"healthy" Bike Seats

I've been riding more this year and, even though I got new seats for
each of my bikes and got fitted for them, I still feel like it's not
healthy in the short or long run to ride a conventional seat. I was
wondering if anyone has any experience or serious thoughts on the
following seat models, or others:

http://bikeseats.org/moon-seat.htm

http://bikeseats.org/easyseat-bicycle-seat.htm

Just a random website I found via google, so not pitching it here.
Thanks,

-Tony

Tony S. wrote:

I've been riding more this year and, even though I got new seats for
each of my bikes and got fitted for them, I still feel like it's not
healthy in the short or long run to ride a conventional seat.

Funny how these things change dramatically after 150 or so years of
design refinement. I guess people's rear ends are made differently
now. At any moment, I suppose I'll have to replace all my chairs
because they're no longer healthy.

Chalo

On Oct 6, 10:55*am, "Tony S." wrote:
I've been riding more this year and, even though I got new seats for
each of my bikes and got fitted for them, I still feel like it's not
healthy in the short or long run to ride a conventional seat. I was
wondering if anyone has any experience or serious thoughts on the
following seat models, or others:

http://bikeseats.org/moon-seat.htm

http://bikeseats.org/easyseat-bicycle-seat.htm

Just a random website I found via google, so not pitching it here.
Thanks,

-Tony

After a ride, are your bits numb? If not, don't worry about it.

Those who rail about urological problems related to cycling have
something to sell you, preying on every man's worst fears and
insecurities.

On Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:55:10 GMT, "Tony S."
wrote:

I've been riding more this year and, even though I got new seats for
each of my bikes and got fitted for them, I still feel like it's not
healthy in the short or long run to ride a conventional seat. I was
wondering if anyone has any experience or serious thoughts on the
following seat models, or others:

http://bikeseats.org/moon-seat.htm

http://bikeseats.org/easyseat-bicycle-seat.htm

Just a random website I found via google, so not pitching it here.
Thanks,

-Tony

Dear Tony,

Oddball bicycle seats have been around since the 1890s.

The faster and farther you ride, the less likely you are to use them.

The classic design, which puts most of your weight on the ischial
tuberosities, works better than anything else for uninjured riders.

Here's a page with some old oddball seats and details, plus kindly
suggestions for those who want to try peculiar seats:

http://www.jimlangley.net/crank/bicycleseats.html

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

"Chalo" wrote in message
...
Tony S. wrote:

I've been riding more this year and, even though I got new seats for
each of my bikes and got fitted for them, I still feel like it's not
healthy in the short or long run to ride a conventional seat.

Funny how these things change dramatically after 150 or so years of
design refinement. I guess people's rear ends are made differently
now. At any moment, I suppose I'll have to replace all my chairs
because they're no longer healthy.

Chalo

Apparently it doesn't affect everyone, and depends on bike fit, seat
fit, seat design, height and angle, but there are new studies that
indicate problems among some riders.

One link:
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/bike/

FYI, sitting in chairs all day long, as is the case with many
professions, can lead to numerous back and hip problems. It does not
however place any direct pressure on such a sensitive spot.

-Tony

Tony S. wrote:
I've been riding more this year and, even though I got new seats for
each of my bikes and got fitted for them, I still feel like it's not
healthy in the short or long run to ride a conventional seat. I was
wondering if anyone has any experience or serious thoughts on the
following seat models, or others:

http://bikeseats.org/moon-seat.htm

http://bikeseats.org/easyseat-bicycle-seat.htm

Just a random website I found via google, so not pitching it here.
Thanks,

In my experience saddles are a very personal thing. If a 5 dollar
saddle is all day comfortable, be happy, if it's a 300 dollar saddle,
cough up the readies, because nothing else will be.

For example, a recommended saddle

http://www.cyclestore.co.uk/productD...roductID=14085

After 2-3000 miles I gave up, it was always painful. Luckily for me,
Brookes came to the rescue, it might not for you. In short, keep trying.

The late, great, Sheldon Brown does have some advice on the subject

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/real-man.html

On Oct 6, 11:43*am, Tosspot wrote:
Tony S. wrote:
I've been riding more this year and, even though I got new seats for
each of my bikes and got fitted for them, I still feel like it's not
healthy in the short or long run to ride a conventional seat. I was
wondering if anyone has any experience or serious thoughts on the
following seat models, or others:

http://bikeseats.org/moon-seat.htm

http://bikeseats.org/easyseat-bicycle-seat.htm

Just a random website I found via google, so not pitching it here.
Thanks,

In my experience saddles are a very personal thing. *If a 5 dollar
saddle is all day comfortable, be happy, if it's a 300 dollar saddle,
cough up the readies, because nothing else will be.

