1st ride out. Is it normal for my sit bones to still hurt the next day?

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proletaratOne

Active Member
My first ride was on road as I went with a friend who only has a road bike. Probably a good job really. I think I'll leave off road until I get a tougher behind.

Well at least I know where the issues lie now. Inexperience, rubbish choice of clothing and a cheap saddle. Nice to know it's gets easier anyway.
Think I may have a trip to a bike shop tomorrow and look for some shorts. Might as well starting making it easier on me as soon as possible.

and thanks, enjoyed the first ride but it was tough for me. Time to give up smoking.
Hi I’m fairly new to cycling so take my opinion with a grain of salt

a few things I learned.

yeah first time out butt hurts a bit. But you get a little used to it.

a thing I did was also periodically get out the saddle and pedal. Gives your butt a rest and it’s a good skill to hone(I think)

I also would say there are one item that really made cycling more fun.I bought bib shorts ..., for long rides they stay in place better
 
It's normal, I've felt the soreness after a long break from cycling and then a return... however I've never found it as hard or complained as much as people I was with, whom seemed to give up solely for this reason. Always wondered why they'd give up so easily.

Until this week when I bought and rode a cheap bargain basement bike, the saddle was rock hard, uncomfortable and did not encourage the enjoyment of cycling or making it anything but hateful to face the challenges of keeping fit.

It dawned upon me that a cheap saddle... or the wrong saddle for your a** type is going to continually bring hell to you if not sorted. That's probably why my friends gave up. And it might be worth you fixing it until you're comfortable if it doesn't fade away so that you don't give up too?
 

iluvmybike

Über Member
It's normal, I've felt the soreness after a long break from cycling and then a return... however I've never found it as hard or complained as much as people I was with, whom seemed to give up solely for this reason. Always wondered why they'd give up so easily.
You have obviously never suffered real saddle pain! It can be absolutely excruciating making every pedal stroke a misery- on occasions I have been rubbed raw and continuing to cycle when in that state would be foolish - saddle sores can be horrendous. Soreness is not just the realm of beginners - many a pro rider can suffer as well. A friend has ended up with a series of operations to cure his problems and he is a cycle guide. He ignored the problem intially as it affected his work and ended up with an internal abcess which refused to fix itself and has had to take substantial time away from work. So don't be dismissive of it as 'giving up easily'. There is a big difference between a bit of a tender feeling on your bum after a ride right the way through to skin damage. Ladies can often suffer a lot more because of the arrangement of their anatomy. You are correct that finding the right saddle is a great help but is is a very personal; thing and the journey to finding it can be long and painful
 
You have obviously never suffered real saddle pain! It can be absolutely excruciating making every pedal stroke a misery- on occasions I have been rubbed raw and continuing to cycle when in that state would be foolish - saddle sores can be horrendous. Soreness is not just the realm of beginners - many a pro rider can suffer as well. A friend has ended up with a series of operations to cure his problems and he is a cycle guide. He ignored the problem intially as it affected his work and ended up with an internal abcess which refused to fix itself and has had to take substantial time away from work. So don't be dismissive of it as 'giving up easily'. There is a big difference between a bit of a tender feeling on your bum after a ride right the way through to skin damage. Ladies can often suffer a lot more because of the arrangement of their anatomy. You are correct that finding the right saddle is a great help but is is a very personal; thing and the journey to finding it can be long and painful

I definitely managed to luckily avoid it, and only had a very light exposure to it this week... No way could I tolerate anything like it for longer than I did! I definitely found a lot more respect and shame on myself in the past for how I reacted to other complaints!

I'm lucky that the Halfords bike I've had for the past year came with a very big / wide and gel filled Selle Royal saddle. I was always a bit worried it was too big / not for me, but being on a bog standard, narrow, flat and cheap bike seat the other day left me with that impending pain that every pedal was causing forceful damage to my a**, and the second day, it was worse - not better. Usually second day I feel it for 5 minutes and it's gone then, that's how I knew it was the problem.

Definitely getitng the right saddle is insanely important for cycling, and more so for beginners IMO so that they don't suffer and therefore don't give up
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
I can get on with most saddles, but the one that came with my Trek is just plain uncomfortable for me, my Dad found it fine though so I gave it to him.

