Arthritic Bone Growth on Sit Bones · The Bike Fit Academy

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.

But now the pain from my arthritic bony lump has retuned! The arthritis I clearly suffer from in some areas has kicked in and the lump has increased in size. I can ride for about an hour or so indoors with the bike on a trainer and for about 2 hours outdoors on the roads and then the pain becomes really uncomfortable. Perhaps, at my age, I should just be happy with that but I’ve really enjoyed the cycling and want to do long rides.

Being honest, I don’t know what to do now. Any doctor I’ve talked to has simply told me to give up cycling but I’m not ready to do that. I’ve even thought of surgery but that would have to be a last resort and on a private basis, there is no chance of getting it done on the NHS they simply don’t want to know.

So any help and advice anyone can give would be much appreciated.

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