I’m not a Tri person (*gasp), but I do enjoy getting stuff off this site for good deals :). Regardless, I recently got an Element Six TT frame/fork and built it up, but unfortunately I only had a crap Selle Italia Road saddle around. I race P12, and this morning I did my first “at race pace” TT on it for 12.5 miles. This saddle KILLED my crotch! Nathan O’Neil lives near me, so I just straight up asked him what he thought, and he mentioned that since I did weigh 325 at one point and now weigh 170ish that it might be difficult to find a good saddle, but since my fitted Bontrager road saddle is the blue dot, or widest one, that a Fizik Arione Tri saddle might be a good direction to go since it has a wider and flat nose to evenly distribute the pressure, whereas a saddle like an Aliante (which he rides on his TT bike) would probably not work for me since it is more rounded and made for someone with not as wide of a sitting area. I ride the nose like a mo-fo during TT’s, but today I literally was hurting so bad that I had to scoot back halfway through the TT to pull the pressure off my taint. SOOOO:
What saddle do you guys recommend? Most of my TT’s are less than 15 miles. I have ONE 40k every year for the state championship, but I do go out and train on my TT bike quite a bit for 2-3 hours at a time. Suggestions?
Yes yes, riding on the taint. Most people slide forward when cranking hard in a TT, but you could also try sliding your saddle even more fore since you are positioning yourself there anyway, let your ischial tuberosities bear some weight and decrease the beating to your taint.
Or resign yourself to being on the nose; where you need to be exerting consisting downward mashing to decrease weightbearing on the saddle, or find a big fat nose that feels comfy. The Arione won’t feel comfy if you slide out onto the nose anyway.
Change your position to distribute weight back on the pelvic bones rather than taint. An aggressive aero position will almost always put pressure on the taint, the question is how much is tolerable/injurious for you? The adamo saddles are an attempt at eliminating that nose-to-taint pressure, test drive one of those. I was mildly succesfull with mine. Didn’t like the Arione; the midline felt too high-centered for me.
then the Adamo might be a good option, since it has almost no nose to it, so you can have the wings position more fore to allow some weightbearing support in your TT position. I’m assuming the Adamo is USCF legal but I don’t actually know. The only thing I don’t like about the adamo is that we tend to use the nose for balance and bike control somewhat between our thighs, and you lose some of that with the Adamo. Of course, there’s much less demand for fine tuned bike control in a TT.
I’m a big fan of John Cobb’s V-Flow Max, myself. A pleasant surprise with this saddle (not totally apparent on the website photos) is that the anatomical cutout extends all the way forward. That is, the the part of the nose where the two sides join is placed below the height of the edges of the cutout.
I now finally understand the notion of rotating the pelvis. Never got the hang of it before, because my crotch wouldn’t allow it.
I think I’m going to try a Fizik Ares or the Arione Tri2 saddle. Those both seem to have a wider and flatter nose that other saddles. Any ideas there? There’s one I’m watching on ebay that ends very soon I’d like to get if you guys agree.
then the Adamo might be a good option, since it has almost no nose to it, so you can have the wings position more fore to allow some weightbearing support in your TT position. I’m assuming the Adamo is USCF legal but I don’t actually know. The only thing I don’t like about the adamo is that we tend to use the nose for balance and bike control somewhat between our thighs, and you lose some of that with the Adamo. Of course, there’s much less demand for fine tuned bike control in a TT.
Sounds like you haven’t ridden with an Adamo type saddle on your road bike, huh?
I had the same concerns prior to putting an Adamo Road model on my road bike since that was the only way I was going to be able to ride it due to some prostate “issues” at the time…but, after riding it for a bit, I have to say that those concerns were completely unfounded. There’s still enough saddle contacting between the legs that I never felt “out of control”, even when descending twisty roads on the road bike. In fact, it didn’t feel any different from a balance/control standpoint. Total non-issue.
The Adamo is UCI legal…there are no saddle regs for USCF.
Oh…and the idea with the Adamo is that you rest your sit bones on the prongs…if you are seated anywhere near the “wings” (as you called them) then you’re riding too far back on that saddle and will probably erroneously claim that the “nose is too wide”.
