I’ve had a Cervelo P2K for just over a year now which I use for 15-40K TTs and my harder training rides (I leave the tris to my wife, last tri I entered I made a fool of myself on the run). I use my road bike for easier rides, hilly rides, and longer rides when I get a chance. Until recently I’d never ridden the P2K more than 40 miles.
Recently I was on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, and I decided to take the P2K instead of the road bike, as I’m considerably faster on it on flat terrain, and about 2/3 of the island is quite flat. My longest ride was 53 miles (pretty good for me these days given family and work constraints, my days of doing a century every week are long gone), most rides were 40 miles or so with a lot of time on the aero bars due to the terrain. Overall, I enjoyed the bike a lot, and I generally averaged about a mile an hour faster than the same routes in previous years on my road bike with clip on aero bars. However, I did experience significant saddle discomfort on the longer rides, which hadn’t been a problem on my road bike. I also got a touch of genital numbness after my longest ride. I ended up raising the bars a couple of cm, and getting off the aero bars towards the end of my longer rides. I came away feeling that if I was going to do longer rides such as centuries on the P2K that I would need to raise the bars quite a bit, at least several centimeters if not more.
I have a moderately steep position, probably about 77 –78 degrees or so, I have a drop of 12 cm from seat to armpads, I’m 5’9’’, and use an Arione Tri saddle.
I gather that a lot of you are doing longer rides, i.e., IM length, and riding steep. Do you have problems with saddle discomfort? I don’t hear a lot about the fact that riding steep and low also rotates your crotch on the saddle in a less than favorable way. Would a neoprene saddle cover help?
I’m just curious as to how those of you that ride steep and long fare in the saddle comfort department.
Personal experience - I’ve found I’m EXTREMELY sensitive to saddle angle. One turn of the allen screw can make the difference between misery and bliss, literally.
FWIW I use the same saddle and I went from misery like you describe to bliss my just tipping the nose down just a hair, so that the pressure is more evenly distributed.
Experiment with the saddle angle before you start monkeying with bar height.
If you find the secret to taking all the pressure off the jewels in the aero position feel free to market it. I don’t believe it exists and I think a lot of people on this forum are lying…or they have no penis.
I agree saddle angle helps…I did the same though I’ve yet to feel “bliss”. I definitely feel a neoprene saddle helps…it does help me get closer to bliss.
If you find the secret to taking all the pressure off the jewels in the aero position feel free to market it. I don’t believe it exists and I think a lot of people on this forum are lying…or they have no penis.
Ah ha, a politically incorrect response in this pro-steep forum!
I have no problem riding aero bars on a road bike in a sort of ‘slammed’ position, I’ve ridden many very long rides this way and comfort has been fine. And I can tolerate short rides in a steep position (and I’m considerably faster in the steep position), it’s the longer rides that seem to be a problem.
OK, so you folks that ride IMs steep and low, how do the privates handle it?
BTW, my wife rides aero bars slack and says she can’t imagine riding steep, so I think this issue isn’t only relevant to men.
and I’m sure I’ll get slammed for my opinion (pun intended). I’ve been fitted by one of the best in the business (according to an article by the owner of this forum) and it’s still god-awful after about 20 minutes in the aero position. I don’t doubt the merits of being set up in the steep position if you’re comfortable there or if the race is pretty short and you can just deal with it…but what good does it do to be aero if you can’t stand being there for a long race?
I would think comfort that allows you to hammer harder without having to constantly shift weight would override being ultra-aero. 56 or 112 miles…I want comfort. The tour riders never TT for much more than an hour…they probably have a rule against it in their union for that very reason.
My wife also complains about it. I’m going to try the slam position…if cervelo would ever be kind enough to send me my seat post (crap…I’ll probably get slammed for ragging on cervelo too ;).
Yes, it’s not much better for us girls, either. I ride in a really tight aero position and if I didn’t have a saddle with a “cooter cut out”, there would be no joy in Mudville. Or Carlsbad, as the case may be.
“If you find the secret to taking all the pressure off the jewels in the aero position feel free to market it. I don’t believe it exists and I think a lot of people on this forum are lying…or they have no penis.”
My jewels seem to do fine up to 130 miles in the areo position(the furthest I have tried), and I do have 3 three children (2, 4, and 6) that I believe are in part due to my penis. Let’s just say I have done a lot of Tris for many, many years, and have been riding in aero position since the 80’s.
Here is how I set up my saddle, based on a little help I got from Tinley 17 years or so ago when this aero thing 1st started: 1st, make sure you have a decent overall position and your seat is the right height (I am at about 80 degrees)- you are then 90% of the way to comfort. I ride a regular old Flite (just switched to an Arione on the Tri bike) , and have since they 1st came out. Take a level and measure from the nose about 5 inches back - this is the part if the saddle that you want level. Now, skew the saddle about .5 cm or 1/2 the width of the nose to the side away from your “hang.” Now, when riding in the aero position, your “taint” lays to the side of the saddle instead of right on it. Rotate your hips a little forward and make sure your arms aren’t too far stretched out.
This has worked for me and I hope it helps you. There is no reason other than improper position that you can’t get very comfortable in forward areo position.
i replace my stock saddle with an aspide tri-gel saddle. this made a big difference in comfort. I can ride 4-5 hours in the aero bars no problem. I can also ride in a better position because I don’t feel the need to roll my hips back to take pressure of the tender bits. like other’s wrote, saddle position is very critical in the tt position. If I get the position a bit off, it feels like I’m riding a 2x4.
David, thanks for the good tips, I’ll give them a try. I’m not sure how much off center I can tolerate the seat for riding on the drops, this will be interesting to experiment with. I also usually hang to one side but sometimes vary it, I’ll see how it goes when I totally commit to one side…
lol! I have my saddle rotated too. Yesterday while at the Carlsbad Tri, a guy was nice enough to tell me that my saddle was “crooked” I laughed and said I did it on purpose and had to explain what you explained! The rotation + neoprene cover does help a lot.
BTW, The other names for the “taint” is the “Gooch” (or “Guch”), “Chode”, “grundle”, “durf”, and “Chin rest” LOL
There are probably more. Feel free to substitute for “taint”
well…I’m pretty confident my position is good since I got fitted by fitwerx. I’ve tried skewing the saddle and that didn’t help none too much either…and I’ve tried a number of different saddles. Everything about my position feels good except for the most important thing. Any way I slice it, there’s discomfort in some way. Like I said, it may be fine for some people, but certainly not 100% of the people as you assert…in which case I think comfort over rides aero.
"…but certainly not 100% of the people as you assert…in which case I think comfort over rides aero. "
I’m not sure I said that; but, anyway, as someone else said, some folks are quite sensitive to the tilt of the saddle and that may take some experimenting.
I certainly agree that comfort overrides areo, but at least to a great extent I do not believe that they are mutually exclusive.
ok…you got me…I took some liberty with your words and twisted them to suit my argument I’d very much like to be proven wrong and be able to ride comfortably in the aero position. I just don’t think it’s going to happen for me, considering how much time and effort I’ve put into it…unless somebody can figure out how to put the pressure back on my ass instead of where it is now while being in the aero position.
