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The Bike Fit Academy

237 members • Free

2 contributions to The Bike Fit Academy
🎥 Webinars - what works best for you?
We’ll be running live webinars in this community, covering Bike Fit concepts and common themes that come up here. To help plan these properly, it’d be really useful to know: - Which days/times of the week out of the options below suit you best? Also let us know by commenting below, if you're more likely to join us live, or catch up on the recording at a later time? No commitments of course, this is just to help shape things in a way that works for most people. Let us know if you have any other suggestions around timing of the webinars. Thanks in advance for your input.
Poll
14 members have voted
1 like • 6d
Would prefer live but family duties may prevent that on some occasions
Arthritic Bone Growth on Sit Bones
Hi All, Hoping for some help and advice. A fairly long post so please bear with me. I think the medical terminology for my problem is that I have an ‘Osteophyte’ on my Ischial Tuberosities, or, in plain language, an arthritic bony lump on my sit bones (in my case the left one) which is causing me quite a bit of pain. As far as cycling is concerned, I’m not sure what I can do about it. But first a bit of history and an explanation how I got to this point. I’m 70 years old and took up cycling 10 years ago when advised by a surgeon to quit or seriously cut down on my distance running due to a torn knee cartilage. I like to keep myself reasonably fit so bought a Cannondale Synapse Al 105. Had a bike fit a couple of months later and all seemed OK. As the length of ride increased I started suffering from numbness issues in the nether regions! Went back to where I had the bike fit but they weren’t very helpful at all and just kept telling me ‘Your bike fit is good so it’s probably a saddle issue mate.’ They did give me an old Fizik saddle I think just to get rid of me. That did improve the numbness a bit but didn’t cure it completely. So then over a period of time I trialled various saddles without much success. Eventually, went for saddle pressure mapping and saddle fitment at a local bike store. They recommended flipping the handlebar stem to raise the handlebars and, ultimately, my position. They also recommended and fitted a Specialized Bridge Comp Saddle (with MIMIC technology). This seemed to do the trick and was OK for a while. Then, about 3.5 – 4 years ago I started getting pain in my perineum area after riding for about 20 mins and in the same spot each time. This was when I discovered a hard bony lump on my sit bones. At the same time I upgraded my bike to a Synapse Carbon 3L. Went somewhere different and better this time for the new bike fit and again saddle pressure mapping. The saddle pressure mapping picked up the bony lump straight away. The recommendation was to flip the handlebar stem once more, thus lowering the handlebars and my position and taking the pressure of the arthritic lump. As far as the pain was concerned this worked, but the numbness issue eventually returned. A friend of mine offered me a loan of his Selle Italia SLR Boost Endurance Superflow saddle and that did the trick. So I purchased my own SLR Boost Superflow and everything has been good for about 2.5 yrs.
0 likes • 6d
To Gary and Dan, many thanks for your replies, comments and suggestions. I’ve been reading up a bit about these Osteophytes or bony lumps, and what I’ve learned is that they are a common side effect of aging, osteoarthritis and injury. They typically form on the edges of bones, especially around joints or on the spine, often as a result of aging and wear-and-tear and occur when your bones or the tissues around them are damaged and in need of repair. Before I started cycling, I certainly can’t remember ever injuring myself in that area during my life either from work or sporting activities. So perhaps this bony lump has occurred because of my age and cycling itself. The SLR Boost Superflow saddle certainly sorted out my numbness problem but maybe it’s been aggravating that area of my body because, as Dan suggests - you've just not quite landed on the perfect combination of saddle to position yet - resulting in the larger bony lump. Who knows! One thing I can say is that the saddle is still in pretty good condition. There is no obvious wear to the saddle material and no obvious deterioration in the density etc of the padding. As for any movement of the saddle, I do annual maintenance of the bike around Nov/Dec time and afterwards always check the position everything as per measurements on the Bike Fit diagrams I received. As for Bib Shorts, I’ve tried a few makes over time but have settled on the Assos Mille GT Bib Shorts. From the ones I’ve tried they are the only ones where the chamois seems to be in the correct place suitable for my needs. I’ve recently found out that on the Assos GTS and GTO versions of their shorts the chamois are thicker than the GTs. I think the GTO has a 24mm chamois. Perhaps I’ll try those next, but at £295 that’s pricey. Regards Pete J
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Peter Jones
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@peter-jones-7704
70 year old retired engineer. Took up cycling 10 years ago when advised to give up distance running because of a cartilage issue.

Active 6h ago
Joined Jan 17, 2026
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