How To Get Rid Of Saddle Pain… For Good!

Saddle pain when riding any bike can ruin your ride, and possibly worse! In this video, Blake Samson gives you his top tips to help reduce or even prevent saddle-sore to make sure you are pain-free when riding so you can focus on the trail!

⏱ Timestamps ⏱
00:00 – Intro
00:55 – Saddle
03:43 – Setup
07:14 – Clothing

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Welcome back you beautiful people. There’s a lot to love about mountain biking. Big days out with your friends, seeing new places, riding fun trails. It’s the best thing ever. But what is less fun is the dreaded saddle pain. Oh. Now, if you suffer from a bit of soreness down there, then stick around because I’m going to give you a few tips on how to make it a lot more comfortable down there and make your whole mountain biking experience a lot more comfortable. Yeah. The main causes to saddle pain or soreness falls into three different categories. First one is your saddle. Second is your setup. Third is your clothing. Tick off all three of these and you can kick saddle pain out the back door and say goodbye forever. But we’re going to talk about the settle first. [Music] Yes, the saddle. Mountain bike saddle come in all different shapes and sizes and it depends on who it’s designed for and what it’s designed for. For example, something like a crosscountry saddle will be a little longer and narrower to give better support when you’re spending hours in the saddle pedaling hard. A trail saddle will be similar but generally offer a little bit more padding. The endura saddle will typically be a little shorter and have burlier materials to handle any crashes. A downhill saddle will tend to be shorter and wider and is more there to help control your bike than really to be sat on. You can find an ebike specific saddle too. These will be similar to regular saddles but will offer a ramp at the rear to help with steep technical ebike climbs. Now, some brands like Urggon will offer a men’s and women’s specific version of their saddle. These saddles will have slightly different designs to take into account the different needs between men and women. For example, the pressure release channels will be altered as well as the size of the widest part of the saddles. With that said, there’s nothing stopping a lady taking on a men’s saddle and vice versa with men’s as well. It all depends on what works for your body. on that. The biggest thing to get right is the width of your saddle because we all have different hip sizes and sitbones, but getting the right dimensions of your sitbones to match your saddle is the perfect way to eliminate that pain. Now, your sitbones need to be supported properly to help with comfort and also to help you get a lot more out of your pedaling. Some bike shops will have special machines that will allow you to sit on them and measure the width between your sitbones. If you don’t have access to these, you can use a simple DIY method by getting yourself a corrugated card sheet like this one. Place it on a hard surface like this. Sit on it. And by doing that, you can press down through the seat onto your sitbones. Move around. Make sure you get enough, you know, pressure on the seat. And then from that, just simply stand up, get a marker pen, and mark the center of each sitbone. and then measure that. Preferably with the mountain bike saddle, you want to add 20 mil to that measurement to get the perfect width saddle just for you. If you don’t have access to any of these, but know the height and weight and hip circumference, Urggon have a handy calculator that will work out which width saddle works best for you. This is a great way to find the perfect width saddle for yourself, but not necessarily going to be the most comfortable one for you. So, it’s worth trying out a few different saddles out there to find the most comfortable one for you. But that is a great place to start. Oh, so comfy. Yes, now you found the right saddle for you. Great news. Now it’s time to get the perfect setup for you. And it’s all about the height of the saddle, the angle, and the position of it as well. First up, we’re going to talk about saddle height. Now, a general rule of thumb when you’re sat on your bike, you want to have a slight bend in your knee when your pedal is at full stroke. A good way to get this right is using the heel method. With this, you need to adjust your saddle height so you have a straight leg when you put your heel on the pedal at the furthest point down. This means when you move your foot backwards to the correct position on the pedal, you’ll find the slight bend in your knee we are talking about. As ever, set it up for you and go out for a few rides and adjust it when you need to. If you feel like there you’re rocking from side to side, then you’ll find that your saddle’s a little bit too high. And if you find that you’ve got pressure in your knees, then that means that’s your saddle being a little bit too low. So, adjust it accordingly to find the perfect sweet spot height. When it comes to the angle of your saddle, the perfect point to start with is having a level saddle. Now, if you’ve used your mobile phone spirit level app, this is the perfect