Ok, my latest issue with this stupid bike is a numb johnson. Not just a “oh, I’ve been riding a few hours” numb, but a “dear freaking god is this thing going to work again!!!” numb.
I’ve tilted the saddle, moved it back & forth, etc…
The guy that fit me said the only thing left to do is to get less aggressive (less aero).
Which would basically leave me with a bike that isn’t lighter or more aero than my road bike, plus it doesn’t handle nearly as well.
It doesn’t seem like there’s a way to get low in the front w/o the resulting pressure on the johnson. Time to give it up?
You could always try the ISM adamo. Picked it up a couple weeks ago and no complaints. Your thing sort of just hangs or is suspended in the air. Hard to explain but you can imagine by looking at it.
I am having the same issue. I ended up lowering my saddle by a few MM’s which now causes me to slide to the back of the saddle for extension. I feel like my power might have decreased slightly but I’m sitting on my sit bones instead of the perineum.
I have found that I experience discomfort when I ride with true bike shorts versus tri-shorts. Is it possible that your bike shorts have some padding in areas that aren’t compatible with the aero position on a tri bike?
I struggled with that in the beginning…I invariably end up shifting farther back on the saddle until my sit bones really carry the weight…I do move back and forth some on the saddle while riding just to relieve pressure points…sometimes I also lean more on my aero bars and sort of half stand on the pedals to give my butt a break…
“The problem is that the tri bike position requires rotating the hips forward, ergo more pressure on the taint.”
Your sitting improperly on your saddle if you’re sitting on your taint. Rotate your saddle a few degrees to one side or the other. The nose of the saddle should sit inbetween your perineum and your leg (right on the bone).
I had the same probelm with my tri bike. switched to a specialized avatar saddle. Have’t had any problems since. I too move around though just to keep the blood flowing. I’m not a pro so the couple of seconds or minutes that I lose for not being aero or moving around, isn’t a big deal.
go into your LBS, tell them in advance what you want to do. bring your bike, put it on a trainer, and try these saddles:
selle italia SLR
selle italia SLR T1
profile design tri stryke
fizik arione tri
ism adamo
if your shop does not have all these saddles, or is willing to get all these saddles, for you to try, they’re not really an A++ tri shop. you’ll find your saddle in this list above.
one thing i found out in recent months is that saddle comfort is more about saddle SHAPE than padding. I recently got a carbon saddle for my climbing bike and have since tried it out on my tri bike and find that it’s just as comfortable as my arione tri. go figure.
having said that, i’d do what slowman suggested. If that doesn’t work, have a look at maybe the Specialized range of saddles, which have different shapes based on the width of your ischium (that bone in your butt). It might be that your saddle is too narrow and does not allow you to place sufficient weight on your ischium and consequently places more pressure on your perinium than necessary.
FWIW, I tried a bunch of saddles…Arione, Arione Tri, Selle Italia SLR Tri, Aliante, Flite and Blackwell Flow. I finally found a saddle that works great for me, the Specialized Alias. Like Slowman said, try a bunch until you find one, it’s the only way.
I ride an SLK which is an SLR shaped saddle with a little more padding with a cut from the back(which I don’t know what it does now except look cool). Its flat, I sit on my sit bones on the back part of the saddle and can still roll my hips forward without numbness. I was having the same problem as you on thick nosed gel saddle so I switched and am riding really really comfortably so far.
I’m not talking about the saddle being level, I’m talking about it being rotated a bit to one side (i.e. crooked). This makes it so you’re not sitting right on your perineum, but rather to one side of it.
