Woman's health issues

[Sven137]

Woman's advice please.

 

Hi.. My Friend is suffering after cycling. She has swelling and pain after rides.

She has a woman's seat and woman's shorts... Is there a cream that can help or something?

[bertusras]

I was going to point you to this thread, but then I saw you were the original poster there as well.

What saddle does she have?

[Pulse]

I was going to point you to this thread, but then I saw you were the original poster there as well.

What saddle does she have?

As Bertus said, there is some good advice on the indicated thread

[Rob Highlanderza]

My daughter had similar issues - tried lots of saddles, women's included. I let her try my Selle Super Flow - https://www.selleitalia.com/en/saddles/slr-superflow-l/

 

Now I can't get it back - it solved all her issues.

 

They also make a women's one - https://www.selleitalia.com/en/saddles/slr-lady-flow-l/

 

I'm not sure where you would get them though - try asking around the LBS's and online, but you might have to import via Chain Reaction.

 

Hope this helps.

[Dubber]

I think best option is to track down a ladies riding group and ask the question there.  There are a bunch of facebook groups - all pretty interactive...  

 

This is an Aus one - but she could still join and ask the question... 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/girlride/

[EmJayZA]

I take is that her swelling is soft tissue related. Her saddle is the problem, and no chamois cream or cycling bib / short will help. I used to have major issues with my saddle, to the point where I would get bladder infections after a long ride. 

 

Not all female saddles are created equally. I ride a ISM Adamo on my road bike, and I have no more swelling, or soft tissue soreness. This is even after a 4 hour ride. I have even managed 4 hour rides in my super thin chamois in my trisuit, and it is still comfortable. The ISM saddles are are not cheap (look for a second hand one), but the price is completely worth being pain free. I have also heard a lot of woman have success with Cobb saddles - so I would look at those too. 

 

However, what works for one will not work for another. Look around and see who offers test saddles and have her try a few. Good luck. She may go through a few before finding something that is comfortable. 

[Kalahari Vegmot]

I was going to point you to this thread, but then I saw you were the original poster there as well.

 

What saddle does she have?

The articles there should give some good guidance.

 

Chamois cream helps, but does not solve anything. Go for a good bike fit, get a good saddle(refer to 'that' article in the other thread for guidance) amd do not forget quality bibs...

[bertusras]

However, what works for one will not work for another. Look around and see who offers test saddles and have her try a few. Good luck. She may go through a few before finding something that is comfortable. 

 

That's unfortunately the thing. We went through 4 saddles before she found one that she loved, and now I can't find more of them!! You'll have to visit many shops and ask if they have test saddles. Make sure that the width is right as well. A bike fit would also help as she could also be sitting improperly on the bike.

[Pulse]

I'm with EmJay on the Adamo or Cobb - probably the best to move pressure away from the perineum.

(But it would come down to personal preference...)

[EmJayZA]

The articles there should give some good guidance.

 

Chamois cream helps, but does not solve anything. Go for a good bike fit, get a good saddle(refer to 'that' article in the other thread for guidance) amd do not forget quality bibs...

 

 

No. Chamois cream does not help. The issue is there is too much pressure on the OP's GF's soft tissue area. Chamois cream will help prevent chafing, but not with the pressure issue. Having a saddle that has a channel in the middle will take the pressure off the soft tissue, and put it onto the sit bones. Sit bone pain eventually gets better and goes away with time in the saddle at least. 

 

Also, OP, I am sure you have tried tilting the saddle a little downwards? A degree or two may be enough.  

[Sven137]

She has a Bontrager Ajna saddle the white one

[The Ghost]

I struggled with saddle fit until I got measured and got a Spez Phenom saddle with a cut out in the center and my problem went away, maybe something like that would help

[Gen]

 

 

Something I have battled with in the past..proper setup and ladies saddle..she needs to tell them when she goes for setup what the exact issue is...and only leave once she feels no pressure..

 

You can try all sorts of bibs and saddles but until the setup is 100% the problem won't go away..

 

Full wax or shave prevents further irritation.

 

 

Good luck.

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Skylark]

Match sit bone spacing + cut out in the middle, sit on chair and measure the indentations, you can get a pretty accurate idea after a few tries.

 

The other aspect is how much cushion you need on the saddle, if sitting on a hard wooden bench is painful, ie you have very little meat over your sit bones then you will need a saddle with nice thick padding if it's not painful you can go with much less padding.

 

I needed a saddle that was wide, had a cut out and had lots of padding and the one that finally worked was a Wtb Pure V.

 

Also fiddle with the tilt, I think 5 degrees nose down is a good starting point for most people, any cellphone "Level" app works well for that.

[Tjokkits]

Woman's advice please.

Hi.. My Friend is suffering after cycling. She has swelling and pain after rides.

She has a woman's seat and woman's shorts... Is there a cream that can help or something?

Its the saddle. And one cant recommend a specific saddle because everybody is diffirent. The result is i have a garage full of expensive saddles and finally settled on fzik luce (after 10 years trial and error).

 

If you live in joburg area you are welcome to let her test some of my collection!

[Karman de Lange]

Also might be stem to long or saddle to far back making her move to far forward on the saddle and then not sitting on her sitbone anymore.

 

also be carefull of to high a saddle height (higher is not better), It make one sit skew or rock on the saddle, it also have the tendancy to make you move more forward on saddle to reach peddles easer.. , and again you dont sit on the  sitbones anymore.