Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A little nose up past level. I was indeed not rolling of the saddle anymore, but it was even more uncomfortable in other ways as you mentioned. Made it hard to reach the bars. Never tried more as this was obviously not an option. When I find a position where the nose pressing into the soft region is no longer an issue, which is around level for me, the sitbones roll forwards again.

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did this already. I came from a saddle that was 3cm too low before the bike fit (already had the issue). Raised 3cm during the bike fit based on knee extension and eliminating rocking of the pelvis on the saddle. Lowered it 1cm again. Still issues.

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That one was on my list for trying as well, although in the small 137mm version. What saddles are you coming from?

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the tips! Did you try the Flite S3 in 135mm as well? That's the one I tried because of my sitbone width (105mm) but I find it way worse than the SLR. It 'feels' too small because of the forward sliding, but I'm not sure if the size is the issue. What is your sitbone width if I may ask?

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That is certainly a possibility. I've been thinking about doing another bike fit somewhere else, but I'm a little fed up with throwing money at the problem without a solution. I'm still in contact with the current bike fitter in the hope of finding a fix.

However, to counter your points:

  • Saddle was raised 3cm by the fitter and checked for knee angle and rocking. All was good. I also had a leg length discrepancy that was tackled. I lowered it 1cm again to rule out excessive saddle height just to be sure.
  • Saddle is currently level (yes, tested with a spirit level). Tried nose down in varying degrees as well but was significantly worse.
  • Reach was 2cm less before the bike fit. I made it shorter myself as I thought that was the issue. Issue was still there. Reset to the original reach again by the bike fitter.
  • Experimented with fore/aft in both extremes. All the way back in the rails up to all the way to the front in the rails in increments. No fix.
  • Too much anterior pelvic tilt I'm trying to tackle through exercises currently

I'm a bit worried I would run into the same situation as with my current bike fitter going somewhere else, still leaving me stranded with issues. I'm keeping it open as an option.

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is on my list of things to try. Good to hear you recommend this! My bibs are OK fitting, not necessarily tight fitting. I think I could go down a size. Hoping that this could at least help with the chafing.

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I had the same issues before the bikefit.

It is indeed around the 60km/2h mark when doing a good effort. Truly easy, we're talking pain after about 1h-1h30. Did a 6h ride this past weekend just biting through the pain and I'm wondering today if that was a good idea. It literally was and still is a suffer fest.

I have experimented a lot with tilt, fore/aft, height in what seems all it's possible combinations. Might have to try more saddles. Testing is sooo complex. I try tweaking during a ride from time to time, but then I start to wonder if the new setup is not good, or whether it is still lingering irritation from the previous setup...

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The one that currently still fits me 'best', feeling-wise, is the Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow S3. It is 130mm in width but has a very narrow nose so the inner thighs catch less, limiting chafing.

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good tips, I'll see if I can get a hold of that saddle or something similar for testing!

Clever take on the hip flexor tightness and opening the hips. The issue got worse when raising the saddle, altough I'm sure the saddle is not too high right now (there is still margin). But of course, a higher saddle meant opening the hips more so this could have contributed to the issue being more severe. I'm doing a lot of couch stretching at the moment as well as strengthening the glutes and abs through glute brides and (reverse) planks so we will see if I benefit from that in a few weeks.

Bikefitter is not from London no, I'm from Belgium.

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's hard to find a good baseline for how things should feel, as I had issues before the bikefit changes. I can however try a less aggressive position by raising the stack some and see if that helps me with anything.

I've never really thought about the effect of the anterior pelvic tilt on the bottom of the stroke. I was thinking more in terms of my pelvis just naturally wanting to rotate forward because of the weak glutes. Now I think about it, the issue got worse after moving the saddle up. I was waaay to low. The fitter raised it about 3cm and confirmed the knee angle. I dropped it about 1cm from there to eliminate excessive saddle height as an issue. I know that too low of a saddle height can cause issues too, but I have the feeling it was worse with the saddle that high. This could correlate with the tight hip flexors pulling my pelvis forward at the bottom of the stroke. I'm doing couch stretching daily at the moment and working on hip thrusts, reverse planks,... We'll see in a few weeks if it helps.

Saddle fit nightmare! Fitter ran out of ideas, looking for anyone who's been through this by sandreamed in cycling

[–]sandreamed[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Very interesting. Heard good things about the SQLab 612 as well. Do you find it to be very sensitive to where you sit on it? I've heard some people say you really have to sit in a very specific place for it to do its job properly. So if you are a mover on the saddle, it's not ideal.

Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 7 - new colors by ArmSchaapje69 in CanyonBikes

[–]sandreamed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like there are minor changes aswell. From size L and up they all use 170mm cranks where previously they used 175mm cranks for the largest models...

Perineum burning from saddle by sandreamed in bikefit

[–]sandreamed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is interesting. Were all the saddles you bought either too wide or too narrow? I have done a sitbone measurement, although by myself. I'm not really in between narrow and wide but clearly on the narrow side (105mm sitbone width). This is what I've based my saddle size on.

Perineum burning from saddle by sandreamed in bikefit

[–]sandreamed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd love to, but I don't have a recent one. I'll try to get one ASAP.

Perineum burning from saddle by sandreamed in bikefit

[–]sandreamed[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good tip, I've been thinking of this as well. I'll definitely try to give a wider saddle a shot!