I finally ended up on the Fizik Mystica Kium (Large) and I'm in heaven. I lowered my seatpost and went with a saddle tilt of 5%. I'm in total comfort now. I've actually been able to rotate my hips forward on this saddle and it's mind blowing the difference. In three weeks my FTP has gone from 245 to 270. I see myself continuing to make gains as it's feeling easy.

I found it cool we ended up on the same saddle. My biggest issues with BiSaddle were the lack of density in the foam padding. It was breaking down on the rails and my male anatomy was bottoming out on the exposed frame. The Fizik has very dense foam padding and the difference was immediately noticeable. Did a four hour Zwift ride last Saturday with no numbness or discomfort whatsoever.

I will say the customer service with BiSaddle was second to none. They are really exceptional people. It just didn't work for me, but thankfully I found a solution after about six months of tinkering. I learned so much that I'd have to say it was worth it. Thanks for your help through the process.

Awesome! You nailed it on both the benefits of a downward tilted saddle and the quality of the good people at BiSaddle. Thanks for the feedback.

Eric

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Work up until I feel that I don't slide off my saddle down anymore and it feels ok?

Assuming your pads are tilted too, yes.

E

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Hi everyone, I'm hoping to solicit some help fitting my bisaddle. I I previously rode an ism 2.1 and predictable got a saddle sore in the right side of my groin. I ride aero and sitting up on this saddle while locked into a wheel off trainer. I decided on the srt 2.0 thinking that I needed something a touch wider as I suspected my right pubic ramus was falling off to the right on the ism. Now that I have the srt 2.0 and had it set up like the ism except lowering the seatpost and have progressively gone wider. I try to ride near the back of the saddle with sit bones on the largest gray rectangles. I'm getting multiple saddle sores on the right and left of my groin likely where the srt saddle flares outward. I've been trying to do microadjustments with rides on my trainer, but it's hard to tell if it helps when I'm already uncomfortable. At one point I thought it was set, but now things seem worse and don't know where or how I should be adjusting. It's more uncomfortable than what I was dealing with before. I'm happy to provide further info if I can. Thank you for your insight.

Andrew

From what you are describing i think you are riding that saddle a bit too far at the back. Did you try riding it further forward?

Jeroen

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Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

2 things

I got a bisaddle approx 1 month ago

Many adjustments as you know.

I gave had a ton of saddles and always some pain in the wheel off trainer.

Bisaddle has helped a lot I agree with the poster above sounds like you are sitting too far back

But what helped more than any saddle and took 10 seconds?

I raised the front end approx 3” by putting a block under the frint wheel holder

And wow so much better immediately.

May work for you as well

I’m using the wahoo kickr core which I thought was a level setup. But I’ll try scooting forward and see how that goes. Even on the trainer I have to believe that saddle sores are preventable.

You want to ride with your pubic bones on the wide tips of the saddle, not with sit bones on the back of the saddle. Can you try that?

Eric

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
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My bike was level too. But the pain was horrible. But I read somewhere about raising the front approx 3”. Did it just a couple days ago

Went from being in pain for 2 hours, having to get off the bike and rub ‘down there’ repeatedly.

To going 2 hours yesterday not having to get off the bike at all

And in half distance it doesn’t hurt at all so the saddle is fine on the road.

 

I just moved my whole body to one side since I had a convenient leg length discrepancy.

E[/quote]That is more or less what I did until I started riding with a left 165 and a right 170 crankarm. I agree with something you said earlier that eh ISM was not quite wide enough. I just to use an arione tri and rest on the left side of my pelvis.
I had a bit of an epiphany after i bought a bisaddle and decided to give the ISM another tri and realized I was riding it wrong before. I don't like it as much as the bisaddle, but I only have one bisaddle and swapping the seat/post won't work on my tribike.
When I first bought my bisaddle, I though I would want the nose as far apart as possible, but that rubbed the insides of my thighs too much. I ended up with the nose quite close together and the rear about the same 145mm wide that my other preferred saddles were. And then something different happened; I realized I could ride the aero position (I use aero bars on both road and gravel bike) with my sit bones on the back of the saddle and the cutout allowed me to use both sit bones and the pelvis on both sides to distribute pressure. Now aero is the most comfortable position on the saddle. After four hours of climbing, my sit bones are aching from the more-dense-than-I prefer padding on the rear, but if I lean in to the aero position it redistributes the pressure. Now instead of dreading the aero position at the end of long rides, that is my go-to survive to the end position.
If I was into anything longer than 40k on the tri bike then I would definite buy another bisaddle.

Have been struggling lately with fore/aft tilt on the ISM PN 4.0 which I am trying vs the more tried/true 3.1 which I used to soften the old 3.0 that I had......I noted your comments on saddle tilt and wanted to get more guidance.....are you saying that tilt range should be no more than 4 degrees down to avoid sliding forward? Also, thoughts on 4.0 vs 3.0....with the extra wide part of 4.0 do you think that saddle needs to be moved back more than 3.0? Thanks and all the best.....

