SADDLE PAIN AND NUMBNESS
Saddle pain and numbness when cycling.
A softer saddle is the usual first purchase and it rarely works. Your weight needs to land on the sit bones, and that is a position problem.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Why does my bike saddle hurt, and will a softer saddle help?
Usually not. Saddle discomfort is mostly about where your weight lands, not how soft the padding is. Your weight should sit on the two sit bones at the base of the pelvis, which are built to carry it. When the saddle is too high, tilted wrong, or the reach is too long, weight rolls forward onto soft tissue that is not built for load, and that is when soreness and numbness start. A very soft saddle can make it worse, because you sink into it and the pressure spreads onto exactly the soft tissue you were trying to protect. The fix is saddle height, tilt, fore and aft position, and a saddle whose width matches your sit bones.
2
Sit bones that should carry you, not the soft tissue in front of them
90min
The initial fit, including the off-bike assessment and the written summary
0
Amount of saddle numbness worth riding through. It means nerve pressure
60min
The follow-up, once you have ridden the new position for a few weeks
Saddle discomfort is the problem riders put up with quietly for longest and the one most likely to end a ride early or end cycling altogether. It is also surrounded by more bad advice than any other part of the bike.
The most common piece of that advice is to buy a softer saddle. It is intuitive and it usually fails, because it treats the saddle as a cushion rather than as a platform. A saddle is not there to be soft. It is there to support two specific bones.
Get your weight onto those bones and most saddle problems become manageable. Leave your weight forward of them, on tissue that has nerves and blood vessels running through it and no bone underneath, and no amount of gel will save the ride.
AT A GLANCE
- Most common driver
- Saddle height and tilt, not padding
- Take seriously
- Numbness, which means nerve pressure
- Where it is assessed
- New Westminster studio, by appointment
- Session length
- 90 minutes for the initial fit
THE PRINCIPLE
Your weight belongs on the sit bones
At the base of your pelvis are two bony points you can feel if you sit on your hands on a hard chair and rock side to side. Those are designed to take your weight when you sit. Everything between and in front of them is soft tissue, containing the nerves and blood vessels that supply the area.
A saddle works when those two bones carry the load. It fails when your weight rolls forward onto the soft tissue in front of them, which is what produces both the classic soreness and the numbness riders find alarming.
This is why saddle width matters more than saddle softness. Sit bones vary a lot in spacing between individuals. A saddle that is too narrow for you means the bones hang off the sides and the soft tissue takes the load by default. Too wide and it interferes with your thighs.
WHAT SHIFTS YOUR WEIGHT FORWARD
The setup faults that cause saddle pain
Saddle tilted nose-up
Presses directly into the soft tissue in front of the sit bones. A frequent cause of numbness.
Saddle tilted nose-down
Slides you forward continuously. You end up perched off the front of the saddle and holding yourself up with your arms.
Saddle too high
Makes the hips rock side to side to reach the bottom of the stroke. That rocking rubs, and it is a classic cause of a sore spot on one side only.
Reach too long
Rotates your pelvis forward so you are riding on the front of the saddle rather than on the sit bones.
Saddle the wrong width
No amount of adjustment fixes a saddle whose shape does not support your sit bones. Sometimes the answer is a different saddle.
Saddle not centred
A saddle sitting slightly off to one side loads one sit bone more than the other and produces one-sided soreness.
TAKE THIS ONE SERIOUSLY
Numbness at the saddle
Genital or perineal numbness while riding means pressure on nerves and blood vessels. It is common, and it is not something to ride through or treat as a sign that you need to toughen up.
Treat it as a signal, the same way you would treat numb hands. It tells you the load is in the wrong place. The changes that fix it are the same ones above: get the weight back onto the sit bones through tilt, height, and reach, and use a saddle whose shape suits you. Many riders also benefit from a saddle with a central channel or cutout, which removes material from exactly the area under pressure.
Numbness that persists after you finish riding, or any change in sexual or urinary function, should be discussed with a physician rather than managed as a bike fit issue. This is uncommon, but it is a medical question and not one for a fitter.
