Bum protection

[Blue Hills]

When you do get saddle sores, distinguish between ischemic sores (sub-cutaneous boils) and chafing. The latter can be soothed with cream. The former cannot.

Is it possible to say what causes the first rather than the second? Anything you can do about it?

 

[oldfatfool]

Whilst touring i used padded underkegs and baggy shorts and a homebrew cream with lavender, tea tree and whitch hazel. Rotated underkegs daily and probably washed them after every 3 wears. Carried normal breifs for time off.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Is it possible to say what causes the first rather than the second? Anything you can do about it?

It is basically the same as bedsores. Tissue gets compressed without relief and dies from lack of blood. No amount of cream fixes that. You have to relieve pressure from time to time, hence the way bedridden patients are continuously turned.
On the bike you get them on the two spots that separate the sitbone(s) and saddle.
On the bike the solution is a slow lead-up to longer rides and of course periodic standing. However, I found that really shaky fast rides on a hardtail mountainbike can bring them (ischemic sores) on in just one short ride - perhaps even just hard seated impact. Chafing can be alleviated with lubrication before riding and of course treated with soothing cream afterwards. Inschemic sores have to be lanced. It is not uncommon for riding buddies to lance each others' sores during multi-stage races. It is the type of favour that you can't bear to ask but have to if you want to finish the tour. This even happens to hardened cyclists and is very common in mountainbike multiday races such as the Trans Alps, Cape Epic and others. They even have nurses trained in the "art".
These sores have nothing to do with hygiene.

 

[hoopdriver]

I have never used any of that stuff - just decent shorts and underwear - and never had any problems at all, and this with touring many thousands of miles in all sorts of conditions, typically averaging 100 miles a day, and nearly always camping out, in the wild, often in remote deserts where there was no spare water for washing - this being something very much to consider if you are planning on slathering cream all over yourself. You want to be able to wash it off an night rather than just let it build up over days. It is why I cycled in loose-fitting long-sleeved shirts too, so I didn't have to cover myself with suncream that would later build up, become sticky and clog pores.

 

[mjr]

It is basically the same as bedsores. Tissue gets compressed without relief and dies from lack of blood. No amount of cream fixes that. You have to relieve pressure from time to time, hence the way bedridden patients are continuously turned.
On the bike you get them on the two spots that separate the sitbone(s) and saddle.
On the bike the solution is a slow lead-up to longer rides and of course periodic standing.

OK, here's what I don't get with that explanation: if the saddle's set low enough, the pedalling action relieves pressure, allowing blood to flow. Standing occasionally is fun anyway and it feels nice to stretch the legs, but surely one's saddle shouldn't be rammed so firmly up one's backside to cut off blood flow? Or is this yet another symptom of excessive padding, that pedalling isn't relieving pressure?

 

[Yellow Saddle]

OK, here's what I don't get with that explanation: if the saddle's set low enough, the pedalling action relieves pressure, allowing blood to flow. Standing occasionally is fun anyway and it feels nice to stretch the legs, but surely one's saddle shouldn't be rammed so firmly up one's backside to cut off blood flow? Or is this yet another symptom of excessive padding, that pedalling isn't relieving pressure?

Saddle height has nothing to do with it. You will exert the same pressure irrespective of saddle height. The only way to relieve pressure is to stand. Admittedly, when you sit and pedal hard you do relieve some of the pressure but that's cyclical and probably unnatural to your normal pedaling style.

 

[hoopdriver]

I almost never stand in the pedals - in fact I can't recall ever doing so at all, probably not since I was a kid pedalling around on a Schwinn Stingray. Some people like to stand and churn up hills, and there's nothing wrong with that, but there are plenty of us who remain seated.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I almost never stand in the pedals - in fact I can't recall ever doing so at all, probably not since I was a kid pedalling around on a Schwinn Stingray. Some people like to stand and churn up hills, and there's nothing wrong with that, but there are plenty of us who remain seated.