Right width, simple shape, just no.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
As a result of my skip salvaging activities, I've got a whole box full of random saddles, the majority being at the cheap end of the spectrum having come off scrap low budget MTBs. Most of them are surprisingly comfortable, irrespective of source or degree of scruffiness. Except one that it. Outwardly much the same as the rest, cheap & cheerful - but it's horrible to ride any further than a mile. Quite why I don't know. It's not exceptionally wide or exceptionally narrow, or a really weird shape. It just looks like any other regular saddle, except it hurts my arse in no time, and repeated rides have not improved much either so I think it must be the saddle that's the problem not my arse.
Go for comfort, but don't assume expensive will be good and cheap will be bad - there's no pattern between the two.
 
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12boy

Guru
Location
Casper WY USA
There are plenty of nice, well made shoes in supposedly the right size, that don't feel good to me and there are similar ones that feel great. I found a specific leather saddle that works for me so I now have 5 for my favorite 5 bikes. Somebody else might hate them.
 

goosegog

Regular
Location
North Yorkshire
I've cycled on and of for 40 years now, I built a new touring bike a couple of years ago and tried several "good" saddles to enable 7hrs plus in the pilot seat... instead of following my intuition and staying with what has always worked for me I opted to try a couple of new saddles out.. both came with plenty of folk saying these are the bread... a Spoon and also Brookes B17... the spoon lasted a week before it was removed.. it was ok till I got to the the 2/3hr mark .. changing the postion didn't imporve anything.. it was just plain uncomfortable ... so no good for me... Then I installed a nice shiney new Brookes 17 Hmmm well I gave that a good 500miles before it was removed... It was good for a few hours thats it.. gave it loads of time to bed in...
I also ride in Lusso shorts with the 6hr pad so that saddle judging by all the hype for brookes that should have been like riding on custom built seat... Now a quick end to this.... I went back to a saddle that has been in my life since I was gifted one by a local bike shop owner in the 90's >> A selle san marco rolls... fitted my well then and now Ive bought a new un for the touring bike my rear feels good again.. sitbones are a funnny thing and it does help if you know your width.. the brooks was just too wide for me (I run fine at 143mm ish)...so if your having issues have a look on the Net on how to measure your sit bones (cardboard trick) and the do a little shopping round ( not always the most expensive saddle) for one that seems to fit in your sit bone width..
 

DaveM77

Active Member
I went out on my new saddle today and for the first time ever my sit bones have no pain. Changed from a 145mm fizik antares which came as standard to a 155mm Bontrager Verse Elite. Think my big butt needed the extra width 😂
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
I've cycled on and of for 40 years now, I built a new touring bike a couple of years ago and tried several "good" saddles to enable 7hrs plus in the pilot seat... instead of following my intuition and staying with what has always worked for me I opted to try a couple of new saddles out.. both came with plenty of folk saying these are the bread... a Spoon and also Brookes B17... the spoon lasted a week before it was removed.. it was ok till I got to the the 2/3hr mark .. changing the postion didn't imporve anything.. it was just plain uncomfortable ... so no good for me... Then I installed a nice shiney new Brookes 17 Hmmm well I gave that a good 500miles before it was removed... It was good for a few hours thats it.. gave it loads of time to bed in...
I also ride in Lusso shorts with the 6hr pad so that saddle judging by all the hype for brookes that should have been like riding on custom built seat... Now a quick end to this.... I went back to a saddle that has been in my life since I was gifted one by a local bike shop owner in the 90's >> A selle san marco rolls... fitted my well then and now Ive bought a new un for the touring bike my rear feels good again.. sitbones are a funnny thing and it does help if you know your width.. the brooks was just too wide for me (I run fine at 143mm ish)...so if your having issues have a look on the Net on how to measure your sit bones (cardboard trick) and the do a little shopping round ( not always the most expensive saddle) for one that seems to fit in your sit bone width..
I havent been cycling as long as you , maybe 12 years now and last year i had to change my saddle shape from flat 130 mm saddle which i ridden fine for years as i found i was getting saddle sores and wearign through shorts really quickly as it turned out the saddles were now to narrow and i was overhanging the edge of the saddle and causing issues .I swapped to a more curved 143 mm saddle ( charge spoon and fabric scoop radius ) and all of a sudden the joy of riding came back
 
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