Numb Nuts

[slysi]

Ok so I know this is a rather strange technical question but I need to ask it anyway. To the ladies please do not be offended.

 

I bought a Raleigh RC3000 and have done some work on the setup. I completed the 116km ride for sight yesterday and really struggled getting comfortable on the saddle. At the end of the ride I went to the loo and to my horror that I was suffering from, well, ermmmm "numb nuts".

 

Any ideas what the cause of this can be? I did the 94.7 last year, albeit on my MTB, and never had this problem.

 

 

[Canaris]

solution:  cycle MTB and leave the road alone.

[AndreZA]

First get a more comfortable saddle. Price/brand/Tour de France wins does dot determine comfort.

 

 

 

Second get good shorts.

 

 

 

Third, use shammy cream or speen salf.

[Schwynn]

Who called?

[Wannabe]

All saddles do not agree with all cyclist. Do some trial and error riding (if you are on good terms with your LBS, he might let you try out a few before finding the one that suits your behind) Just be sure to buy it from LBS. It took me a while to find the "right" saddle. The most popular brands is not necessarily the one that suits you. Your LBS might have/should have that little contraption from Specialized that measures your sitbone's width so that you can find the correct saddle. Wannabe2010-02-22 04:37:52

[Guest coenie]

Check you saddle angle, it should be level, not pointing up or down.

If you still have problems try a saddle with a groof cut out the middle...works for some people.

 

[slysi]

I used shammy cream and my shorts are Cape Storm (which I though was a good short). What over brand would you suggest? Also what brand saddle?

[bikemonster]

It's because it's a Raleigh, that's a well known design fault, especially with the RC2000 and the RC3000. It's a side effect of the amount and type of aluminium used in those bikes. The higher-specced Raleighs do not seem to have the same problem.

 

 

 

Naahhh! Not really.

 

 

 

Three most likely (honest!) culprits are:

 

1. Bike set up

 

2. Saddle

 

3. Not moving around enough on the bike

 

 

 

1 and 3 cost nothing to change. 3 is the easiest to sort out, by just remembering to change your position on the saddle from time to time.

 

 

 

My money is on the saddle though, so to speak.

 

 

 

And now for the bad news. Bike saddles are the one piece of componentry where price is not even a vague indicator of how well it will work for you. You need to find a saddle that makes your bum hum.

 

 

 

The closest to a universally revered saddle that I know of is the Fi:zik Arione, mostly because it has a long "perch" which allows for many different comfortable positions on the saddle.

 

 

 

Cue somebody coming along to say that they have never sat on a worse saddle than the Arione...bikemonster2010-02-22 04:38:57

[manbearpig]

Check the angle of your saddle too....it might be putting too much pressure on the area between your foofenyol and ballas. Try set it a little "nose down" and see if it helps.

[AndreZA]

Check you saddle angle' date=' it should be level, not pointing up or down.

 

[/quote']

 

 

 

not 100% true. Some like the spoon shaped saddles have the nose pointed up a bit.

[Tumbleweed]

The closest to a universally revered saddle that I know of is the Fi:zik Arione...

 

[The_Break]

Saddles for me are pretty simple.

 

When you set them up you need to make sure that your fore/aft and level are correct or sometimes you end up shifting forward which is a big cause of numb nuts. You basically end up sitting on the piece between your anus and your penis (for the correct medical term) thereby blocking the blood flow. So making sure you are in the correct position is the start of the solution.

 

Then, once you are in the correct position and it still happens then you need to look at your saddle. My preference on a saddle is to go as hard as possible. Reason for this is simple. If you sink into a nice big soft saddle you end up squashing your shammy and everything below it. Whilst you may have an even pressure distribution, it will most often be enough to block blood flow. I ride a hard saddle with a minimal shammy and no cream. What happens is you should end up sitting purely on 2x 50C piece size sitting bones at the rear of your saddle and after a few training rides the nerves in these very small areas deaden, sort of like your elbow skin (try pinch your elbow skin and make it hurt). Once this happens you will not feel any pain on your saddle anymore. As you are not compressing everything with all that padding you will also open up the blood flow. And, as you are not using cream your butt should toughen up a bit like it is designed to. Human body is amazing.

