Cobb saddle and perineum pain/numbness

Triathlon Forum
1

I’ve been testing out a cobb plus 2 over the past few months and experience pain and numbness when riding indoors for an hour or more. Curiously, although I’ve used the saddle only once outdoors, it was for 1.5 hours and I don’t recall experiencing any pain or numbness. Not sure if that was a fluke or if there’s a rationale explanation for it.

In any event, my uneducated guess is that the pain is caused by the extra padding towards the nose of the saddle. I’ve used the adamo road saddle for the past couple of years, and although I experienced chafing due to the width of the nose, I never had perineum pain or numbness.

I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced such pain using the cobb plus, and if so, whether you would attribute it to the extra nose padding, and what you did about it. I’m thinking of trying an adamo time trial, which I believe has a narrower nose than the adamo road, or to a different cobb that doesn’t have the extra padding, e.g., the cobb max.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

2

Most people find their setup less comfortable indoors. You un-weight your perineum twice per pedal stroke. Indoors, the trainer flywheel accelerates too quickly so you can’t push down as hard so you don’t get as much relief.

3

You can contact the folks at Cobb directly. They are very helpful.

You could also try to angle the front of the saddle down slightly to see if that resolves the issue.

I don’t ride the Cobb Plus2 but ride the JOF 55 on my tri bike. The nose on the JOF is narrower than the Adamo which could be another option.

Good luck.

4

Stand and pedal for a few seconds every 10 minutes or so, that helps.

5

I’ve been testing out a cobb plus 2 over the past few months and experience pain and numbness when riding indoors for an hour or more. Curiously, although I’ve used the saddle only once outdoors, it was for 1.5 hours and I don’t recall experiencing any pain or numbness. Not sure if that was a fluke or if there’s a rationale explanation for it.

In any event, my uneducated guess is that the pain is caused by the extra padding towards the nose of the saddle. I’ve used the adamo road saddle for the past couple of years, and although I experienced chafing due to the width of the nose, I never had perineum pain or numbness.

I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced such pain using the cobb plus, and if so, whether you would attribute it to the extra nose padding, and what you did about it. I’m thinking of trying an adamo time trial, which I believe has a narrower nose than the adamo road, or to a different cobb that doesn’t have the extra padding, e.g., the cobb max.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I used the Plus before I used the Max. Didn’t have the specific issue you address with the Plus but I really liked the Max regardless. I hear really good things about the JOF as well but it is a little wider and you would probably like the Max more IMO given your comment about width.

6

I’ve been testing out a cobb plus 2 over the past few months and experience pain and numbness when riding indoors for an hour or more. Curiously, although I’ve used the saddle only once outdoors, it was for 1.5 hours and I don’t recall experiencing any pain or numbness. Not sure if that was a fluke or if there’s a rationale explanation for it.

In any event, my uneducated guess is that the pain is caused by the extra padding towards the nose of the saddle. I’ve used the adamo road saddle for the past couple of years, and although I experienced chafing due to the width of the nose, I never had perineum pain or numbness.

I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced such pain using the cobb plus, and if so, whether you would attribute it to the extra nose padding, and what you did about it. I’m thinking of trying an adamo time trial, which I believe has a narrower nose than the adamo road, or to a different cobb that doesn’t have the extra padding, e.g., the cobb max.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

FWIW, in my own experience, I get pain/numbness indoors on EVERY saddle. And pretty much never get it outside.

This is not uncommon in my experience with Dan teaching FIST workshops. When you ride inside, you don’t need to balance and stabilize, which has the effect of taking weight off your saddle and shifting it to your feet/legs and hands/arms.

If I was going to ride a lot indoors, I’d probably ride the JOF. I didn’t really like it when riding hard. But riding easy - when a lot more weight is on the saddle, it is really nice.

But basically, I think the best saddle for riding indoors is often NOT the best saddle for riding outdoors. And vice versa. Which is maybe surprising but also not…

7

When you ride inside, you don’t need to balance and stabilize, which has the effect of taking weight off your saddle and shifting it to your feet/legs and hands/arms.

If that were true riding rollers would solve the problem.

8

Thanks for the comments. Think I’ll try the JOF.

FWIW, I never experienced the same numbness riding indoors with the Adamo, just chafing, but I can see why the pain (using the Cobb) would present on indoor rides but not outdoors.

