A 'sensitive' question...

[DareDemon666]

Hello!

So I've got a little bit of an issue - a specifically male issue if you catch my drift. I've been cycling for years without any issues but recently I've been getting much more interested in my cycling ability and fitness in general - this has lead to time trialling myself (just racing against the clock really nothing fancy), investing in a much overdue new bike, and importantly paying more attention to my position on the bike.

I'm used to drop-handlebars, but to be fair never used them much - usually riding on the tops or hoods. With my newfound interest I'm spending a lot more time on the drops and I've noticed that, well, more often than not the family jewels are in harms way! Seems like every other time I lean down to get a bit more aero and get on the drops I end up regretting the decision promptly!

I just wondered if there might be any obvious reasons that haven't occurred to me. Obviously this isn't a universal problem or else Le Tour would be a much more awkward affair in the final stages . Could it be that I've got the wrong saddle? Or maybe the angle or offset or height needs adjusting? Or perhaps the bars are too low for me? Or is there some neat cyclist trick for keeping the delicates safe and sound?

I suspect the answer will just be to keep adjusting the heights and angles of things until I find a comfortable position, but I thought I'd better ask just in-case I'm making a major rookie error!

Cheers,
Jack

[Jdsk]

Welcome.

I suggest adding a side-on photo of the bike and a video of you riding past the camera so that we can see your position.

Jonathan

[Paulatic]

Are you using a saddle with a split in the middle?
Going on the drops could sometimes take my breath away a split saddle solved it for me. Just helps to take some pressure off.

[DareDemon666]

I'll see what I can do regarding the pictures/videos - might take me a few days to figure that out mind you

As for the saddle nope, anything but. It's a Selle Italia Turbo circa 1980

[fredN4]

Hello!

So I've got a little bit of an issue - a specifically male issue if you catch my drift. I've been cycling for years without any issues but recently I've been getting much more interested in my cycling ability and fitness in general - this has lead to time trialling myself (just racing against the clock really nothing fancy), investing in a much overdue new bike, and importantly paying more attention to my position on the bike.

I'm used to drop-handlebars, but to be fair never used them much - usually riding on the tops or hoods. With my newfound interest I'm spending a lot more time on the drops and I've noticed that, well, more often than not the family jewels are in harms way! Seems like every other time I lean down to get a bit more aero and get on the drops I end up regretting the decision promptly!

I just wondered if there might be any obvious reasons that haven't occurred to me. Obviously this isn't a universal problem or else Le Tour would be a much more awkward affair in the final stages . Could it be that I've got the wrong saddle? Or maybe the angle or offset or height needs adjusting? Or perhaps the bars are too low for me? Or is there some neat cyclist trick for keeping the delicates safe and sound?

I suspect the answer will just be to keep adjusting the heights and angles of things until I find a comfortable position, but I thought I'd better ask just in-case I'm making a major rookie error!

Cheers,
Jack

check to make sure your <i>[rude word removed]</i> are not swollen. had a similar issue and noticed one of mine was. an echographie showed a cyst, which was later removed. Bon sante!

[fredN4]

testicles

[kylecycler]

This is an excellent guide from Cervelo on saddles - it just about covers everything:

https://www.cervelo.com/en/the-four-and ... ad-saddles

The Cervelo article explains the benefit of a saddle with flatter side-to-side contours:



Cervelo don't make saddles, it's just a guide, but fabric offers saddles in 'flat', 'shallow' and 'radius' contours. No experience of them but it makes sense:

https://fabric.cc/findyourfit/

Your problem might be that your current saddle has too much of a curve to it, side to side, has no cutout and may be a little squishier than it could be - the only thing you really want to be in contact with the saddle (depending on your position) is your sitbones (you just need them to be securely located):



Probably isn't as simple as that but persevere anyway. Finding the right saddle is a bit of a black art (even though we keep telling ourselves it shouldn't be!) but it's important, right enough.

[foxyrider]

My initial response was that you are too 'slammed' and maybe the saddle needs the nose dropping a tad. But of course as with anything bike, its never that simple!

These days i ride mostly on the hoods or bar top but in my yoof and before tri bars came along, time trialling on the drops was it, then i had a bit of a lightbulb moment about your issue. I think your problem is caused or at least not helped by 'senile' inflexibility, in effect, when you go on the drops your whole pelvic structure is moving forward putting weight where its not wanted. (in effect you are going from being supported by your sit bones to being supported by soft tissue) Certainly when i look at pictures from those heady days, most of the body movement to ride the drops was in the upper body with only a small amount of pelvic rotation. I can remember having abs like rock, they did an awfull lot of the support work after all!

