HEALTHY TRAILS

HEALTHY TRAILS When Bigger Is Not Better by Robert Soroky

A big reason people give for not riding their bikes, besides time, is comfort.

As you can probably guess, the majority of comfort complaints tend to center around, yep, that seat.

The solution many riders choose when dealing with an uncomfortable seat is to, well, just get a bigger one. But the truth is, bigger is not always better. For this to make sense, it is important to understand what drives the design of a seat’s size and shape.

There are many different types of bikes on the market, from recreational and comfort to fitness and racing, and each is designed with a specific rider geometry in mind. For example, when you sit in a completely upright position on a cruiser bike, you are sitting on the widest, most rear part of your sit bones (the ischium). Hence, the seat on a cruiser bike tends to be wide and cushy because, not only does it have to support all of your weight directly, it also has to line up with where the sit bones are making contact.

By contrast, if you were on a drop-bar road bike, your body would be seated in a more aggressive, forwardleaning position. In this case, you are now sitting on a much narrower and forward part of your sit bones (the pubis). Therefore, the road bike seat is much skinnier, with seat pads closer together and slightly more forward in order to, once again, line up with your sit bones. Since your center of gravity is now forward of the seat, less padding is necessary as less of your weight needs to be supported.

Another aspect of seat design is its position on the seat post.

Most people know that seats can be adjusted up or down, but did you know they also can slide forward and backward? Or that they nose up and nose down? Believe it or not, just a minor adjustment to one of these positions can make all the difference in comfort. So, today’s lesson? The wrong seat on the wrong bike makes for a rough day!

Robert Soroky is a lifelong cyclist regularly participating in long distance charity rides and manager of the Century Cycles Medina location. Contact Soroky at robert@centurycycles.com to suggest column topics, for further information or to chat about bikes.