 

If you still have problem then your seat is most probably in need of a replacement as if you cannot sit on your sitting bones then the seat has failed in its design.

 

Good luck! Takes a while to get tough, but once you are you will be bimb proof.

[The_Break]

Check you saddle angle' date=' it should be level, not pointing up or down.
[/quote']

not 100% true. Some like the spoon shaped saddles have the nose pointed up a bit.

 

This is true. When you really go into saddle design and setup you will see that saddles are not always meant to look like they are level. Some saddles are specifically designed to have the spoon shape like above. Reason for this is different riding positions over different terrain and times in a race. Back for climbing, normal for normal ridng and when you are in a break and want a more aero position you are then able to move toward the front of your saddle. Reason it points upward is that you are then able to move forward whilst keeping your effective inseam at the correct length. I.e. reason why if you move forward in a TT setup you also need to raise your seat.

 

So yes, a lot more to a saddle than just keeping it level. But it takes someone who is able to set you up properly before you start playing around in detail.

[The Saint]

Dude, if you are still riding the original Raleigh saddle that came with that bike I am 99.9% sure that is the problem.

 

 

 

However as stated here bad quality bibs and even brand new bibs which have not been ridden in yet will cause this.

 

 

 

A quick solution to the prob is when going downhill move to the back of the bunch freewheel and alternately remove your feet from the pedals, shake them around a bit to get the blood flowing and it should make your ride a little more comfy.

[slysi]

 

Saddles for me are pretty simple.

 

When you set them up you need to make sure that your fore/aft and level are correct or sometimes you end up shifting forward which is a big cause of numb nuts. You basically end up sitting on the piece between your anus and your penis (for the correct medical term) thereby blocking the blood flow. So making sure you are in the correct position is the start of the solution.

 

Then' date=' once you are in the correct position and it still happens then you need to look at your saddle. My preference on a saddle is to go as hard as possible. Reason for this is simple. If you sink into a nice big soft saddle you end up squashing your shammy and everything below it. Whilst you may have an even pressure distribution, it will most often be enough to block blood flow. I ride a hard saddle with a minimal shammy and no cream. What happens is you should end up sitting purely on 2x 50C piece size sitting bones at the rear of your saddle and after a few training rides the nerves in these very small areas deaden, sort of like your elbow skin (try pinch your elbow skin and make it hurt). Once this happens you will not feel any pain on your saddle anymore. As you are not compressing everything with all that padding you will also open up the blood flow. And, as you are not using cream your butt should toughen up a bit like it is designed to. Human body is amazing.

 

If you still have problem then your seat is most probably in need of a replacement as if you cannot sit on your sitting bones then the seat has failed in its design.

 

Good luck! Takes a while to get tough, but once you are you will be bimb proof.

[/quote']

 

That makes alot of sense. So if I am sitting on the piece between my bum and wee willy winky does this mean that I need to move the seat forward or backward?

 

[bikemonster]

 

That makes alot of sense. So if I am sitting on the piece between my bum and wee willy winky does this mean that I need to move the seat forward or backward?

 

 

 

It's called the taint.

 

 

 

'Cause taint balls and taint arse either.

 

 

 

Showoff smarty-pants people also refer to it as the perineum.

 

 

 

At a guess you would prolly need to move your saddle forward.

 

 

 

I stand by my earlier comment that a saddle replacement may be in order. On one of my bikes I had a saddle that I could never get comfortable on, numb nuts were a regular occurrence and no matter what I did and how I set the saddle up, I was forever having to push myself back on the saddle. A new saddle sorted the problem.

 

 

 

Your mileage may vary.