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Saddle Types
There is no more important component of your bike than the saddle. This is due to its unique ability to inflict pain on sensitive body parts. For this reason, if you intend to be a serious rider, you should expend maximum effort and spare no reasonable cost in picking exactly the best saddle for your own posterior. This is no easy task. For about ten years I bought a new saddle each year, hoping to improve on the previous year's ride. To the credit of the industry and improving technology, each year was an improvement. However, this mostly meant slightly less uncomfortable after 50 miles or so. However, I eventually found a satisfactory solution, and so can you. Here are some ideas to get you going, but you'll need to test ride a lot of saddles before you find what is exactly right for you.
Traditional Leather Saddle Many oldtimers (and a lot of newtimers as well) swear by the traditional leather saddle (Brooks in particular). Once this saddle has conformed to the shape of your bottom, the comfort is superior. The problem is that it takes hundreds of miles of riding to reach that point. Leather saddles are sensitive to water and will get stiff and out of shape, so keep the seat covered where it might get rain or dew. It is also probably the most expensive type of saddle on the market, but it lasts for a lifetime.
Spring Suspension Saddle These models are for those who prefer a firm seat, but want the same soft ride as more padded saddles. The advantage is great shock absorption and less stress on your back - the disadvantage is the considerable added weight. Plus, all the suspension seats I have ever tried squeaked unmercifully.
Racing Saddle If you want to ride fast, probably on a road bike, you'll want a long, narrow, racing-type saddle. A fast-riding position on a bike shifts you forward with your torso down, placing more weight on the hands and feet and reducing a lot of the weight on the seat. Also, as you pedal more vigorously, you spin faster and you can’t tolerate interference from the sides of the seat. These seats tend to be light weight, often with titanium or hollow seat rails, have minimum padding and a stiff top.
Comfort Saddle If you're riding casually, more upright and slower, you'll want a wider saddle, perhaps with a lot of gel padding for extra comfort. On a cruiser bike, for example, with wide backswept handlebars, most of your weight is planted directly on the seat. Plus you don’t pedal quickly at all. These factors make a wide, heavily padded saddle ideal to support your weight and provide cushioning. A word of caution: this seat is not meant for long days on the road and it and can chafe and irritate if you try it.
Women's Cutaway Saddle There are significant differences between men's and women's pelvises. Manufacturers today realize this and design different styles for the two genders. One new style of saddle which has proved extremely comfortable is the cutaway. Parts of the saddle, generally along the nose, which tend to compress nerves, irritate genitalia, cause chafing and generally abuse the body, have been removed. The women's style has a wider seat and shorter length.
Men's Cutaway Saddle Because of their different shaped bottoms, men's saddles tend to be longer and narrower than women's in any saddle style - cutaways are no exception. For men also, the area of greatest concern is the nose, which tends to press against the perineal nerve and cause numbness (or worse). Some saddles have long grooves down the nose to alleviate this problem, others cut away that area entirely. You can find it with varying degrees of padding.
Flexible Carbon Saddle This type of saddle takes an entirely different approach to offering comfort. Instead of providing a firm platform and cushioning it with foam or gel, this seat is thin and flexible, moving with your legs and buttocks as you pedal. Serious riders I know love this type of saddle and I considered it myself, but it cost more than I paid for my Trek hybrid bike, so I stuck with the cutaway model.
Topeak Allay The Topeak Allay is a new offering which replaces the standard nose with a fabric strap suspended over a baloon-like air bladder which can be inflated to suit your comfort (the "Airspan System"). The product line offers three basic styles for racing, sport and casual riding. In addition, the Allay saddle features a customizable fitting system to match your own unique "sit bones" for a very comfortable fit.
Noseless Saddle This category has the wildest designs of all. Many are adjustable or articulated (they move with parts of your body). However, for those who have unusually severe physical problems which might normally keep them from biking, it can be a good choice. The nose is completely removed, allowing free motion of the legs without friction. They tend to be heavy and expensive and occasionally difficult to mount on the bike.
Bench Saddle The bench saddle is another version of the noseless saddle. This style not only eliminates problems with the nose, but allows you to shift position and body weight around to a great extent. It works best when you are in a more upright position, preferably with cranks forward.
Recumbent Seat If you're in serious need of pain relief, the answer may be a recumbent bike. The seat at left, A RANS model, provides a full mesh back support and a plush foam seat. Because your legs and feet are higher in the pedalling position, the seat provides less friction against moving body parts. These bikes virtually eliminate pain not only in the butt, but in wrists, back and neck as well and are becoming increasingly popular with older riders. They are much more expensive than upright bikes, however.
Fitting the Saddle
Once you've found a likely saddle, you'll need to adjust it to your body properly. A great seat can still be miserably uncomfortable if it's not fitted correctly. A saddle's position can be adjusted in two ways: by raising and lowering the seat post to adjust the height and by loosening the rails and rocking the seat to find the right seat attitude. Here's a guide to proper fitting:
1) Level the seat and center the rails in the seatpost clamp.
2) Wearing cycling clothing, put the bike in a trainer or position yourself in a doorway so you can hold yourself up while pedaling. Have a friend sit behind you and watch as you pedal backwards. Raise the seat until when you pedal backwards with your heels on the pedals, your legs are completely extended at the bottom of the stroke. If you have to rock your hips to reach the pedals the seat is too high.
3) Mark the seatpost so you’ll be able to refind this starting seat height if the post slips or you take it out to ship the bike, etc.
4) Find the proper fore/aft seat position by placing the bike on a trainer (the bike must be level with the ground) and pedaling a while to warm up the muscles. Stop pedaling with one foot at 3 o’clock. Have your assistant level the crankarm and the pedal. Maintain that position while your helper holds a plumb line (a thread with a nut on the end works fine) against the indentation just beneath the bone that’s below your kneecap. Adjust the seat fore and aft on the rails until the plumb line bisects the pedal axle.
5) If the nose of the seat bothers you, tip the seat down 1 to 3 degrees. Don’t overdo it because a tipped seat will cause your body to shift forward putting added pressure on the knees and preventing the seat from supporting your weight adequately. If the nose bothers you enough that you want to tip it excessively, try different seat designs
