No question indoor feels different than outdoor. And I'd agree a fit done on a stationary trainer might not be exactly what you want outdoors. Been there.

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24 Hour World TT Champs-American record holder
Fat Bike Worlds - Race Director
Insta: chris.s.apex

nope, not you. Bike fit feels great on the trainer, then all wrong on the road.

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No coasting in running and no crying in baseball

Sounds a little bit like a saddle issue. I know I am more tolerant of saddles outdoors than I would be on a trainer because you move around more when riding outdoors and limit the amount of time on any hotspots.

Try some other saddles, either by going to your LBS and talking to them about a demo saddle or block off some time to just swap saddles on a trainer at the shop or by trying some of the brands that offer a long return window (Cobb). You will be happier overall with a saddle that works with you and you will be able to dial your fit in easier.

p.s. make sure your shorts are not worn out and you have a good quality pad in your shorts. It can make a big difference as well.

Oh, totally agree on the saddle thing. I'd actually like to get one of those pressurized scans done for myself and get some objective data on myself. I've tried a lot of saddles and have yet to find anything I love.

Another thing that I finally thought to check are the stack and reach of my frame (I ride a mid 90's raleigh, 56cm in size). The stack is 55cm and reach is 39cm. The interesting thing, when comparing to some of the popular models, the stack seems akin to 52 or 53cm equivalent models whereas the reach is similar to 56 to 58cm models. So I think part of my discomfort is that the geometry may not be one that I really like (I have ridden a 56cm trek 1 series rental on a recent trip and found it quite comfortable). I have a 90cm 8 degree stem that I put in its positive orientation and hopefully that'll give me a combination of reach and height that is more comfortable than what I had.

I'm going to make some sweeping generalizations here.

The people who often get the most dramatic change out of a professional fit are those that are new to cycling and know the least about how their body fits on a bike. If you are looking to get into riding more I would highly recommend getting a professional fit just so you know about what size bike/stems/handlebars/saddles you like. You do not have to buy a bike from the person doing the fit, but you can use the information gained in the fit to learn what you like and then apply that either to your current bike or to buying a new or used bike from another source.

I was hesitant for a long time to get a professional fit, but after having done a couple I'm upset at myself for not doing it sooner as it would have reduced my learning curve about what works and what doesn't significantly. And that is without being on a bike that might be centimeters wrong for me.

One man's opinion, go pay someone to shorten your learning curve.

For sure, I've been riding and racing a couple of years and have just sort of been tolerating my fit this whole time, and getting a pro fit has always been something I just thought I'd wait to do when getting a new one to get it perfect (plus I paid $100 for my bike, so for a while I had a misguided notion that paying for a fitting wasn't worth it for an inexpensive bike, although getting a used powertap was worth it lol). But hopefully in the next couple of months I can get in and at least do a basic one and go from there.

I'm definitely more prone to discomfort on the trainer than on the road. I attribute it 100% to the fact that outside, no matter what kind of riding I am doing, I am one way or another taking weight off the saddle fairly frequently and also altering my position as well. I rarely go more than 15 minutes outside without some built in reason to take weight off my seat and on many rides it happens even more often. Slowing then standing a bit to accelerate at intersections, the periodic short hard effort to stay in the bunch, unweighting to take a corner, etc. Even if you are not standing, any time you put in one of those unnoticed 3 second 400+ watt efforts to get back up to speed after slowing a bit for traffic or an intersection takes weight off your seat. All this happens automatically outside (at least riding in the city it does . . . .)

Indoors on the other hand, if I don't pay attention, I can stay in exactly the same position, with full weight on my seat, continuously for an hour plus.

I've seen some improvement by making a real effort to stand up for 20-30 seconds every 15 minutes. Also, if I know I am going to be indoors for a long stretch, I'll raise my bars and even switch out to a softer saddle. I also used to use my old bibs for trainer rides. Now if I'm doing anything over an hour, I make sure I wear my best new bibs with the killer fresh pad.

A lot of people tend to prefer to have the front wheel just slightly higher than the rear, but you need to experiment a bit on this. The trainer can be more uncomfortable for the same duration riding because you tend to not to change posture with the gradient. I find doing some intentional standing helps but to some extent you just simply acclimate with more time. I also find that a more upright position is more comfortable and makes for better airflow over my body indoors.

I definitely try to move around a bit every so often, and shift front and back on the seat, but I've noticed that not wearing bibs actually makes it more comfortable long term. I ride in gym shorts on the trainer now, and after an adjustment period I think I'm more comfortable now than I was with bibs on.

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--Chris