I think I’m going to try a Fizik Ares or the Arione Tri2 saddle. Those both seem to have a wider and flatter nose that other saddles. Any ideas there? There’s one I’m watching on ebay that ends very soon I’d like to get if you guys agree.
Here’s the thing…even with a wider, padded nose like on the Tri2, you’re still going to have to “pick a side” and rest the sitbone on that side on the saddle, especially if you have an adequately low position for your events. Otherwise, you’ll be literally “crushing the boys”…and at that point, you’ll be looking for a narrower, padded nose, of which the Tri2 is one of the narrowest.
I went through that same
progression saddles you’re contemplating going through (i.e. road
saddle, padded wide Tri saddle, narrow padded Tri saddle, Adamo)…and
finally had the “epiphany” once I tried an Adamo. I wish I’d skipped
all the steps in between (along with all of the crotch abrasion/pain
that went with it). It’s really NICE being able to rest BOTH ischial
tuberosities on the prongs of the saddle and have full support with
nothing in the way of me rotating my hips forward since my “junk” is
all basically hanging off the front. Just a suggestion…
So a shop 20 minutes from me gave me an Adamo “Road” and a Arione Tri2 to test. I have the Adamo on my bike right now and rode it for 45 minutes on the trainer tonight w/ no issues. Tomorrow I’m doing some intervals, so that’ll be the real test. My hamstrings are a little sore, which I know was shown as something potential on their site, but it’s not bad. I ride my TT bike 2-4 times a week, though, so maybe I’m okay there.
EDIT**Also, I would prefer to weight weenie it a bit and go with the “Racing” model instead if you guys think it’d work as well. Looks to me like it’s the same saddle w/ a bit less padding, so I should be fine there.
So a shop 20 minutes from me gave me an Adamo “Road” and a Arione Tri2 to test. I have the Adamo on my bike right now and rode it for 45 minutes on the trainer tonight w/ no issues. Tomorrow I’m doing some intervals, so that’ll be the real test. My hamstrings are a little sore, which I know was shown as something potential on their site, but it’s not bad. I ride my TT bike 2-4 times a week, though, so maybe I’m okay there.
EDIT**Also, I would prefer to weight weenie it a bit and go with the “Racing” model instead if you guys think it’d work as well. Looks to me like it’s the same saddle w/ a bit less padding, so I should be fine there.
Nice. That’s a good shop.
Make sure that you have the Adamo set up “right” when switching between those 2 saddles. For example, when I moved from the Arione Tri2 to the Adamo road, the front of the saddle ended up a full 6-7 cm further back! That’s a bit more than one would think just looking at them…but it makes all the difference in the world.
Being a weight weenie is fine, but really…on a TT/Tri bike, weight is a lesser concern. IME, the road model is a bit easier to get used to…but once your rear end is accommodated to the weight being borne by only your sit bones, then the Race model becomes just fine. Although the Road is slightly heavier, it’s also less expensive. So…sort of a tossup depending on your preferences…
I’m curious - how does the weight loss come into play? How is currently weighing 170lbs but previously weighing 325 differ from having weighed 170 all along?
I’m curious - how does the weight loss come into play? How is currently weighing 170lbs but previously weighing 325 differ from having weighed 170 all along?
^---- Also curious about this ----^
Edit: gotcha
I’m a big fan of the Cobb V-Flow Max. Not sure if it’s necessarily suited to your particular situation, but the 180-day no questions asked return policy will certainly give you a chance to find out.
Since there is all this talk about Adamo saddles (apologies if this is a mild hi jack), has anyone ridden the breakaway or know anything about it? I have to be honest, one of the reasons I havent tried out an Adamo is because they are so damn ugly and use colors that were popular back in the early 90s. I know nothing should stop me from finding ultimate comfort for my manhood but the looks of the saddle leave a bit to be desired. The breakaway seems to have much cleaner lines and I wouldnt mind trying it out but was looking for anyone who may have had a bit of experience with it or knows more about it (the ISM website seems to be down and has been for over a week).