Who denied that?

 

[hoopdriver]

I see you edited your post a bit since I responded. It is just that sitting and pedalling hard is not necessarily unnatural. Plenty of people stay in the saddle going up hills etc.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I see you edited your post a bit since I responded. It is just that sitting and pedalling hard is not necessarily unnatural. Plenty of people stay in the saddle going up hills etc.

I am unsure what you are trying to contradict. Fact is, people get pressure sores. And it is not from standing. Pedaling in such a way that pressure on your sitbones is permanently less than the pressure would be if you are completely relaxed on the pedals, is unnatural. You can't keep it up. Sooner or later you will sit fully.

 

[mjr]

Saddle height has nothing to do with it. You will exert the same pressure irrespective of saddle height. The only way to relieve pressure is to stand. Admittedly, when you sit and pedal hard you do relieve some of the pressure but that's cyclical and probably unnatural to your normal pedaling style.

It's obvious that pressure distribution varies with saddle height: put the saddle up slightly too high and your bum takes more of your weight because basically your legs aren't long enough to push on both pedals at once; slam the seatpost to the minimum and either your legs take all your weight because you're standing or your weight is further back on your bum.

In this video, the image on the left is an ill-fitting saddle, with the pressure being high and constant on some parts of the saddle - image on the right is a better-fitting saddle, with pressure spread generally below a damaging level and relieving cyclically as she pedals:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luHzRcdmxxc

 

[hoopdriver]

I am unsure what you are trying to contradict. Fact is, people get pressure sores. And it is not from standing. Pedaling in such a way that pressure on your sitbones is permanently less than the pressure would be if you are completely relaxed on the pedals, is unnatural. You can't keep it up. Sooner or later you will sit fully.

I an not trying to contradict anybody - just pointing out that I never stand in the pedals, always sit, ride thousands of miles each year and never have any problems whatever with either saddle sores or chafing. That's all.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

It's obvious that pressure distribution varies with saddle height: put the saddle up slightly too high and your bum takes more of your weight because basically your legs aren't long enough to push on both pedals at once; slam the seatpost to the minimum and either your legs take all your weight because you're standing or your weight is further back on your bum.

In this video, the image on the left is an ill-fitting saddle, with the pressure being high and constant on some parts of the saddle - image on the right is a better-fitting saddle, with pressure spread generally below a damaging level and relieving cyclically as she pedals:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luHzRcdmxxc

I don't see anything in the video that gives evidence to your statement about high/low saddle positions. The "bad" side demonstrates either an asymmetric (faulty) saddle shell or someone with an assymmetric ischium. Both are common.

You say it is obvious that saddle pressure (distribution) varies with saddle height. However, you use two extreme examples. They are not valid for my argument. Within a range where your pelvis does not rock and your knees don't come up too high - a range that bike fitters can still fine tune within - there is no difference wrt pressure.

However, this is getting awfully picky. My point was ischemic sores are caused by saddle pressure. Abrasive movement causes abrasions and the two are not the same and treatment/prevention is differnt. If you are prone to pressure sores, make a point to occasionally stand and pedal in order to get blood flow back. It may help.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I an not trying to contradict anybody - just pointing out that I never stand in the pedals, always sit, ride thousands of miles each year and never have any problems whatever with either saddle sores or chafing. That's all.

OK, then, you are like millions and millions of others. But why point it out?

 

[smutchin]

Or is this yet another symptom of excessive padding, that pedalling isn't relieving pressure?

No.

Some people like to stand and churn up hills, and there's nothing wrong with that, but there are plenty of us who remain seated.

Ok, but I don't believe that you *never* get out of the saddle on your 100 mile rides. You might stay seated on climbs, but over the course of the ride, you're bound to spend some time out of the saddle - unless you're claiming that you're riding the whole distance non-stop on roads with no junctions or traffic lights. And as far as preventing pressure sores is concerned, any time out of the saddle counts, not just on the climbs.