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| *Vultures Knob>>>Cycling |
New road rider wants to know about seats, aerobars and nerve damage to the crotch.? |
I am a fairly new rider in my forties. I love road riding but have heard about damaging the nerves in the groin area that leads to major health issues. How do we best prevent this from happening? Thanks! Well, a good fitting bike will solve most all problems. This isn't an issue with everyone just some people. If you ride for extended times 3 hours or so on a regular basis you may have nerve problems, maybe. You can try the saddles with cut away centers as your 1st option. Don't assume you are in danger just because you ride. If you're riding an hour at a time your should never feel numbness or pain in the groin. Since you said "I heard about...(this)" I'm guessing you're over reacting. If you ride and your crotch feels OK then you don't have a worry. Here's what you do, if you buy a good of bike shorts, I recommend Gore Bike Wear or Pearl Izumi. Don't get cheap ones! They do make seats designed to prevent the "issues" you speak of but nonetheless, wear bike shorts and start out riding gradually, work your way up to longer rides. You'll be used to sitting on "it." And about bike shorts, yes it IS awkward for the first ride or two but you'll get used to it. Have fun. I do not know what an "aerobar" is. I can, however, offer you this quotation from the owner's manual of my bike: "WARNING: Some people have claimed that extended riding with a saddle which is incorrectly adjusted or which does not support your pelvic area correctly can cause short-term or long-term injury to nerves and blood vessels, or even impotence. If your saddle causes you pain, numbness or other discomfort, listen to your body and stop riding until you see your dealer about saddle adjustment or a different saddle." I am a fairly new rider in my mid-fifties. The last time I did any "serious" bike riding was FORTY years ago -- on a "plain vanilla", single speed, twenty-something inch bike. I have recently done several 3-hour long rides with no seat problem --while wearing boxer-style underwear and jogging pants! If you do start having crotch-discomfort, a simple seat adjustment might do the trick -- perhaps angling the seat a little more upward/downward. An outright change-of-seats might be necessary. THE BOTTOM LINE: By all means find a remedy if symptoms appear! It looks like the previous posters took care of the nerve damage. As far as aerobars go, they can definately increase your efficiency. They take a little while to get used to. You will find some muscles in your back you didn't know you had. But just try to stay down in them for as long as you can and just work up to it. Another solution is to go for a recumbent -- they are much more aerodynamic than even an aerobar equipped road bike, and because there is less pressure on the crotch, there is much less possibility for nerve damage. Nice review: http://www.63xc.com/willm/bike_sexhealth... Saddles matter less than how they are set up: http://www.chainreactionbicycles.com/sad... listen to your body. you dont want to ride around numb all the time. if you are having any extended periods of numbness while riding something isnt right. that numbness is a sign of pressure being put on nerves and can result in impotence problems. your position on the bike can greatly effect it. the nose of your saddle should be roughly flat with the rear, even a little higher. one small click up or down on the nose can change everything. second is position front to back. you can change how things feel by moving the saddle front to back as well, and then there is your bars. raising and lowering them, extending the reach or shorting it with stems all change how you feel. you begin with the basics and then listen to your body. if something hurts or goes numb, change it. it isnt the one time pain that does damage. it is riding like that over and over again for many hours and miles. if something hurts or goes numb, something isnt right. |
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