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Just thought I'd share my recent experience with the Hobson Easy Seat, which is a dual-pad bike saddle which is intended to relieve pressure on the male anatomy. I had a nasty experience with a bruised prostate due to a road impact with a regular saddle in my late 20's and have always been a little nervous about it since, so I decided to pick one up and put it on my bike (homemade bamboo frame, skinny 700c tire road/race bike.
It takes a lot of adjustment to get it set right to your individual physique; in my case about 25 minutes of riding in different positions. Before it was adjusted correctly, it was terrible; after I found my "sweet spot," it was pleasant to sit on.
The downside was that in taking the pressure off your naughty bits, it puts that weight on your legs and also to your arms, wrists, and shoulders (it has to go somewhere). My knees were under a lot more pressure than usual and my calves, which generally can handle a 100+ km ride no problem, were starting to cramp after just 4 or 5km. Yikes.
The bigger problem were my wrists and arms. After the same distance, they were on fire. When I was down on the drop bars, so much of the weight transferred to my wrists and shoulders that I started to lose my grip under heavy exertion and they started to go numb after hurting intensely for a few km's. After I grabbed the upper part of the bars the arm pain went away, but that takes away access to the brakes and shifters on my bike.
The other big change was to weight transfer and the bike's handling. Without the elongated center piece of the seat, it's completely different. One of the things I love about my bike is its razor-sharp precision in turns and ability to easily track a straight line at speed while pedaling. All that is out the window on the Easy Seat: my favorite chicanes early on in my ride were nerve-wracking and required me to slow down as the bike neither leaned into the turn as well nor smoothly recovered. There was a lot of wobble and the seating position raised my center of gravity so that I found myself fighting the bars more than I can recall since I learned to ride a bike 30 years ago. There were big crowds out on the bike path along Shenzhen Bay today, and dodging them was much more involved than usual.
When I rolled off the speed, sat high, and gave my aching muscles a rest, the experience was much better. So, if I were to give it a star rating, it would be a 2 on a road bike, and a 4 for a traditional bike. I think that this seat is ideal for a commuter, mountain, or cruiser bike where you sit upright and the bars are higher and center towards you. Definitely much more for easy riding, as the name implies, than sports.
What you probably need is a hard flat wide seat. The only supplier of such at present is Brooks. Unfortunately all their wide seats are still made of leather so they have a finite life. With probably 100,000 miles on leather saddles since 1976, I have not found anything better except the late lamented Ideale saddles.
Various types of "two pad" saddles have been tried for well over 100 years and none of them really work.
What you probably need is a hard flat wide seat. The only supplier of such at present is Brooks. Unfortunately all their wide seats are still made of leather so they have a finite life. With probably 100,000 miles on leather saddles since 1976, I have not found anything better except the late lamented Ideale saddles.
Various types of "two pad" saddles have been tried for well over 100 years and none of them really work.
I've heard the brooks saddles are excellent but have always held off in large part due to the "hardness" factor... May have to go down to HK and pick one up though
I've heard the brooks saddles are excellent but have always held off in large part due to the "hardness" factor... May have to go down to HK and pick one up though
People think they want a soft saddle, but that's exactly what you DON'T want. A standard saddle that's thickly padded will allow your sit bones to sink into the padding. Then the padding material everywhere except under the sit bones will press upward even harder on the soft tissues that should not be pressed upon.
A leather saddle has give because the leather's strung across a frame. If the width of the saddle is proper for your pelvic structure, and it's flat across the top (not highly rounded) the inherent give in the leather is all you need.
Weirdly enough I have a very wide span between my pelvic sit bones (if you see me walking down the street you'd think I'm a very ordinary-shaped guy), and about all that's really comfortable is one of the wide flat Brooks like the B67 or B72. In recent years they only put that top on the saddles with springs, which adds weight but also just a wee bit cushiness too. Since I am not interested any more in looking all racey, but just want to ride the heck out of the bike, I am cool with the springs. Brooks recently introduced a synthetic material they claim is "like leather but water proof" but as far as I know they still haven't introduced it to the wide saddles.
I particularly enjoy blowing past the guys on hills with $1000 of Spandex clothes and their $4000 plastic bikes, when I'm riding in an old T shirt and sneakers on my rusty steel bike with fenders and a Brooks saddle with big chrome springs. (...my rusty steel bike, with double butted manganese moly tubes and Campagnolo Super Record gruppo circa 1982...)
People think they want a soft saddle, but that's exactly what you DON'T want. A standard saddle that's thickly padded will allow your sit bones to sink into the padding. Then the padding material everywhere except under the sit bones will press upward even harder on the soft tissues that should not be pressed upon.
A leather saddle has give because the leather's strung across a frame. If the width of the saddle is proper for your pelvic structure, and it's flat across the top (not highly rounded) the inherent give in the leather is all you need.