SADDLE SORES
Saddle sores and chafing
Saddle sores are a friction and pressure problem with a hygiene component. They tend to appear when something in the setup makes you move against the saddle rather than sit on it, and then get established because the skin never gets a proper break.
A sore that keeps coming back in the same spot is a fit clue. It usually means either the saddle height is making you rock, or you are sitting off-centre, or the saddle shape does not suit you. Fix the mechanical cause and the recurrence usually stops.
Rocking hips
Almost always a saddle that is too high. Look for a repeating sore on one side.
Shorts that do not fit
A chamois that bunches, seams in the wrong place, or shorts worn out enough that the pad has flattened.
Riding in the same exact spot
Shifting position and standing regularly gives the skin brief relief and matters more on long rides.
Staying in damp kit
Change out of cycling shorts promptly after a ride. Wet fabric against skin under pressure is how a small irritation becomes a sore.
Chamois cream
Genuinely useful for reducing friction on long rides, and worth trying before spending money on saddles.
A saddle sore that is hot, spreading, filled with pus, or not settling within a few days needs a physician. That is an infection, not a fit problem.
CHOOSING A SADDLE
How to stop buying the wrong saddle
Most riders arrive with a drawer of saddles they bought and abandoned. The reason is that saddles get chosen on padding and reviews, when the two things that actually matter are width and shape relative to your pelvis and your riding position.
Position comes first. A saddle that is wrong for you will still be wrong after a fit, but a saddle that is right for you can feel terrible if the height and tilt are off. Sorting the position first means you are judging the saddle fairly.
Width before padding
The saddle needs to support your sit bones. If it does not, softness is irrelevant.
Shape follows position
A rider sitting upright needs a different saddle shape from a rider stretched out low. Change your position and your saddle needs may change too.
Channel or cutout
Worth trying if numbness is your main complaint. It removes material from the area under pressure.
Firm is usually better than soft
Firm supports the bones. Soft lets you sink until the soft tissue is carrying you.
Give it a fair trial
A few rides, not one. But if a saddle is genuinely wrong for you, you will know quite quickly.
ENQUIRE IN NEW WESTMINSTER
Book a fit if
- You get numb at the saddle on most rides
- You have a sore that keeps returning in the same spot
- You shift around constantly to find a comfortable position
- You have bought more than one saddle and none of them worked
- You notice your hips rocking side to side as you pedal
- Saddle discomfort is shortening your rides or putting you off riding
LAUNCH REHAB NEW WESTMINSTER
Bike fitting runs from our New Westminster studio, by appointment. Tell us what happens on the bike and we will tell you whether you need a fit, a physiotherapy assessment, or both. It is a two-minute conversation and it saves booking the wrong thing.
- Address
- 219-800 Carnarvon St, New Westminster, BC V3M 0G3
- Getting here
- Inside Shops at New West, above New Westminster SkyTrain station
Bike fitting is by appointment only and books out during the spring and summer riding season. Enquire early if you have an event coming up. About the New Westminster studio.
FAQ
Common questions.
Partly true and mostly not. There is a genuine adaptation period when you start riding or come back after a long break, and a few weeks of consistent riding does make the area more tolerant. That is different from pain or numbness that persists ride after ride, which is telling you the load is in the wrong place. Adaptation should make things better over weeks. If it is not improving, something mechanical needs changing.
KEEP READING
More from the bike fitting guides.
- How a fit works
Saddle height
The most influential number on the bike, and the one most riders have wrong by more than they think.
READ - Pain and symptoms
Lower back pain
If the hips cannot rotate far enough to reach the bars, the low back rotates instead and holds it all ride.
READ - How a fit works
What happens in a fit
The full 90 minutes, step by step, from the first question to the numbers you take home.
READ
FROM THE JOURNAL
Related reading from our clinicians.
READY?
Book your bike fit in New Westminster.
By appointment at 219-800 Carnarvon St, New Westminster, BC V3M 0G3. Not sure which appointment you need? Call 604-519-0777 and describe what happens on the bike.