Saddle tilt should be at the maximum angle that provides support, comfort and a uniform position. If you're sliding you need to tilt up in small increments to reach the point where you have max tilt and comfort with no sliding.

The saddle tilt is irrelevant provided you have comfort and don't slide. 2%, 4%, 6%, 9%, doesn't matter. What matters is comfort and position. Those are just meaningless numbers.

I rode lower this weekend with more weight anteriorly on my pubic bones. During hard intervals I did sit up a bit, but still anteriorly tilting to keep more pressure forward rather than on my ischial tuberosities. This was better than past rides, and I still need to focus more in the future on the trainer. Is it reasonable to expect to find a position in the trainer that doesn't create saddle sores? Thanks again.

Andrew

Unfortunately there is the case that might not be possible for you. In my case for my road bike I can ride for quite some time outside and not get sore until after a few hours (when in the past had the fitness to ride that long). But using same road bike on a trainer or even rollers would start to get sore around 1-1.5 hours. But riding outside has typically been easier comfort wise compared to a fixed position trainer.

Same with my Tri bike but that's even worse as that one lives on the trainer now most of the year. What helped a little bit more for comfort was building my own full motion rocker plate (with both front and back motion and side to side tilt). But it wasn't some crazy miracle cure all, for me at least, compared to others on here who have reported they went from barely being able to do 1 or 2 hours on the trainer to going 3+ with no issues. For me it helped for a little better comfort but didn't fully alleviate me get from saddle soreness.

I also have some BiSaddles and using one of them so far. Did end up trying out the rounding wedge which for me it has helped for trainer riding. Still trying to dual in that position but it's much better than in standard setup. Only thing I don't like about BiSaddle is the padding material they use. On that front if they can get something similar feel to what ISM offers along with different firmness level offerings I think it will truly become the one of the best saddles on the market. But I bought mine a just over a year ago so maybe something has changed on that front.

Maybe give the rounding or flat wedge a go if you can't dial it in with width and saddle tilt adjustments.

You shouldn't get saddle sores if you're on the right saddle. I used to get them on my ISM PN 3.1 (Narrow). I'm on a Fizik Mystica (Large) now and I never get them. My pubic bones have plenty of support all the way across. There is never any shifting to find a comfort zone.

Thanks. Any thoughts on ism 4.0? Hard to find reviews. Seems much softer than 3.0 which has same padding rating of 30.

Does 'riding lower' mean you hunched down lower, or does it mean you lowered your seatpost?

Sufficiently lowered seatposts often cure saddles sores. You gotta lower it enough first to get rid of them, then work your way back up gradually (there is a power cost to having a too-low seatpost.)

Both saddles are 30 padding level which is mid range for ISM. I had the PN3.1 at 40. Tried the PS 1.0 at 15. I liked the 15 and hated the 40 padding. I found myself bottoming out on the rails at 40 level. I never felt a thing on 15 level padding. The 40 padding level felt amazing at first. Over the course of anything over 30 minutes it was pretty brutal for me.

thanks. my observation is that the 30 level padding on the 3.0 is way more firm than the 30 level padding on 4.0. I wish ISM would opine, since in theory the padding should be the same; there is a notable difference.......material to the ride......the 4.0 is more spongy if that is a way to describe it.

It's totally conceivable that the padding could feel different from one saddle to the next, even if padding density is equal. Perhaps saddle measurements could be a little different on each saddle hence making it feel different.

Padding is very individual. I found I prefer more dense and less cushy padding. I don't like a hard saddle. For rides over 60m I need support, so having firmness is important. The Fizik Mystica was the perfect solution for me. Not too hard, but also not a sponge effect where I'm bottoming out on the rails.

Not really hunched but moved forward on the saddle and really focused on that anterior pelvic tilt. So much so that you can’t sit up without rolling pelvis backwards. Seemed to be better tolerated.

Sounds like you haven't dropped your seatpost height sufficently for starters, feel fre to correct me if I'm wrong, but that's where you should start if you haven't done that first.

That was my first move when I got the bisaddle. It’s padding seems to stack up pretty high compared to others. For whatever reason I’m thinking that I got lazy about my position when riding and was sitting up a bunch. Paying more attention to position, widening the seat arms and lowering the saddle seem to have helped quite a bit. I’m still fiddling but my primary concern of excessive saddle sores has much improved!

Andrew

Good move.

And if you haven't yet, if you're getting recurrent saddle sores, first step is to lower your seat - A LOT. Like way down. Even if you got pro bike fit. I suspect you haven't lowered your seat enough if you're just trying to get the thicker bisaddle to match your prior saddle height.

I lowered mine by nearly 2 inches when I was dealing with a saddle sore on a new bike, and gradually moved it back up to near the original height as the sore went away. I think people underestimate how low they should drop that saddle if they're getting these saddle sores. If the seat is too high to relieve the pressure (even not excessively high), no saddle will help. Even the most ridiculously padded and heavy ones (yep, tried it.)