I guess it depends how dedicated you are what you do, clip on aero bars might work, adjusting saddle and bar position likewise but i'd suggest strengthening your core and working on your flexibility may have more benefit. Ideally you should be able to support your torso in a forward lean without using your arms in any way, easy for me to say but perhaps less easy for you to do

[Paulatic]

These days i ride mostly on the hoods or bar top but in my yoof and before tri bars came along, time trialling on the drops was it, then i had a bit of a lightbulb moment about your issue. I think your problem is caused or at least not helped by 'senile' inflexibility, in effect, when you go on the drops your whole pelvic structure is moving forward putting weight where its not wanted. (in effect you are going from being supported by your sit bones to being supported by soft tissue) Certainly when i look at pictures from those heady days, most of the body movement to ride the drops was in the upper body with only a small amount of pelvic rotation. I can remember having abs like rock, they did an awfull lot of the support work after all!

Interesting as I would have said a flexible person bends at the hips and someone inflexible, for whatever reason, bends their back.
I say this because at the stiff old age of 66 I took up Pilates. When the benefits became apparent it coincided with saddle changes. Those flat saddles I’d used for the past 20+ years were now telling me not to stay on the drops for long. Yet my back was happier down there than it had for a long time.
Taking that your sit bones are more than just those two bumps we measure but the whole cage round to your pubic bone then when you rotate the hip you are still on your sit bones but albeit with more pressure to the pubic end of the arrangement. It’s because of that a split saddle is now essential to my comfort.

[Jdsk]

Taking that your sit bones are more than just those two bumps...

Yes. Drawing the contacts as two rigid points can't describe what actually happens. Either for the big forces that are opposing the weight of the rider or the smaller forces that pass through the soft tissue where most of the pain and touch receptors are installed.

Jonathan

[mattsccm]

My TT bike obviously has me low and stretched out. That might be uncomfortable on the road bike but the saddle is tilted forward a touch, brought forward a bit as well and a bit higher. In effect I have rotated around the BB.I sit on the nose of the saddle as well. Goodness knows what the seat tube angle ends up as? Its 78 degrees before me sitting at that point. The thing is, you may need to move other things if your bars are different.
You could try a modern short saddle if you spend a lot of the time on the drops.

[Greystoke]

Been there, tried many saddles etc bought a selle SMP trk problem went away.
You need to match the saddle to your riding position, details on website. Trk matched my MTB drop bar tourer conversion.
No more numb nuts

[pjclinch]

Rather echoing the general input here, I'd try fettling the saddle position (fore/aft and tilt mainly, though don't rule out height as well) and see if that changes things.
And don't rule out a different saddle. Unfortunately the case that just as "I use Scarpa size 43 shoes" obviously doesn't apply as a universal recommendation for a shoe for everyone, so it is with saddles. That I like a Brooks B17 doesn't mean it'll be any good to you. One advantage of local clubs is you have access to lots of different saddles to try out...

[geomannie]

Been there, tried many saddles etc bought a selle SMP trk problem went away.
You need to match the saddle to your riding position, details on website. Trk matched my MTB drop bar tourer conversion.
No more numb nuts

+1 for the Selle SMP TRK. I recommended it to a club member post prostate surgery & he liked it so much he put it on all his bikes.

[DareDemon666]

OP here, apologies for such a long wait for response. Hectic holidays! Also apologies but there's no pictures/videos of my riding position. I couldn't seem to get a good shot whenever I tried. Perhaps I will revisit this with a willing cameraman (read. bribed riding friend)

Thanks for all the suggestions gents, they were quite helpful. I spent an hour or two down at MudDock in Bristol essentially just trying all their bikes. They were very friendly and happy for me to go about it when I explained why I wanted to. I figured that, while riding position is something I can adjust easily enough at home, trying saddles could be a very time consuming process without the help of a friendly local bike shop.

I discovered that a saddle with a more flat surface helped a fair bit. It seems the very rounded top of the Selle Turbo I'm used to was letting my sit bones sink too low and thus put too much pressure on the undercarriage. I've also since invested in some proper kit for the first time - including a pair of bib shorts, and found that they tend to do a good job of keeping the boys out of harms way.

So it would seem my problem is solved. I don't have any issues on the drops anymore, and even Aero/TT bars don't seem to give me much trouble - though I only sampled those for a few minutes on a mate's bike!

Thanks for all the help guys and gals, made for a warm welcome to this forum!