What do you train in, especially on your long rides? Bike shorts and no seat cover, tri shorts with cover, bike shorts with cover, tri shorts no cover?
I find that my bike shorts chafe more on the long rides. I think I do better with the cover and tri shorts on the 3+ hour rides. i think it supercedes any butt soreness. I’m not so experienced on the bike, so I’m wondering what all of you do.???
Bike shorts, no cover but a liberal coating of bag balm. This combination seems to work well for me.
Tucker
Tri shorts, no cover. Train like you race. The more you train like you race the better you race.
Bike shorts no cover and no balm. I find the more I ride and the harder I ride less chaffing.
Buggy bike shorts for commuting (otherwise my collegues make fun of me).
Bike shorts on long training rides when bulding my base.
Tri shorts when training is approaching the race season.
Like Larry I like minimalism and prefer my SLR saddle with no padding.
Doesn’t that SLR press on your tenderrrrr points…I love the way they look, as well as the SLK, the Aliante and the regular Aspide, but they look like they’d leave you numb after 10mi. in the Aero bars.
I wear bike shorts and a saddle pad. I also use massive amounts of chamois butt’r. The Arione saddle is hard as a rock(IMO), and the saddle pad helps.
Yesterday I did 4.5 hours with no numbness, minimal chafing, and little discomfort overall.
The only difference for a race is that I will wear tri shorts.
Like you, I am relatively new to very long rides on a road bike. My bike came with what I thought was a very comfy saddle, and it was, for short rides. Until I got the Arione, and started using chamios butt’r, I was having a lot of problems with numbness and chafing.
The SLR looks very sexy, but extremely painful. As if it has been designed for weight freaks who don’t ride. However, the SLR is extremely comfortable. It is very flexible and allows you to move your legs closer to the frame, providing you with more freedom. I noticed that after a few long rides it got a bit of my shape. I highly recommend it.
bike shorts in training. tri shorts for racing. done it the past 5 years, never an issue.
i also used a qr seat cover before buying an azoto tri saddle. the seat cover is very snug. once it’s on, it does not slide around (but i suppose the type of seat you have it on might make a difference).
I agree with Jim, train as you race. You’ll be better off with fewer ‘surprises’ on race day.
Desoto tri shorts for cycling and running, no cover on the saddle, stock tri-matic 2 seat on my bike. I even use the same shorts for open water swimming. Talk about the best shorts ever!
jaretj
Tridork is a pussy!
Therfore I use everything available to make my nether regions happy.
Several years ago I broke my pelvis right by my perinium (sp) while doing IMNZ 2000. Ouch. I had a crash the week before and think it was broken when I started the race. I hurt quite a bit, all over, but was more concerned about my suspected (and later confirmed) broken skull! (this may explain my alleged sense of humour). The rough NZ roads certainly aggravated the problem as did my near clydesale proportions. I thought I had really bad saddle sore and or blister the size of a silver dollar, hiding behind my scrotum. A quick check in T2 showed no evidence of damage so the diagnosis by me was…pussy, get on with it! Doctors got the right diagnosis a week later.
Anyway, I now ride IM distances (racing or training) with, bike shorts with a second chamois sewn in, plenty o’ chamois cream, Azoto saddle with a QR seat cover. Overkill I hear you say? F*&$ off!. I never want to suffer that much pain again so I do all I can to prevent it happening.
This year at IMNZ I was a little slow on the bike becasue of the wind, but man was I compy, (except for the spot I missed with the chamois cream) and I managed to run nearly the whole run, for a 20 min PB overall. Comfy wins races I say.
TriDork
Train in bike shorts, except for a few “Adaptation” rides.
Race in tri shorts and no seat pad. Azoto saddle.
Lots of Bodyglide or Butt Butt’r for racing.
Did you try the Aspide tri gel? Some swear by the Azoto, others by the Aspide gel. Or, maybe I should hold out for the Arione gel.???
Did you try the Aspide tri gel? Some swear by the Azoto, others by the Aspide gel. Or, maybe I should hold out for the Arione gel.???
The Aspide came out after I had an Azoto. As I understand it, the Aspide is similar, but narrower. Some people found the Azoto too wide.
So, I don’t really know which I would prefer. I’m not that small (5’11") so I would guess that I would stick with my Azoto. I need the wide padding since I ride way out on the nose of it, and my sitz bones are nowhere near the saddle; I’m definitely riding on the softer parts of my anatomy.
I have an Arione on my road bike and I just love it.
Maybe it’s the heat of the moment but I’ve always found “less is more” in comfort terms during a race. A speedo and a hard seat has always been very comfortable when racing. When training I wear padded cycling shorts and every seat ever tested and have never been near as comfortable when racing.
I use a QR seat cover over top of my classic Flite saddle for both training and racing (I actually have this setup on my indoor bike as well). The cover also does the job of concealing the slightly torn piece of leather on the saddle so I don’t have to replace it yet 
I usually train in cycling shorts and race in tri shorts. The only real chafing problems seem to result when it rains a lot or at IMFL last fall when I swam in the salt water for the first time while racing.