because we are at a particular moment, where we’ll do a lot of our cycling on the trainer, but will begin to migrate outside with the onset of summer and the lifting of stay-at-home orders, we are going to try to foster the fixing of problems that you have on your bike. your position, and your contact point problems. by far, your biggest point of discomfort, according to you, is your saddle. to that end we’re going to do 2 things: ask saddle companies to engage in special programs designed to let you try and buy their saddles with no risk; and offer help on THIS forum thread w/regard to the prescribing and use of saddles.
how you set your saddle up on your bike, the tilt, and the fore/aft, does change a lot from saddle to saddle. also, there are newer saddles, such as BiSaddle, which you may not be familiar with, and we’ll go thru how this saddle works. there’s a home page article (or will be shortly) announcing this, and this thread (and others focused on other common bike problems) is where the real work will take place.
what is the tie to stationary? this is where these problems are most easily fixed. in my experience, stationary is the ideal test lab. once you get your position, your saddle, your pedal adjustment, aerobars, dialed in on the trainer, then you take them out on the road and make whatever minor adjustments need to be made there.
Dan
I have an Adamo ISM saddle on my road bike. I have ridden it for say 5 years never knowing it was underneath me.
Until two weeks ago. I hit a pothole and knocked it out of position. Now all I feel is saddle.
I started out level. Now I have it pitched forward a bit. It feels better pitched forward, but it’s there.
The other part of the equation is fore / aft. I suspect I now have the saddle further back relative to the bottom bracket.
Beyond trial and error. What are the steps to get this right?
TIA
Can’t help with getting the saddle positioned right, but hopefully this helps once you do get it dialed.
Take a pic with your phone. That way you always have the position of the seatpost clamp on the rails handy, and a pretty good idea of the saddle tilt (you can actually get it exactly with software by measuring against the known angle of the seatpost).
I went through a dozen saddles until I discovered the genius of the Selle SMP line.
I don’t know how anyone rides on a non-split saddle these days, especially women.
Dan this is a fabulous idea! I have been one of those who has been on the search for my "perfect " saddle. I may have found one but like so many things in life it seems so far the problem is trialling and error, which means it is hard to do in a remote part of Canada. I have at least 7 saddles at home I had to buy to try. In a couple of instances I was able to return the saddle that did not work for me but that was maybe 1 or 2? So some idea or agreement from suppliers to allow for trials would be a wonderful thing! Keep up the good work. There is nothing more personal on a bike than saddle preference! and what works for one is a PITA for another literally!
I went through a dozen saddles until I discovered the genius of the Selle SMP line.
I don’t know how anyone rides on a non-split saddle these days, especially women.
Are you using it on your roadie or TT? Or both? I’ve always been interested in this brand but haven’t been able to try.
because we are at a particular moment, where we’ll do a lot of our cycling on the trainer, but will begin to migrate outside with the onset of summer and the lifting of stay-at-home orders, we are going to try to foster the fixing of problems that you have on your bike. your position, and your contact point problems. by far, your biggest point of discomfort, according to you, is your saddle. to that end we’re going to do 2 things: ask saddle companies to engage in special programs designed to let you try and buy their saddles with no risk; and offer help on THIS forum thread w/regard to the prescribing and use of saddles.
how you set your saddle up on your bike, the tilt, and the fore/aft, does change a lot from saddle to saddle. also, there are newer saddles, such as BiSaddle, which you may not be familiar with, and we’ll go thru how this saddle works. there’s a home page article (or will be shortly) announcing this, and this thread (and others focused on other common bike problems) is where the real work will take place.
what is the tie to stationary? this is where these problems are most easily fixed. in my experience, stationary is the ideal test lab. once you get your position, your saddle, your pedal adjustment, aerobars, dialed in on the trainer, then you take them out on the road and make whatever minor adjustments need to be made there.
Sportfit Lab in Virginia has a great demo program!
http://www.sportfit-lab.com/bike-seat-demo.html
Slowman…one thing to keep in mind stationary vs outdoors.
Outdoors you have a retarding force (say at 30-40kph) pushing you back on your saddle from falling off the front of it. Indoors you have no wind retarding force holding you in your saddle. I noticed that indoors I need my saddle to be more level to just stay on the saddle, but that compresses hip angle, so my bars are higher. Outdoors it is much easier to stay lower with the saddle slightly down in the aero and not sliding off the front.
Just food for thought on the indoors vs outdoors. Eventually I just gave up and just ride on an old road bike with clip on bars (if I want to practice aero riding because I will go to an early season race down south) with a hip angle equivalent to what I ride on my TT bike outdoors. The transition to outdoors after that is easy.
If I ride with my outdoor position indoors, I slide to the front of the saddle and have too much weight on shoulders.
I went through a dozen saddles until I discovered the genius of the Selle SMP line.
