Saddles and Saddle Sores

I've read that if you ride a bike long distance, you'll have saddle discomfort issues.  Makes sense since the saddle is the primary point of contact you have with the bike.  Your hands and feet also contact the bike, but if your fit is proper, neither will bother you much.

All your weight is on the saddle and with your legs rubbing against it, you have the potential for sit bone issues and/or chafing issues on the inside of your thighs.  Saddle sore is a general term used to describe any form of discomfort involving your butt, but there actually are 4 different types of saddle sores.

Sit bone bruising or chafing is apparently very common, although it hasn't been a problem for me, at least not yet.  The sit bones are the two bones in your butt when you sit down that all your weight is on.  The skin between the sit bones and the saddle gets pinched, which makes that area tender.

In the best of the two saddle sore issues that arise from this, you'll have bruising and soreness in the sit bone area.  In the worst the two scenarios, this area can actually develop open sores or blisters, and I've read stories of bikers riding long distances standing up because of the discomfort.  The best advice for handling this problem is donut shaped sponge pads like the ones my grandmother used to wear around the "corns" on her feet.

The third type of saddle sore involves infection in the hair follicle area of hairs on your butt; the infection is apparently like an ingrown hair.  I would assume that it would take some amount of time for this to develop, so I would imagine that it wouldn't impact your immediate ride, but it would make the two or three days after the ride uncomfortable to some degree.  This is alson apparently a common form of discomfort for people who ride multi day events, so I would expect it more on a 1200K than on a 400K or 600K.

The fourth type of saddle sore involves chafing on the inside of the thighs or crotch caused by your legs rubbing against the side of the saddle as they go up and down while you pedal.  This was my problem on a recent 400K and it's caused by the friction of your skin against your saddle.  It's especially a problem when it's hot (which it was during the 400K) because sweating makes the skin tacky, which then catchs or pulls each time it goes past the saddle. If you average a cadence of 70 pedal strokes per minute, and you're in the saddle for 21 1/2 hours, each thigh is going past the saddle something like 90,000 times.

I've never had much of a chafing problem.  Sure, I'm a little tender after the first ride or two of the season, and I was a little more tender after the 300K than normal, but not enough to give it more than a passing thought.  But then it was cold during the 300K.  Before a ride I'd apply a layer of Lantiseptic to my skin, with a layer of Chamois Butt'r over the top of that, and this was adequate to get me through the entire ride.

What I've learned from my 400K experience is that for the longer distances, or when it's hot, that I need to start early and lubricate every chance I get to keep the skin from pulling as it rubs against the side of the saddle.  Chamois Butt'r comes in single serving packs that you can buy at the checkout counter of your local bike shop.  A more economical way to buy a 10-pack from Amazon.com: Chamois-Buttr-10-Pack-Skin-Lubricant.  Lube from the big tube before your ride, and throw a handful of the single servings into your pack or a back pocket.

If you are prone to one of these type saddle sores, also take a look at your shorts and your saddle.  If you're going to ride long, you should really buy the most expensive shorts you can afford.  I've heard, and firmly believe, that shorts are more important than the saddle.  You want a short with as little padding as possible, and without ridges and seams in the areas that are your personal trouble hot spots.  And no, you don't wear underwear under your biking shorts.

Saddles are a personal preference.  I ride a Brooks B-17 that I love:  Brooks Saddles.  Brooks has been making saddles since around the turn of the (last) century.  The one on my Legnano I've had for about 4 years and I have one on my commuting and kick around bike that I bought used 35 years ago - it's still super comfortable.  The more you ride a Brooks saddle, the more comfortable it is.  It's made of leather, without a platform underneath it, so as you ride it, it stretches to form to the contours of your body.  I'm not pushing Brooks, although that is the saddle I see the most often among Brevet riders, but you do want a saddle that is a bit wider in the back to support your sit bones because you'll spend long hours sitting on that saddle.  What I almost never see among Brevet riders are the skinny, butt-floss type racing saddles that they push in the bike shops.  Just because you see it in the Tour de France doesn't mean that you'll love it in hour 20 of a long ride.