app for that. By putting your phone on there, you can get it perfectly level. And that, like I said, is the perfect starting point for it. Much like the heel method, this method is just to get you in the right ballpark. You don’t want to have any unnecessary pressure downstairs. You want to be comfortable and you want to have your pelvis nicely supported and secure. Even minor adjustments can have a big change in comfort and performance. So, make small changes and see how it feels. The last adjustment you need to look at is the position of the saddle on the rail. Now, you’ve guessed it. Another good rule of thumb for this setting is is you want to get on your bike, have your saddle fully extended, get level pedal like this, and what you want to look out for is your knee needs to be in line with your with your pedal spindle, with your pedal axle. And if it’s far, if it’s too far forward, that means your saddle is too far on the rails forward. And if you find it’s too far back, then obviously your saddle’s too far back on the rails. What you want to do to get a perfectly accurate one is run a plum line from your kneecap all the way down to the center of your pedal. Uh, but basically, that’s if you really want an accurate, but just eyeballing it is just perfect enough. So, you’ve set your bike up. You feel like it’s perfect, but you’re finding that you can’t get your weight shifted forward on those steep climbs. This is where you want to slide your saddle on those rails forward to help bring your weight onto the front. Likewise, if you’re a tall rider and you have a bike with a slightly slacker cube angle, then you want to run that saddle in this position as well to help balance out the weight on the front as well. Right now, if you want to take your setup to the next level and get everything perfectly positioned, then going to a professional bike fitter will be the one for you. But this can get expensive. This will make sure that you’re in the right position on your bike. This can help with your performance out on the bike, but also avoiding picking up any strains or injuries from setups that’s not quite right for you. Right. Saddle check. Setup tick. Now it’s time to move on to the clothing. Now when it comes to riding clothing, this is where it comes into its own. Mountain bike specific riding trousers and shorts are designed for maximizing the way they breathe, the way they feel on the bike, especially when you’re sat on them. They’re designed to follow the contours of your legs when riding and pedaling. Also to eliminate bunch up as well, which will cause uncomfortableness on your bike. These stretchy materials help reduce chafing, stitches being kept out of the wrong places to avoid unwanted rubbing, too. Now, if you’re wanting to head out there for a longer ride, a longer time on the saddle, or you just want a little bit more comfort on your tush, then investing in something like bib shorts, tights, or padded shorts. They’re all the same thing, but that’s going to help with comfort. The padding, otherwise known as the shami, will add a bit of cushioning to help deal with those extra hours in the saddle. With cheaper shammis, you’ll usually find there a single layer of foam. As you move up in price, you’ll start to get multiple layers of different density foams, antibacterial treatments, better shaping and fit, and more. All these add up to more comfort. You get what you pay for. Now, when it comes to choosing the perfect shammy for you, you want them to be nice and snug, tight. That’s what they’re designed for. You don’t want them to be loose and baggy because that will cause shafing and unwanted pain where you don’t want it on longer rides. There’s one thing to note when wearing a shammy. You do not want to wear underwear between the shammy and your skin because that is just going to cause it to be uncomfortable and cause your underwear to bunch up where you don’t want it. Now, if you want to prolong the comfort on longer rides, then having a thing called shammy cream is the perfect way to prolong that. This is just a barrier between the shammy and your skin to help lubricate it and keep it nice and smooth and comfortable when out riding on your saddle. Now, when it comes to applying the shammy cream, you can apply it to the shammy itself or you can apply it to the skin or vice versa. You can do both at the same time depending on how long you’re going to be on the saddle. Just remember when you get a whole handful of that shammy cream, you don’t want to go and put your hand back in the pot cuz nobody likes a double dipper, now do they? Thank you very much for watching this. Hopefully this video has had a bit more of an insight on what it takes to eliminate butt pain out there on those long, long rides. Trust me, I’ve gone through the ringer to say the least when it comes to butt pain and I’ve learned the hard way. Hopefully you don’t have to and these few tips are going to help you reduce that pain for you. Just remember to get the right saddle, the right setup, and the perfect clothing to help be a little bit more comfortable out there on the trail. Until then, I’ll see you next time. See you. You want a cup of tea? Oh, yeah. Let’s go get a cup of tea.