# Questions for you ladies.....for my lady.



## mccurdy21 (Mar 31, 2009)

Hi all,

I just wanted to get some input from you women here on the forum. My wife has finally given in and decided that she wants to join me on the road. We went out and picked her up a schwinn hybrid at target ( I told her we would start with that and if she really shows an interest we will upgrade her later on). The bike runs and rides great but the one thing of course is the saddle. It's like sitting on a brick so we got one of those gel seat covers to help cushion it a bit. 

Well, after our first ride ~8mi she said that she had a lot of pain down in her nether regions, mainly the bones on either side of her (ahem) "girl parts". I am not to keen on the inner workings of that area, but are those the sit bones? I know when I started I had this similar pain and with time I got accustom to it, along with some A+D cream and the cycling shorts. 

For now she has spandex shorts plus the gel pad on the schwinn saddle, what would you ladies recommend? I have told her that we just need to keep with it and let that area get used to the different style of sitting. Is there more that I could do for her? We were at the LBS yesterday looking at different saddles as well, and may see if they will let us try and exchange if we need to, also some padded shorts are an option, but we notice that the womens ones don't have as much padding as my Pearl Izumis. 

Any advise would be great.


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## dlhurst (Jul 25, 2009)

Wow, I am a newbie but feel like I can comment  I just started biking in the last two weeks. I was dreading the seat and my "girl parts" but was pleasently surprised. I biked 8 miles the first day and did not hurt, I biked 11 miles the next day and did not hurt. I do not wear any special clothing and my seat in nothing special. I do know I played with the height of the seat to find a comfortable riding location. Good luck finding a seat that doesn't hurt her.


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## jorgy (Oct 21, 2005)

When it comes to padding, less is more. Too much padding on the saddle and shorts means that your stuff gets smooshed. A more firm saddle with shorts with a modest pad and your sit bones (your bum, not other sensitive parts) do most of the supporting.


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

Is the pain in front of her "mommy parts" or behind? If it's behind (as in her butt) then those are her seat bones. Is she wearing bike shorts? If not, have her try some. 

IMO a soft saddle is not good. Like jorgy says, you want a firm saddle. Otherwise her bones will sink through the padding and she'll be resting directly on the hard plastic beneath the padding. 

If the pain is in front of the*ahem* vajijay then there could be an issue with saddle tilt. Is the saddle tilted up? It's best to start off with it level. Also saddle height - is it possible the saddle is too high?


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## Andrea138 (Mar 10, 2008)

To echo what others said- 

Too soft/too much padding is a death sentence for the undercarriage. As is poor bike fit. Look at some basic fitting info online to get an idea of height & fore/aft positioning of the saddle. You can also go to the LBS and get a relatively inexpensive replacement saddle- in that case, they may help you get it properly adjusted. 

If she's still got numbness in the soft tissues, then she may need to try other saddles until she finds one that she likes. Good luck- I've been riding for ~3 years, and I've only found a couple that I tolerate... after trying at least 20 others. I'm convinced that women have a harder time finding saddles because we have to sit on our genitals and not our taints like men.


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## mccurdy21 (Mar 31, 2009)

Thank you all for the advise, it is hard to understand that less padding will help, but maybe we will go down the the LBS and get a women specific saddle with some shorts for her and try it out. We rode last night and she was a bit un-cumfy with the already sore bum but stuck out 9mi. Tonight we will take a break. I was also going to look into fitting the hybrid as I am sure it is different than a Roadie.


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