Behind Every Woman

When women complain of saddle discomfort they usually say, "my butt hurts." However, that is not what they really mean. The area that suffers the most is the fleshy area a few inches in front of the butt. To be perfectly clear, let us take a brief look at female anatomy.

The bones that come in contact with the saddle are two ischial tuberosities ("sit bones") and two ischium bones which are joined in front by the symphysis ligament. According to our testers, the area between the ischium bones the labium, or vulvar tissue iswhat suffers most, especially if you spend a lot of time on the "drops" (low handlebar position). Other women report vulvar tissue problems that range from numbness, swelling, and boils, to blisters, abrasions, and bruising.

Our testers discovered that a saddle must support the bone structure but not interfere with the vulvar tissue. This is a tough thing to accomplish; some saddles do it better than others.

The testers also concluded that it is not necessary for a saddle to havethick padding. The most important consideration is shape. It should match your bone structure. Your ischia and ischial tuberosities should be perched squarely on the saddle, and they should bear the majority of your weight.

"Pubic bone structure does not vary that much from one woman to the next, but the amount of vulvar tissue does," says Dr. Wegner.

If a saddle is supporting your bone structure, the pressure on the vulvar tissue will lessen (more for some women than others). A saddle's shape will determine how well it supports you.

Because every woman's physique is different, we wondered if each testerwould prefer a different saddle. That almost proved true. Before long,three out of four testers gave high marks to the Avocet O2 Air 40. Thefourth hated it. In fact, #4 pretty much hated all the ones #1, #2, and #3 liked. Three of four thought the In Motion was adequate (a favorite of #4's) and they all agreed the Serfas was suitable. None of the saddles received an across-the-board consensus.

Die to Try
More bike shops should offer test saddles, but at the moment few do. The next best thing is to swap saddles with your friends. Do what we did: rotate saddles between four of you. The more saddles you spend time with, the closer you will come to finding the saddle that is best for you. Don't neglect to make adjustments during a ride. We stopped several times per outing to fine-tune fore/aft positions and the tilt of the saddle, which often solved minor irritation problems. Improper saddle height can be a major contributor to saddle discomfort, so each tester always made sure the height of each saddle was exactly the same by consistently measuring from the top tube to the very top of the saddle.

All four of us agreed that our first impressions were lasting impressions, which leads us to believe that simply sitting on a saddle in your riding position (and pedaling if possible) should provide clues to the saddle's long-term comfort. But the best plan is to ride the saddle for at least 45 minutes.