Weirdly enough I have a very wide span between my pelvic sit bones (if you see me walking down the street you'd think I'm a very ordinary-shaped guy), and about all that's really comfortable is one of the wide flat Brooks like the B67 or B72. In recent years they only put that top on the saddles with springs, which adds weight but also just a wee bit cushiness too. Since I am not interested any more in looking all racey, but just want to ride the heck out of the bike, I am cool with the springs. Brooks recently introduced a synthetic material they claim is "like leather but water proof" but as far as I know they still haven't introduced it to the wide saddles.
Right now I'm riding on a soft, wide seat with springs that overall is quite comfy and I don't have too many complaints. The main thing with trying the Hobson seat was due to curiosity, that maybe it would be better. It definitely wasn't... I've tried probably a dozen different saddles over the last few years and the one that I'm on now generally suits me well. The only complaint I have is that it's very heavy - my bike weighs about 6.8kg full kit and about a quarter of that weight is in the saddle!
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I particularly enjoy blowing past the guys on hills with $1000 of Spandex clothes and their $4000 plastic bikes, when I'm riding in an old T shirt and sneakers on my rusty steel bike with fenders and a Brooks saddle with big chrome springs. (...my rusty steel bike, with double butted manganese moly tubes and Campagnolo Super Record gruppo circa 1982...)
I was once lectured by one of those guys about how wide/comfortable bike seats weren't "aerodynamic" and gave him a good ribbing on how nonsensical it was to think that the aerodynamics of something that go under your butt, which is unaerodynamic, and supports an unaerodynamic body which powers a narrow vehicle at an average of maybe 15-20 mph.
I never got into the racing or competitive aspect of cycling and have always focused on my own ride, but learned early on not to assume that someone's bike/gear/age are a good indicator to ability. I've blown past tour de France wannabe guys like they were standing still on my old carbon fiber Specialized Epic and once got walked by a short teenager on some weird homemade bike that was a single speed cruiser-style frame with commuter tires and super-wide bars (he was standing up and it was more like he was sprinting than pedalling). Where I live now I encounter a lot of wealthier guys who have modern Pinarello and Campagnolo frames with Shimano 105 gearsets and wear full team liveries, but they ride like they're on beach cruisers.
My favorite story about not pre-judging cyclists is "The Tale of Huffy Girl".
So a group of friends and I went on an organized 100 mile fast ride. It's a pretty prominent and well known one. For those who aren't familiar with these, they usually take a loop and there are turn-off points for the shorter distances. So you'll be riding along and at (say) 20 miles, there'll be the turn-off for those who're riding 50 miles, then at (say) 30 miles, the turnoff for those going 62 miles, and so on. Once you've passed about the 40 mile mark, everyone on the road is going to do the whole 100 mile route.
So while this ride is not a race, most people are pushing pretty hard and a lot of folks are trying to better their time. Our group of about 6 people were cruising along at a pretty good clip, using proper paceline technique. It's been a long time but I reckon we were headed towards completing the 100 miles at under 6 hours, probably closer to 5, so a pretty good pace.
At about mile 45 or so (after the last shorter-distance turnoff, in other words), we passed a young woman (20?). Riding an old flat handlebar girl's three speed Huffy. In a skirt.
Yes, Huffy Girl, riding her old three speed in a skirt, had kept a pace just marginally slower than 6 guys in a paceline, for 40+ miles. And she didn't look the least bit tired yet, either.
I dunno, maybe she was from the US Olympic team going incognito, or something.
As to the "weight weenies", I remember old Joe Bentley at the Houston Bicycle Company saying "you want to take two pounds off the bike real fast? Go use the toilet."
Of course since Joe tipped the scales at something like 280, that probably gave him a unique perspective.
As to the "weight weenies", I remember old Joe Bentley at the Houston Bicycle Company saying "you want to take two pounds off the bike real fast? Go use the toilet."
Of course since Joe tipped the scales at something like 280, that probably gave him a unique perspective.
Yeah, my bamboo bike is super-light; as light if not lighter than most of those insanely-expensive full-carbon bikes. It handles extremely well, is great up a hill, etc, but I'm a big dude and my weight fluctuates about 5-6 lbs per day, so a few ounces here or there don't mean much.
Some people would laugh at standard bicycle seats, some would scoff at the Hobson, one thing I've learned in 50 years of riding including licensed racing, touring, pleasure, round the block, road and mt bike is that you should never opine on a person's choice of bike seats. Choosing a bike seat is an extremely individual thing. Pick what works for you. I've ridden hundreds of seats in my lifetime. At one point I settled on the Selle San Marcos Rolls saddle brand for 20 years or more. One day I tried a Koobi and fell in love with the position and the ride. I still have 8 Rolls and about 9 Koobis in use. It's all about comfort for the individual.
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