First lower your seat significantly. You’ll be surprised how much this helps and then you can gradually raise it once you are no longer getting sores. Bike fits do not guarantee you won’t get sores at least until you can ride enough to acclimate.
If it’s only moderately hard (squishy almost) then it very well could be a lipoma. If its very firm/hard, then it may be an “encapsulated” saddle sore…like a big cyst trapped under the skin. Either way, the best doc to look at that area would be a general surgeon. I hope you get relief from it.
Hey sorry, I saw this but had knee surgery last Monday, for the third time go me, and went braindead for the last week trying to not be in too much pain. I’m emailing you know.
1 Like
Here’s the thing if it’s what we are talking about there is no amount of seat moving that will fix it. I’m not kidding it was a gigantic solid mass that was sitting right under the skin. I’m a moron for not dealing with it earlier but I was also at the age of this is going to be really weird to ask about not realizing that for most general surgeons this is so far short of weird that it’s not a big deal. But I was a kid and didn’t know any better.
Don’t underestimate the power of lowering the seat significantly. I actually does cure most of these things, even if it does take time for them to heal. It’s not the cure-all, but it’s a really important first step if you feel one coming on, or if you’re actively recovering from one.
I think a lot of people here and elsewhere get a bike fit and assume everything will be perfect and that they’re just messing up their fit by lowering the seat, but that’s not the case. You need to lower it such that the pressure is altered enough so it can heal, and then you can raise it back up gradually to your bike fit position over time.
If you doubt this, go out right now, and drop your seat a good 3 cm. It’ll feel kinda ridiculous, like a low rider. Your legs/quads won’t be happy about it. But you’ll almost certainly be deloading that groin area and you’ll notice during the ride you’re not hitting that sore spot the same way you were.
I’ve tried multiple saddle sizes, even saddle covers, soft saddles, hard saddles, etc. They all caused saddle sores with a high seat position (even the cushiest ones - they flatten out and then you get problems with friction there). WIth the lowered seat, I can use literally anything. Really make be wonder if people are trying the wrong solution by spending hundreds of dollars on various saddles when the real issue is seat height (at least until they fully acclimate).
Okay gonna do this one more time. You’re not reading what I am saying. You’re making assumptions about what I had and what it sounds like he has, based on the fact that he’s talked to a couple doctors already, that are factually incorrect.
This is not a saddlesore. This was, for me at least, a non-cancerous hard mass of cells that was literally sitting right on my butt cheek where I sat on the saddle. It’s been awhile but the thing was like almost 2 inches by an inch that was well underneath the skin. Tape a few marbles to your butt where you sit on your saddle and then go ride. I don’t care where you put your saddle, this wasn’t comfortable. I don’t want to say it necessarily hurt but getting comfortable was impossible.
I read what you said. The point is the same.
If it’s a lump, ulcer, or sore spot that is contacting the saddle in any way, the first step is to lower the seat. It is almost guaranteed to help, if not cure the thing outright. This does NOT only apply to ‘saddle sores’.
What you describe about marbles on your butt is exactly what this seat lowering helps with.
You ride with this lowered saddle until its significantly better, then you raise it slowly (VERY slowly) back up.
I honestly don’t know why people are so resistant to trying this - it’s entirely free, and you can find out in 1-2 rides if it’s helping or not. If its not, ok, go for something else, but it’ll help it most cases. (Lower your seat to a low-rider BMX and you’ll almost be standing the entire ride, which will take most of the weight off the area.)
It’s like people are so insistent that they have to be right that they won’t even experiment with the easiest, FREE advice that many forumites swear by. It would be one thing if this was expensive, annoying, and hard, but it’s the easiest and almost smallest possible fix you could make.
I rack it up to that a lot of folks have spent $300+ on ‘professional bike fits’ so they assume everything is perfect. Sorry, doesn’t work that way for everyone.
Good lord, I may never ride a bike again after reading this thread.