

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Curious where did you get the saddle from...directly from specialized website? I googled around and really didn't see any hits for places to buy.

No LBS You might want to try the adjustable Bontrager then. < http://www.bontrager.com/model/09863

Dial it in, take your measurements, send that to Seth and return the Bontrager ;). They have a comfort protection guarantee as well.

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
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Are you riding far enough forward on the saddle? I ask because you mention your ass cheeks. These Cobbs and Adamos are made for hanging off the front so you junk clears the seat and you only sit back on the rear sporadically. I'm sure this is how Greg set you up on the tri bike and this may be why it felt more comfortable. Along with John's advice on height you could also try moving the saddle back. Check around ST and the Cobb and ISM saddle sites for position photos. A lot of saddle should be visible behind you. Worth consideration before swapping saddles.

Yeah, i'm up on it plenty. Have it as far back as it can go pretty much. I took that into consideration right off the get go...and that's why I think it "widens" just too much towards the back, when if just a bit narrower it would be the key. Just a bit too wide...and my junk still goes numb. I've tried the flat, tipped down, etc...

I've went around quite a bit to make sure i'm covering all bases. Like you said, plenty of the saddle sticks out behind me when on it. I just think the saddle...isn't right.

I don't need perfect, but I need to get the mental DREAD of hoping on the bike for these training rides.

I'll mess with the height on this one, and I'll see what Cobb can recommend/do for swapping/trying new saddles. Just need to find something that works since I expect the snow to be around for another month or so here.

Got it. I can't run split nose saddles due to width. I've had to go narrow with as much split as possible. Ended up on Bonty Hilo.

I think that Cobb may be as narrow as they come up front. You might try an Adamo Attack or whatever they are going to be labeled this year. They are about 20mm narrower at the wide point than the other Adamos, but probably not narrow up front over as much length as the Cobb.

At least half my season is on the trainer and long rides seem to trash you no matter how good a saddle fits. Just not much give in standard clamped in trainers. That saddle may feel much better outside. Of course that doesn't fix things on the trainer:(

I accepted long time ago, that there is not "one" saddle that works for me.

The Selle Italia SLR-TT works on my roadbikes and mountainbike but not on my timetrial bike. On my timetrialbike I use a Selle San Marco Aspide Triathgel.
I think my bike position is correct on all my bikes. Maybe for some people different saddles on different bikes are the best solution.

BTW on my cyclocross bike I ride a cheap stock saddle with no problems. The more upright the position, the less critical the saddle IMHO.

And that is the OTHER wrench thrown into all of this. Does the saddle "bother me" because i'm on a trainer, and when outside it will go unnoticed? This is why i've pushed through till this point (however when getting fitted while down in LV, the comfort of that saddle was impressive, and hence the rehash of this problem). Snow and ice are still VERY much here (was -4 every morning last week...however, did warm up today).

Thank you all for the input on this. I'll test out the lowered height for todays ride.

(side note: why can't i just be that LUCKY person that whatever saddle they get on their first try fits perfectly?!?!?!?!?! But noooooooo)

I figure you can think of the pelvic system as a triangle - three points: one front and two rear. I was looking at a skeleton/bone structure yesterday. Attached mid-rear is the lumbar.

You'd think that for proper lumbar alignment you'd want to distribute pressure or force as evenly as possible at all three points. Which it looks like a good road position will do - according to the force mapping I saw. Therefore the nose of the saddle does come into play with a road saddle and the two sit bones can be on firmer ground because they are designed to be able to do that.

In the tri position, of course we rotate forward. The two rear points narrow up and the force is even more truly distributed on all three areas. Here imo, the materials, the foam and dimensions are critical, because the front point of the pelvic tissues don't normally handle pressure. On the positive side, the arms should be handling more load, and the legs if you putting the coals to it. And the pelvis will tend to be rotated back lengthening the lower spine - I like that.

So by lowering the saddle as suggested by John, is this potentially placing more load onto the legs and arms, taking pressure off the seat altogether?

In "hanging off the front" that is a lot of load on the elbows, and driving the legs too, in that semi-standing position.

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Rode for 90 minutes yesterday...and right across my ass cheeks (right where the saddles widens) is where the pressure spots are. Right in the middle of the muscles. I lowered the seat...and i'm not sure it made a difference. I was able to finish the ride, but at the 40 minute mark the ache was very present. The numbness still occurred but it wasn't as bad.

I'll be giving "Seth" a call to see... Again, it feels like the saddle is just a bit too wide in the rear...a little narrower and I think it would take out the point of contact there. Or maybe bigger muscles...I don't know. But something has to change if I'm to spend a considerable amount of time on this bike during a race.

my LBS