Right Leg brushing saddle? Fit Question

[SolidSnake03]

Sounds like your a curved saddle preferrer like me... The prologo scratch I found quite comfy too, but gave me more numbness than he others. I'm sure it would be different now I've got all the tweaks pretty much sorted. U would find the aliante similar in comfort, and there's quite a few cheap ones around. Pretty easy to find places that test fiziks here in Aust, so I would guess its similar in the US?

I'm not sure what your doctors, specialists, & orthopedic people are like where u are, but I've found this group of professionals the most "unhelpful" in sorting out these issues (I'm a doctor myself ironically). I had a friend (with bilateral ITBFS) visit part of our Olympic cycling medical team a few months ago and he just sent her for some physiotherapy (physical therapy), with no addressing of the causative issues (her bike fit). Sorry to sound negative, I guess I just see too many people seduced by qualifications, when someone with a good understanding of the issues, and a diligence to work though them is far more useful, regardless of who they are. Having said that, we have a lot of bike fitters over here who couldn't fit a tricycle to a 3year old, let alone a complex road fit.

It does seem that I prefer the more "curved" or in my mind "saddle shaped" saddles. I think it comes from riding an old Schwinn Le Tour for about 2 years when that was my only hand me down road bike. I just rode the bike as it was, 30+ year old concor looking saddle and all Think that might be where my comfort with curved saddles came from, the flat one's just feel weird to me, too much like I'm bouncing on top and not anchored or secure down in the saddle.

The Prologo I have gotten a bit tiny of numbness from on one ride, I will obviously ride it a bunch more to see but the Aliante would also be worth looking at. I think the Spec Romin might be a solid fit as well since it's more curved shaped but still cut out however, although the cut outs in the past have kept numbness away there have been chaff/rubbing issues around the cut spots usually. I'm actually waiting for Spec to bring out the lower models of the Chicane that Boonen has been riding, it's only available in S-Works version but for 2013 they are releasing all the "lower models" with Ti rails and the like

Anyhow, the doctor I saw yesterday FINALLY asked WHY things were happening on my right side instead of just saying *shrugs* "it's probably just effects from your body compensating for your shorter leg"
I will be seeing a Orthopedic Surgery Doc specifically about why my right leg seems to catch or pop on extension, something is out of line or miss-formed in the hip joint on the ride side. For once a doc actually said "It's great that isn't not causing daily pain but I want to know WHY its doing it regardless because something isn't right Also, finally commented that my illiac crests aren't even at all, right is quite a bit lower than left...

Looks like I'm headed on the right track with this one....

As for the Fizik Demo, yes there are a few stores around here that allow demo's of the Fizik saddles. The only downside is that many of them have some policy like it costs $10 a day to demo but that money goes toward the purchase etc...

Might be better off just trying to score one on ebay and flipping it if it doesn't cut it

[KWalker]

"Every single time I would go out to ride somewhere between 5-20miles my back would start to feel strained and the inside of my left sit bone/pelvis would hurt. The ONLY thing that has made any different what so ever in my comfort/knee tracking has been shimming the right side substantially, basically equal to the amount my right leg is supposedly shorter."

Where in your back? If its lower then reach may be too long and it comes back to the seat thing.

FWIW I always thought that I had the uphill test right until I visited a fitter that had worked with Hogg- definitely did not know what I was doing in that regard.

[SolidSnake03]

It's the lower back area, specifically around the left side which is the part I can see "pulling" when the right side drops. Reach is not too much as my elbows are bent and upper body is very relaxed. I have also have stems from 90mm-120mm and have tested them all. The 90 and 100 result in me falling over the front while the 110 is just perfect.

I have my bars only about 3cm or so below the saddle. My back pain is basically just the one side, my upper body is never stretched or "reaching" for either drops or hoods.

[grid256]

Oops. Missed this for few days. I just use the wide Toupe because I have wide sit bones.

[KWalker]

Weird. My lower back hurt in the same exact way except with my left hip. Cured it with dropping the saddle. Oddly my drop to the bars also went from 9cm being almost too much to 12cm being just about correct. I'd try asking Steve on his premium site, but I'm sure his answers will echo mine. If your seat height and fore/aft are correct then you shouldn't feel like spilling over regardless of stem length.

[sungod]

after problems coming back from knee strain - holiday with gf, do nothing more energetic than get off sunbed to go to bar for our prelunch cocktails, fly long haul, get on bike, ride hard, ouch - which just would not go away, knees which tracked fine before were now going in/out, i ended up seeing a cycling physio

i've always needed extra arch support and a bit of wedging, but i've now got a lot more arch support, more wedging, plus a shim - turned out i have a few mm lld and some hip/spinal aysmmetry

now i ride pain free and am at last able to train hard again, but he has also given me a specific exercise to do, as he thinks i need to strengthen glutes to stabilise my knees more, it's the 'clam', goes like this...

http://performancecare.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... -clam.html

he said it'll take 2-3 months to make any real difference, i use a torq band to add some resistance, and just added these to my daily routine

may be worth asking your physio if this/other exercise could help with your situation

[SolidSnake03]

Thanks for the replys everyone, I have gotten the shim plate from Hogg's site and so far it feels better. I have tried lowering my seat a bit as well and will ride it that way for a while to see if that makes an appreciable difference. Regardless, the leg length compensator has allowed me much more adjustment regarding cleat placement which was definitely helped.

Also, it does seem that my pelvis is a bit "angled" or tilted. The right crest sits quite a noticeable bit lower than the left which seems to be in relation to that leg being skeletally shorter. Did some rough measurements using a sharpie, some tape and a mirror

[drmutley]

Try using your objective X-ray measurements as your starting point.. U will save alot of time and mucking around... U will initially feel over-corrected... But give it a few weeks for your short muscles to adapt and then make adjustments from there...

The good thing about having the adaptor plate is u have 8mm of thread to anchor your shim stack into, and hence it will be rock solid...

If u want some 2mm SP shims, and some 15mm M4 stainless screws let me know and I'll send u some as I have heaps...

[SolidSnake03]

Well got another fun doctor diagnosis the other day which actually does a lot to explaining some of what is going on.

I was diagnosed with iliopsoas bursitis in my right hip. Basically the area around the hip joint/bursis is inflamed and agitated. This can cause a loud snapping sound on leg extension along with a "shortening" of the muscles and functioning of that area as well as the leg. Seems that this can come up from either arthritis, older age, puberty/large body changes OR Leg length differences...

The good news out of all of this is that this diagnosis #1 makes a ton of sense since, after doing some further reading on my own, sound like word for word what happens in my right hip/upper leg. #2 helps explain why I felt the need to keep increasing the shim stack height on the right side. The truth is that I might not really need much of a stack, maybe just something like 5mm or a portion of the actually skeletal difference once the iliopsoas bursitis is cleared up/fixed.

It seems that the leg length difference that has been un-accounted for for so long in my cycling and running led to iliopsoas bursitis in the right hip *short side* that further limited the range of motion of that area and effectively shortened it even more. It compounded the problem.

As a result I have been stretching this area often as well as doing some of the other recommendations and not only does it feel better but I'm able to ride a bit more. Went on a 20miler today and for once my butt didn't hurt! Also, I dropped my shim stack all the way down to 8mm from what it used to be at based upon the leg feeling "looser" due to working on calming the bursitis.

This really has been a hell of a journey so far but it finally looks like I'm making some progress! Goal is one day to not only be able to ride comfortably and pain free but also to go back to Shimano pedals with a more meager shim stack. I vastly prefer the Shimano design however I have been riding Speedplay out of necessity.

I understand that this will be a continued process with probably slow progress but at least things are looking up a bit