Bike seat for men who want to reproduce!

Ladies please look away.

The seat that came with my bike causes discomfort to a special area of my body. I have heard that indeed racing cyclists have few children.

There seems to be conflict between Aero Dynamics and Ergonomics in that a low riding position is important for lessening wind resistance. This position seems to load the hands and arms too much and the other point of contact with the contraption seems to ensure it more of a contraception.

I cycle for the quietude, gentle exercise and to ease my eco mind. But I find that after 3 -4 klm I'm endangering myself. Has anybody seen a bike seat for the standard form of bike that does not aggravate the base of the xxxxxx I looked it up perineum. Seriously. Chip, any suggestions

I'd like to know the answer to this one, m'self. Anyone? Anyone?

Hey, bicycling is only my second favorite activity.

I have a bunch of bikes, with seats from soft to Brooks. I think it's more about seat adjustment (height and tilt) as well as your overall position on the bike. I have no problems after riding that hard-as-nails Brooks B17 saddle all day, but: I seldom ride a bike with dropped (racing) handlebars. Also, the distance from the seat to the bars is an issue here. Read on.

Here's how I set up a bike, either for myself or others:

1. Seat height: The distance from the top of the pedal at the bottom of the pedal stroke up to the center of the seat is your total inside leg length in the shoes you plan to ride in the most. Long distance touring riders go with 104% of this measurement, but I'm not going that far. Start with it at your full leg length and go from there. Remember: You don't have to touch the ground easily as you are seated on your bike. It's all about the relationship of seat to pedals for efficient pedaling.

2. Seat tilt: This is a biggie. Start with they seat dead level and ride it like that for a bit. Not happy? Time to tilt. Now here's the funny thing: Most guys will want to tilt the seat down ever-so-slightly at the nose, while the ladies seem to prefer a very slight up tilt to that saddle nose. I myself keep my mouth shut and do as the lady requests. The idea here is to balance your weight on your pelvic bones, and not your soft tissue, however: Too much of a down tilt, and you go sliding off the front of the seat as you pedal, and that's really annoying. It's all about finding the right balance, Grasshopper.

3. Seat-to-handlebars: Ok, here we go. The forgotten thingy. I want the distance from the nose of the saddle to the back of the handlebar, where it meets the stem, to be exactly One Cubit. My Cubit. That is, the distance from the point of my elbow to the tip of my longest finger. Strecth your forearm out along the top tube and see how you do, seat to bars. Bike too long? You're putting too much weight on your hands. Bike too short? Too much weight on your bottom and all those happy bits. The seat does slide a bit fore-aft on the mounting rails, but for more radical adjustment, you'll need to swap out handlebar stems.

4. Handlebar height: Very subjective. I do not want mine lower than the seat. Not even close,. A little bit higher is better. Someone once said you get to a point in your life where you don't want your bottom above your brain. I am so there. Been there for years. As for being all streamlined and wind efficient, eh. I'm not going that fast. I'd rather sit up and look around as I ride. Another consideration here: For safety, you want to present a human figure in traffic. That is, you want drivers to see you and IMMEDIATELY identify you as a cyclist that might know a good lawyer. This is important: Be the human. All hunkered over, you're not as obvious. So sit up straight and mind your posture. This is why I can't recoommend recumbents for road use, and why I NEVER ride the prone bicycle I built on any public road. (It hangs over my workbench as a warning to others.)

Of the above four items, I would look at seat tilt and saddle height as the leading cause of numbness in places you'd rather not be. Make sure you've got your set to pedal distance right, then work on the tilt. Yes, they do make seats that specifically address this problem, but they can also be installed incorrectly. Get it right, and be happy both on and off the bike.

I think personality has a lot to do with racing cyclists having few children. Well, that and the training schedule. It takes a special type.

I prefer something (non UCA approved) like this:

NO TRIANGLE??? Interesting design Bob. I know there are many UNCONVENTIONAL bicycles - but i had kinda figured some triangularity in the frame was important. Can you comment on the torsion forces and structural stability of this little baby? For sure the seat looks like a reproductive enhancement over the horn destroying horned seat. Actually it almost looks like a mobile birthing conveyance - haha

Hey Garry, on more traditional frames it is the pedals and handle bars that work as levers against each other and create torsional forces within the frame. As you push on one pedal you pull on the other handle bar and it twists the frame slightly, the triangle came about as an efficient design to limit the flex of a frame. Of course with the dawn of more modern materials designers don't have to try as hard to make a stiff frame. On the bike that bob posted the position of the bars, pedals, and body limit the amount of torsion one can put on the bike frame itself.

Ya gotta love science - thanks for the explanation Zach

Garry Hoddinott wrote:NO TRIANGLE??? Interesting design Bob. I know there are many UNCONVENTIONAL bicycles - but i had kinda figured some triangularity in the frame was important. Can you comment on the torsion forces and structural stability of this little baby? For sure the seat looks like a reproductive enhancement over the horn destroying horned seat. Actually it almost looks like a mobile birthing conveyance - haha

Zach explained it well, let me reinforce:

The frame is under compression from the chain tension. Along with some side-to-side force there is a net downward force at the bottom bracket - not much torsion. Pushing against the seat back/stays produces a bending force but the large diameter tube handles it well, whether steel, aluminum, titanium, or CF. I have examples of the first three.

Recumbents go back to the early 1900s but UCI (oops, said UCA in other post) outlawed them when a second class racer started whipping up on the big boys with one.


http://www.bicycleman.com/history/history.htm

I realize This comes a little late. However, if you search "hornless bicycle saddle" or "noseless bicycle saddle", you will find many different styles and manufactures. The drawback to these saddles is that riding without your hands on the bars is next to impossible because there is no protruding saddle for the thighs to grip against.

Garry Hoddinott wrote:Ladies please look away.

The seat that came with my bike causes discomfort to a special area of my body. I have heard that indeed racing cyclists have few children.

There seems to be conflict between Aero Dynamics and Ergonomics in that a low riding position is important for lessening wind resistance. This position seems to load the hands and arms too much and the other point of contact with the contraption seems to ensure it more of a contraception.

I cycle for the quietude, gentle exercise and to ease my eco mind. But I find that after 3 -4 klm I'm endangering myself. Has anybody seen a bike seat for the standard form of bike that does not aggravate the base of the xxxxxx I looked it up perineum. Seriously. Chip, any suggestions

I have one of these saddles, made by a retired fellow in my town. He toured many, many miles around Canada and the US. Couldn't find a saddle that worked for him, so he invented one. I have had mine for two years and I have not had any issues with soreness anywhere!


http://www3.telus.net/gabs/

I might be considered a 2-wheel junkie, preferring motorcycles and bicycles to 4 wheel cars and tricycles.

I changed my horned bicycle seat to a hornless bicycle seat:
http://www.thecomfortseat.com/

Previously I would get numbness from long distance motorcycle and bicycle rides from crushing the small veins in the perineum. That was no good. I had to modify my motorcycle seat for to prevent vein crushing and I switched to the hornless bicycle seat above.

The problem moved from my crotch to my hands and wrists. The hornless saddle linked above changes your riding position so more pressure is on your wrists than normal. I can ride for many miles on my bicycle now without a numb crotch. Another downside is that I can no longer ride without my hands on the handlebars on my bicycle. The horn really helps control and steering when you don't use your handlebars. As for my motorcycle, its a crotch rocket, so I am constantly in a push-up position so I have to take a break every so often.

Many professional and amateur cyclists are now using the ISM Adamo racing seat (in its many incarnations)

Basically the seat lacks a nose so that all the pressure is on the pelvis instead of the perineum.

It's all personal choice, though. I ride hundreds of miles on a seat with a nose and have not yet had trouble having kids.

It is all about adjusting the seat. I purchased one of those Schwinn Hornless seats. It took some getting used to. But after a few short rides. It works fine. When I first started using it. I felt like I was going to slide off the seat. But then NO Problem using it.

I know this thread is a year old, but some of you might find this solution very interesting: It's called the RC Saddle



RC Saddles

It's a new saddle on the market that can put an end to this problem. It has a pear shape with a flat bottom and is tapered towards the front end which I believe is a lot safer than the bumpy hard conventional saddles.
For someone who is mostly interested in the exercising and commuting part of cycling, this might just be ideal.

I have cycled on a brooks B17 saddle for many years and it is a very comfortable saddle for long distance cycling.

Interestingly, I am child free.

paul

Chip nailed this one. A saddle can only do so much for your comfort and manly reproductive abilities. It is the bike fit and setup that will need to be dialed as well. My main concern with nose less saddles is safety. Unless your riding is low impact, you may find you have less control with no nose to manipulate with your thighs. I actually do a lot of steering with my legs so noseless is very odd feeling to me. I personally find no problems were solved with a noseless design, only more created. Brooks saddles work great for me. My procreative abilities have not been affected even after a lifetime of riding.

When I bought my 'upright bike' back in 2004, I thought my bicycling days were over. I'd ride my usual 3-5 miles and hurt for a couple of days. I couldn't figure it out. One day when I was walking instead of bicycling, I explained the problem to someone I knew who wondered why I was walking. He told me of a saddle you could get from a mail order catalog. This saddle had two side by side pads with a gap between. That saddle literally saved my butt!
Just now I looked in the Heartland America web site, but I couldn't find it. I don't get the catalogs anymore, but for many years, I saw it advertised again and again. I'll bet if you can get your hands on a catalog, you'd find it, but looking in a bicycle shop, I never saw one. Back then it cost $30 to $40 bucks. Good luck. Sheesh, I was so desperate, I almost went to the doctor...all it was was the wrong saddle.

If bicycling caused reproductive issues than why do countries like the Netherlands or China have overpopulation issues?

Growing up in the Netherlands i used to do a lot of cycling. I'm talking some days that i'd be out 12 hours on my bike. Every day for at least an hour. Yeah, once or twice i had my genital fall asleep on me but then i learned to adjust the way i sit since anyone can imagine that that's not healthy.

As a person from a country where there are like 2 bikes to everyone in the country, i am reminded of girls i used to hear talk about working out, saying they were afraid of getting unfeminine or bulky... when female bodybuilders spend YEARS working out HOURS every single day; but then you have these girls who work out a few hours per WEEK... There is no comparison between professional cyclists who are on their bikes 24/7 year after year and regular folks who ride bikes. Please.

Excellent point socrates. And you used your namesake method of inquiry, well done!

Heres one i sell a lot of at the bike shop. Its called rx, like a medicinal dose of reproductive comfort. It is made by serfas and Comfort guaranteed for 90 days.
This usually helps men with prostate pain, crotch numbness, and other soreness from the saddle region. They make ladies specific ones as well.

Chip Haynes: Thanks for your tips on how to adjust a bicycle. I finally took the plunge, and decided to use a bicycle as my primary means of transportation. I was at the point where the labor to cover the cost of paying for the truck was more than the labor to walk or bike. My bike's seat was adjusted almost 2" too high per your recommendations. By chance, the secondhand bike that I've been using had one of those split seats.

I have a Selle SMP seat which is shaped similar to what Zach posted above, mounted on a standard upright bike. It's a MASSIVE improvement on the other seats I've tried, where adjustments just didn't help. I would have numbness with those, and now with the Selle it's been great, no discomfort at all.

I've had a recumbent trike too, and while it was more comfortable it had a 20 inch rear wheel and was annoyingly slow and you can't use your full body weight to pedal. Maybe a 26" rear wheel would help the speed but man they are expensive...

So I highly endorse any seat that has this design, whether you currently have discomfort or not. Invest in one so you never have issues down the road!

I'd heartily recommend getting a bike fit whether it's through your local bike shop or through a specialist.  Like shoes a good bicycle set up shouldn't hurt.   Especially if you intend to ride on a frequent basis!  The seat is one aspect but there are other parameters like handle bar type and location that can make bicycling more enjoyable and better for the body.  It's like investing in good shoes or a vehicle that fits your needs $50 now it better than a world of ouch later

I had one on my Specialized tha looks like a Circle with front part of the circle cut open. I rode thousands of miles with it and was very comfortable and took care of that nagging problem with all bicycle seats. I’ll see if I can find it online and the brand. I found it. It’s the ISM Touring saddle.