Sitting pretty?

Cyclists love nothing more than to geek out with each other about anything to do with their sport. Well, almost anything. Saddle discomfort – and its associated problems – might give even the most evangelical rider pause in sharing. As Tammy Corney, owner of Cognition Bike Fit and a British Cycling coach, says: “Asking a retail assistant for saddle suggestions because you have big blisters on your labia, are recovering from recent prostate surgery or experiencing erectile disfunction is embarrassing.”

Despite appearances, saddles are a very complex and important bike component and should not be overlooked. And while a bike saddle will never feel like sitting on an armchair, you shouldn’t experience pain. As Matt Hallam, sports scientist and owner of bike fit specialist Crimson Performance says: “If cyclists are wanting to get off the bike at any point in a ride because their saddle is uncomfortable, that’s a red flag to have a bike fit. Discomfort can be a multitude of things, whether numbness, saddle sores or too much pressure on the sit bones, for example. Everyone will have a different view of what saddle comfort might feel like.”

Women tend to suffer more than men when it comes to saddle issues. Phil Burt spent 12 years as the head of physiotherapy at British Cycling, as well as five years as consultant physiotherapist at Team Sky, and is founder of Phil Burt Innovation, which includes the world’s first saddle health clinic. He says, in his experience, women often have more saddle discomfort than men, partly because they tend to have wider hips. “That said, you will get some men with enormous sit bones and women who have tiny ones.”

Burt adds that women also have much more varied soft-tissue presentation in their genitalia than men. “Finding the right shape and type of saddle to accommodate that can often be more problematic than with men, who tend to have more similar genitalia,” says Burt.

However, there has been a move away from gender-specific saddles in recent years. Emma Boutcher, product manager for saddles at Specialized says that when her company launched the Mimic saddle in 2018, it made much of the fact that the product had been designed following development and testing with women, and was marketed to women. It has since removed that focus following the product’s huge popularity with men as well.