A saddle is an essential part of the bicycle that makes every biker’s ride painless and comfortable. The right seat that is appropriately adjusted should provide comfort to the biker regardless of the ride’s distance. Selecting the right seat for you and setting it correctly according to your proportions and riding style will help you be more comfortable on the road and prevent bike-related injuries.
But how to sit on a bike saddle? Is there a proper way to sit while biking? The answer to these questions and other related information will be inside this article as we learn the proper ways to used a bike seat. This topic is essential in the sense that biking should not be punishing and hard regardless of the distance you traveled. And seating the right way on the bike saddle will have a significant impact on your comfort.
Contents
Is there a Right Way to Sit a Bike Saddle?
The right way of sitting the bike saddle is more than just having a right seat and the right proportion. There are many factors that most bikers do not know about or often forget. The context of sitting in a bike saddle is the issue of the rim line, which is the narrower portion of the pelvis. The issue of the rim line usually contacts the bike seat squarely, but in some contoured saddle, there might be a smaller amount of contact.
When a biker tip forward, we are narrowing our seating surface. Meaning, as we sit up, our seating surfaces become wider. For the more traditional saddle, we should sit at the back of the saddle or at least a third portion of it. With little or no pressure in the middle or nose of the seat, how far forward we tip will largely depend on the soft tissues.
It will also depend on our strength and flexibility to the trunk and hips. The less flexible a biker is, the more he sits with the pelvis up while the surface gets wider and got more weight through the seating surface. The more flexible a biker is with stability, the more a biker can tip forward without the perineal pressure. If we got too far from our body, it is normal to get pain, numbness, and perineal pressure. Which means we need to stick to what our body is capable of.
The Importance of the Abdominal Muscles
Every biker needs their abdominals to keep the pelvis actively neutral as much as possible. And tightening these muscles is enough to remove the perineal pressure that we might experience. We should use active stability to keep all those abdominal muscles working. Failure to do so, the pressure will come to the back of the seat.
In other words, the less flexible and stable we are, the more upright we are going to sit and wider our seating surface. The more flexible and stable we are, the more tilted and aggressively we can sit without problems. And don’t forget that we have to keep those abdominals just active a little bit to keep everything in line.
Other Factors to Consider in Sitting a Bike Saddle
Sitting on the Sit Bones
A good bike saddle will support the biker’s weight by redistributing it to the sit bones. The sit bones are those firmest contact points that you will feel when sitting on a flat and hard surface. An excellent bike seat should not have too much padding since it can redistribute the weight to different areas of your legs where tissues can get damaged in dealing with longer rides.
Setting the Bike Saddle with the Correct Height
The height of the bike saddle is crucial in reducing if not eliminating any forms of pain on the crotch. To set up the correct height of the bike saddle, the need should be slightly at the bottom when pedaling your stroke. Meaning, if you exert more effort on the hips when reaching the pedals, the seat is set up too high, which will cause more pain in the groin area.
Tilting Forward the Right Way
The ideal is for the bike saddle to be set up at a level where the biker can lean forward and use the pedal without exerting too much pressure between the legs while sliding forward or backward. If the nose of the bike seat is too high, then you can do the proper adjustment by tilting it downward. Doing this action will eliminate the pressure. The numbness is an excellent indicator that the seat is improperly tilted, which can damage the tissues between your legs. Make the proper adjustment to the bike saddle once you feel the numbness.
Dependent on the Riding Styles
Not all bikers have similar needs with their bike saddle since different riding styles will put extra weight on the sit bones. Every riding style will require different amounts of effort or demands in every biking activity. A more comfortable and padded seat is needed for a more casual bike rider since you will have less weight on the hands and feet and more on the buttocks. For cyclists, a narrow seat is essential because it will not rub when doing intense sprinting.
Conclusion
Learning how to sit on a bike saddle is essential in achieving comfort and a painless ride. Whether it’s a long multi-day ride or a short ride in your community, learning the correct sitting position will also help you cover longer distances without enduring the numbness and the pain the bikers usually feel after a long day of the ride.
The correct sitting position on your bike can also eliminate all of the pain that is related to biking. It is expected that longer rides can affect your muscles but always remember that biking should not be a painful activity. It is essential to analyze the bike saddle while making the necessary correction regarding the height and position if you find that all are incorrect. This action will help in improving comfort while increasing efficiency and overall performance.