It's the pain that is unspoken of by most female cyclists- that pain downstairs. Chafing, extreme soreness, and numbness where you should never be numb. Until you talk about it with the girls, you think you are the only one, and then you realise its the pain we all share.
Someone telling you that their seat is like sitting on a cloud has you willing to swap a kidney for that special feeling, only to be disappointed to find that the recommended seat leaves you in worse pain than your last saddle.
My own trusty saddle is the ISM Adamo Road, which was recommended to me by a few of the girls from Daryl's Squad. Like sitting on a cloud it is not, but it did solve my issue of chafing so badly that I thought I was going to wear down to the bone. There are the other solutions: your choice of shorts (limited when you are triathlon-ing, and frankly I think short padding is overrated compared to the difference the saddle can make) and seat position.
But really I think expectation needs to be balanced with the fact that you are concentrating the majority of your body weight on a piece of leather of only a few square inches (that's my concession to being in the UK and getting to grips with the imperial measurement system).
As I ease myself into these long back to back days of riding I'll be dreaming of sitting on a cloud frequently, I'm sure.
Someone telling you that their seat is like sitting on a cloud has you willing to swap a kidney for that special feeling, only to be disappointed to find that the recommended seat leaves you in worse pain than your last saddle.
My own trusty saddle is the ISM Adamo Road, which was recommended to me by a few of the girls from Daryl's Squad. Like sitting on a cloud it is not, but it did solve my issue of chafing so badly that I thought I was going to wear down to the bone. There are the other solutions: your choice of shorts (limited when you are triathlon-ing, and frankly I think short padding is overrated compared to the difference the saddle can make) and seat position.
But really I think expectation needs to be balanced with the fact that you are concentrating the majority of your body weight on a piece of leather of only a few square inches (that's my concession to being in the UK and getting to grips with the imperial measurement system).
As I ease myself into these long back to back days of riding I'll be dreaming of sitting on a cloud frequently, I'm sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment