treatments for saddle sores

[ghostrider1tm]

I've been riding for a couple decades. I'm happy to report that up until this year i've never had saddle sores. Sadly that changed this year and i need some advice on treatment. It's the off season so i'm off the bike and sores have already reduced in size and are less painful. However, they haven't left me completely. Should i try to pop these things and do sitz bathes? Or do I just stay patient and hope they eventually disappear? thanks in advance

[Kastrup]

If they are infected i would apply some kind of cleansing creme. I treat mine with the same cremes used for red baby bottoms. Works wonders.

[AFA]

+1 for the zinc based diaper rash cream. Iodine works great as well.

[Sjoerd]

Do you have a clue as to why you started having sores this year?

[boots2000]

Why are you getting saddle sores?
Change in position, saddle, shorts, etc?
Make sure that you always wear clean bibs, shower immediately after, dry off completely, use powder, etc.
Do you dry bibs in dryer? Use dryer sheets? Stop the dryer sheets.
Also consider what detergent that you use.
Chamois crème? What kind? Is it causing a problem? DZ Nutz chamois crème caused a problem fro me.

[dmoneysworks]

In my (vast) personal experience don't pop them, stay patient & let them heal.

1. Shower immediately post-ride. No accruing shammy time (not cool)

2. Keep area dry - Get an anti-septic (I have one called medi-pluv available in Oz/NZ) talc and apply after bathing.

3. Summer time (especially) I go free-balling (no undies) to allow some aeration again goal is to keep area dry for prolonged time as bacteria prosper in warm/moist conditions. Even consider sleep el-natural!

Figuring this out took me a few years but no more 5 hours rides where I can’t sit properly on the saddle cause I’m in so much pain!

Best of luck!

[ghostrider1tm]

I started to get my first saddle sore at tour of dairyland on day 2 of 11. I was bridging solo and went in to tt mode. I was tipping the nose of the saddle and moved forward on bike with elbows resting on bars. This is not a normal position for me but given the speed of the race I needed to get as aero as possible. I felt the nose of the saddle creating a rash from the friction. After the race it was just red and sensitive to touch. Each day it got worse. This was back in late june. I continued racing through the first week of sept. The rash got worse and turned in to a couple of pimple or cyst looking bulges and as very sensitive to touch. I drained them both once and it helped. I have been off the bike for four weeks and just went back to base miles. I thought saddle sores were healed, they didn't hurt any more, were much small(almost gone), and not sensitive to pressure. After a couple days of 4+ hrs of riding the saddle sores came back....now not sure what to do...or if I just wasn't patient enough. Nothing has changed with bike, position, or gear. As I said, I've been very fortunate to have never had any problems with saddle sores in 20yrs of riding so this is all new to me.

[theremery]

30+ years riding and I'd never had one.....then swapped shorts and BOOM.....major problem. The Gel inserts in the shorts weren't good for me and I didn't deal with it quickly enough (sweat build-up, I assume). Some sort of infection set in. I thought it was fungal and treated as such but it got worse WAY worse. Eventually after nearly a month of struggling with it, using all sorts of cremes and common sense approaches, I went and saw my Doc. He also assumed fungal and gave me a new creme which didn't work!! Antibiotics were next and cured it OUTRIGHT in about 4 days (always finish the course tho).
The moral of this story? : Go see ya DOC!!!....and do it pronto. A mate had a saddle sore issue and it got into his blood stream.....hospital and IV antibiotics later he was looking at an enforced 3 week break. Sometimes it pays just to go show your ass to your Doc

[OwenJames]

I struggled with these for a while. My solution - hot compress with loads of salt 4 times a day, draw it to a head until it ruptures, then Gentamicin cream (from Doctor)

[Rick]

I had a pair of shorts that felt really nice, but I noticed that I had a new saddle sore after virtually every ride.
I had my wife cut out the suspect chamois and sew in a replacement from another old pair of short....fixed it!

Also, wash the crotch soon after riding and use a wash cloth to get some scrubbing. I occasionally use the skin cleanser that has salicylic acid in it, intended for faces to kill the germs that cause acne. It seems to work. It is an over-the-counter product.

For a while I also used various chamois lubes, but those seemed to increase the problem rather than help. So I have gone back to no lube.

[User Name]

A shallow sitz bath with tons of salt works best for me.

[aerozy]

I spent a few years with some saddle sore problems. Here is what solved it:

Treatment:
1) Tried everything on the market and only thing that worked for me was zinc based creams. I use sudocream and it works wonders. Some of my saddle sores were lasting for months. Sudocream takes care of it over night! Its quite miraculous!

Prevention:
1) No chamois. Most chamois have added fragrant's that can irritate the skin.
2) I use Emulsifying Ointment instead. Cost 2£ at your local pharmacy. No fragrant's and for friction is works better than any chamois I ever used before.
3) Find some bib shorts that suit you and stick to them.

[campbellrae]

+1 for the Sudocream. Started using it after long/wet rides a few years ago when saddle sores were popping up and with that they were usually gone in a couple of days.

[kode54]

use Aquaphor...or pay more and use something like Assos Skin Repair.

i suspect that it may be the type of detergent that you are using more than anything else. almost like you're allergic.

[mentok]

in addition to what has already been said, when you wash your bibs/nicks, hang them on the line inside out - the UV on the chamois will help to keep any nasties living in there at bay