9

Timely thread; I’ve been riding the Cobb for more than 3 years and have been happy with it up until this month when I’ve been putting in a lot of time on the trainer. My ass has taken a beating. I’ve tried using my Desoto 400 mile bibs, the 400 mile shorts, bike shorts with little padding, and bike shorts with medium padding. Also have a Desoto seat cover. And using chamois butter Nothing seems to help much after an hour except getting off the saddle for a short break.

10

Every saddle is different. But I had the JOF and was NOT comfortable on it at all…in any position and got rid of it. Pain, numbness and chafing. But I don’t think it’s necessarily that it’s a bad saddle…just that might just not be the saddle for you.

11

As many have noted, trainer is generally going to cause more discomfort because of the lack of side to side movement. I have a Cobb JOF Randee (when folks say they have a JOF, they really mean JOF 55), which I picked after demoing six (!) Cobb saddles over many weeks (their demo/return policy really is exceptional). To paraphrase Churchill about democracy, the worst saddle I’ve used, except for all the alternatives. :slight_smile: More seriously, pretty good across a spectrum of both road and tri/aero positions, and decent on the trainer but after a solid hour some discomfort does creep in.

12

As many have noted, trainer is generally going to cause more discomfort because of the lack of side to side movement.

If that were true riding rollers would solve the problem…

13

As many have noted, trainer is generally going to cause more discomfort because of the lack of side to side movement.

If that were true riding rollers would solve the problem.

I don’t ride rollers. I take it you do, and you’re comfortable angling the bike laterally as much as you would outdoors, and you find it makes no difference in saddle comfort? Do you find riding outdoors any less comfortable than riding indoors, and if so, do you have a different theory to explain that? I’m genuinely curious.

14

I rode rollers for many years and found them to be as uncomfortable in terms of sitting as most trainers. Actually, I remember they were more uncomfortable. Outdoors, I can use the Fizik Antares just fine. Indoors, I usually need the much more plush Aliante.

I already explained the real reason riding indoors is more uncomfortable. The myth that it’s caused by lack of lateral movement/not having to balance oneself needs to die and is disproven by rollers.

With a trainer that can simulate the kinetic energy and drivetrain inertia of outdoor riding, sitting is as comfortable as outdoors so I don’t have to switch saddles.

15

I rode rollers for many years and found them to be as uncomfortable in terms of sitting as most trainers. Actually, I remember they were more uncomfortable. Outdoors, I can use the Fizik Antares just fine. Indoors, I usually need the much more plush Aliante.

I already explained the real reason riding indoors is more uncomfortable. The myth that it’s caused by lack of lateral movement/not having to balance oneself needs to die and is disproven by rollers.

With a trainer that can simulate the kinetic energy and drivetrain inertia of outdoor riding, sitting is as comfortable as outdoors so I don’t have to switch saddles.

Interesting. If folks adjust their trainers to ride at the same cadence and power output as outdoors, I would have thought it would be equivalent in terms of biomechanics, with the exception of slightly different lateral movement. Am I missing some nuance?

16

Are you male or female? When recommending saddles for guys, I’m not a fan of the Plus on a tri bike, generally. I recommend the Max or the 55.

17

The downstroke is attenuated riding indoors so your legs can’t contribute as much to supporting your weight so your perineum sees a greater average pressure.

18

The downstroke is attenuated riding indoors so your legs can’t contribute as much to supporting your weight so your perineum sees a greater average pressure.

If I’m understanding you correctly, I think you’re saying that outdoors each downstroke meets more resistance that it has to power through, whereas on the trainer each downstroke encounters too little resistance as it imparts force to the pedals. This would imply that the lack of resistance on the trainer leads to a temporary acceleration of the pedal stroke, so we’re doing a sort of surge-coast-surge-coast stroke on the trainer relative to more constant motion outdoors. I’m still trying to get my head around why that would be at equivalent cadence and power output, but I can sort of comprehend that it might be the case.

19

Yes, crank and wheel velocity fluctuates a lot more indoors. It’s because the bike + rider outdoors has much more mass than the drivetrain + rear wheel + trainer flywheel indoors so the former accelerates and decelerates less.

20

Yes, crank and wheel velocity fluctuates a lot more indoors. It’s because the bike + rider outdoors has much more mass than the drivetrain + rear wheel + trainer flywheel indoors so the former accelerates and decelerates less.

Fascinating. And I suppose a massive flywheel or a smart trainer designed to oscillate resistance in a way that compensated for this (assuming that’s feasible) would help. Thanks for taking the time to explain this!