I don’t know how anyone rides on a non-split saddle these days, especially women.
Are you using it on your roadie or TT? Or both? I’ve always been interested in this brand but haven’t been able to try.
Road: Evolution
Gravel/CX: Blaster
It’s not just the split, it’s the way the saddle is shaped so you can push back under seated effort and there is no discomfort when you roll forward into a pursuit position.
I’ve been meaning to update my TT bike but I rarely ride it these days.
Dan
I have an Adamo ISM saddle on my road bike. I have ridden it for say 5 years never knowing it was underneath me.
Until two weeks ago. I hit a pothole and knocked it out of position. Now all I feel is saddle.
I started out level. Now I have it pitched forward a bit. It feels better pitched forward, but it’s there.
The other part of the equation is fore / aft. I suspect I now have the saddle further back relative to the bottom bracket.
Beyond trial and error. What are the steps to get this right?
TIA
I have been on ISM on my road bike for many years and love it. The one thing I remember from the installation video was to have a slight twist of the saddle to the left or right of centerline, depending on which was more comfortable. I can’t do that on my QR Tri because of the aero seat post, and thus the road bike saddle is always more comfortable that the road bike. On a cycling trip a friend even was even approaching my bike with his tool post build up saying, hey your saddle is twisted. I mark it with electrical tape and a Sharpie when I find the sweet spot. Good luck!
Great idea. I’m going to go through some old pics and see if I can get a good enough look at the rails.
Like you said I should be able to pull the saddle tilt with software tools.
Thanks!
Interesting about adding a twist.
I know I’m more comfortable with pressure on my left side.
That could help.
Thanks!
Here is mine…ISN P1.1.
Only the first saddle I bought to change from stock (felt b16). Massive improvement over stock but feel like I should be more tilted… what do you think?
what ISM says is that the rails should be level, and that means a nose-down aspect. here’s the rule, according to me: nose down as much as you can, until you start to slide off the saddle. if you need to make any special movement or adjustment while riding to keep yourself from sliding forward, then you’ve gone too far. go just that far, and no farther. stationary riding is a great place to work on that.
Thanks Dan.
Yeah… just come in from a zwift ride and I am certainly not slipping forward…will get my tinkering kit out tomorrow and well… tinker.
SMP saddles were good (I had road and TT models for my R3 and P3), but Specialized have been better for me. Power Arc and Sitero 2 have been a step beyond, and I though SMP were great.
Has there ever been conversation one way or the other with MELD Saddles? Or experience? Obviously demo and returns for a custom saddle isn’t possible, but I’m curious why I have never seen more mention of them around these parts. Seems they have a split(ish) nose option too.
there are newer saddles, such as BiSaddle, which you may not be familiar with, and we’ll go thru how this saddle works.
Assuming there is just one version of the BiSaddle that works for both men and women?
In all seriousness though, do you have details on how/what is adjusted? Assuming it is similar to ISM, but with adjustments. Does that make it overly heavy compared to others?
I ride an ISM on my tri bike and either an Asute or Selle Italia on the road, but am always willing to try new things. I also think what you are wearing has a big influence on saddle comfort.
there are newer saddles, such as BiSaddle, which you may not be familiar with, and we’ll go thru how this saddle works.
Assuming there is just one version of the BiSaddle that works for both men and women?
In all seriousness though, do you have details on how/what is adjusted? Assuming it is similar to ISM, but with adjustments. Does that make it overly heavy compared to others?
I ride an ISM on my tri bike and either an Asute or Selle Italia on the road, but am always willing to try new things. I also think what you are wearing has a big influence on saddle comfort.
bisaddle has more than 1 model. but the point of it is that it has 2 sides, left and right, and a number of different plates on which these two sides sit. depending on the plate you choose you can have the front of the saddle be as narrow or wide as you want, likewise the rear, where the flanges are.
the very first bisaddle i got, a couple of years ago, was not admirably light. however, i’ve gotten subsequent versions, and each one makes improvements over the last, including paring down the weight. we’ve reviewed the saddle twice in our history, on the front page. but i’m getting ready to review it again because, just as we review cobb and ISM and other saddles multiple times, this saddle has morphed some and is due for an updated review.
I’ve already posted on the shoe fitting problem thread, so let’s talk about the saddle issues a little bit here. 
I have started to feel the left side of the saddle way more recently. I almost feel like I am bearing almost all of the weight on the left side of my Selle SMP Well saddle.
I also have an ISM saddle on another bike on the trainer, and on that too, I feel more pressure on the left side. So what are the possible root causes that we can try to diagnose?
A professional bike fitter had shimmed my left foot to relieve some of this pressure, but that didn’t seem to work for too long. So I moved the shims to the right foot, and that seemed to improve things. But I am not sure anymore. I feel like my body has gone back to weighing the left side more again.
Would appreciate any thoughts on diagnosing where the asymmetry lies!