For example, a recommended saddle

* * * *http://www.cyclestore.co.uk/productD...roductID=14085

After 2-3000 miles I gave up, it was always painful. *Luckily for me,
Brookes came to the rescue, it might not for you. *In short, keep trying.

The late, great, Sheldon Brown does have some advice on the subject

* * * *http://www.sheldonbrown.com/real-man.html

I read that Jesus Christ himself designed the B-17.

From the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas:

"Lo, may your smiths craft a fork of iron, with a crescent-moon
joining the tines
And gather your finest calf's hide, and apply two handsbreadths
across,
flat as the sea of Gallillee in calm winds.
Copper rivets shall be no sign of vanity,
but of the care a shepherd shows his flock."

On Oct 6, 12:55*pm, "Tony S." wrote:
I've been riding more this year and, even though I got new seats for
each of my bikes and got fitted for them, I still feel like it's not
healthy in the short or long run to ride a conventional seat.

You feel this? For how long have you had these feelings? Are they
rooted in a male fear of impotence? Is your willywonka no longer as
proud as it once was?

Tony S. wrote:
I've been riding more this year and, even though I
got new seats for each of my bikes and got
fitted for them, I still feel like it's not healthy
in the short or long run to ride a conventional
seat.

Chalo replied:

Funny how these things change dramatically after 150 or so
years of design refinement. I guess people's rear ends are
made differently now. At any moment, I suppose I'll have
to replace all my chairs because they're no longer healthy.
Chalo

Hey Tony - Chalo is simple proof that you don't need to be on the bike
to have a pain in the ass!

Anyway if _you_ feel, think, imagine, or have other "proof" that your
seats are causing or may cause health issues, I consider that your
business.

One of the most comfortable seats I've ever ridden was a real cheapo
salvaged from a Huffy ATB.
It was nicely padded and sprung. When I finally got it "just right",
continuous rides of 50 miles without discomfort or the need for a break
were the norm.
My "just right" includes a very balanced feel of weight distribution
on the bars and the saddle. Also, I was careful to avoid rocking my
hips when riding, a bad habit I can slip into on any seat, more so when
that seat is sprung.

After much consideration, I've always thought the Easy-Seat style
saddle would compound any problems _I_ have with improper cycling form.
You may not

Best Regards - Mike Baldwin

On Oct 6, 6:55*pm, "Tony S." wrote:
I've been riding more this year and, even though I got new seats for
each of my bikes and got fitted for them, I still feel like it's not
healthy in the short or long run to ride a conventional seat. I was
wondering if anyone has any experience or serious thoughts on the
following seat models, or others:

http://bikeseats.org/moon-seat.htm

http://bikeseats.org/easyseat-bicycle-seat.htm

Just a random website I found via google, so not pitching it here.
Thanks,

-Tony

I long since threw away the eunuch maker seats the hard men love to
claim prove their bravado. I ride in comfort on a Cheeko 90, sold
under this and various other names in Europe and the US; if you search
for the name on RBT you will find a US source. You can see what the
Cheeko looks like on my netsite
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/B...%20Smover.html
and there is a view from below which shows there is no nose further
down the page with the caption "Another view of the seat of power"
etc.

I take long rides of several hours on it, I ride fast on it, sometimes
on rough roads, and it has never done any of the things to me a
comfortable seat is supposed to do to you, if you believe the
masochists. It has just behaved with perfect comfort.

One thing. After four years and about 5k mine is cracking at a fold
that developed in the cloth, which, if you remember the MBtex that
used to be fitted to Mercedes-Benz before leather became so
ubiquitous, will be familiar to you. Time, I suppose, to buy a new
one, but I'm a little disappointed that it isn't harder-wearing. The
vinyl side is also easily puntured if your bike falls over, and is
scuffed by merely breathing on it. A Brooks saddle at 5k will just
have stopped chafing and start conforming to your bottom... All the
same, I recommend the Cheeko 90 as a proper ergonomic design and one
which works in the field when exposed to a very particular bum, mine.
(At home I sit on ergonomic chairs of my own design which I license to
a maker, so I do know a little something about ergonomics; most
properly trained psychologists do. I don't actually buy the real
thing, which is too trendily priced for my Calvinist soul, but Hong
Kong copies...) Since the foam is good after 5k, I'm thinking of
recovering my Cheeko with honey-coloured leather such as I sit on at
my desk writing this, and making handlebar grips and racktop and
handlebar bags of the same leather, of which I have a good few yards.

As a replacement for the Cheeko I'm also tempted by a more hightech
design of ergoseat than the Cheeko. It is called the DDWings (or DD
Wings) and is made by an Italian company. I like the looks of it but
haven't actually sat on it. Not that sitting once will tell you
anything with a comfort seat -- it is that you can still feel it after
two hours without a break that matters.

HTH.

Andre Jute
Mr Versatility strikes again