I’m 6’4” and have fairly wide sit bones and have found the 612 and 611 very comfortable (as comfortable as a bike seat goes anyway) I definitely recommend ,ensuring your sit bones as per their advice whichever saddle you wanted to try though. Also take a look at which ones best match your riding position. Some are designed for a more upright position than others.
Not sure that helps much. Took me a long time to find a saddle that was wide enough as not many manufacturers make wide saddles. I have a lot of saddles that have only been used a few times sitting in a bin in storage (:
I’ve done LOTS and LOTS of endurance rides in my life I have gone through the same issues early on.
Unless there are issues with your bike fit, I am fairly certain that this is just a matter of you getting used to time and the distance spent on the bike. Just keep on adding a bit more time whenever you do your long ride and your body will adapt to it.
A bike locked down in a trainer is a notable difference. Nothing natural about that, and in feel it leads to many of the saddle discomfort issues we see.
The majority of members to my rocker group are seeking and finding relief with them. It’s a step in the right direction to add motion where it is needed, IMHO.
I was thinking about this yesterday, I don’t think it’s really quantifiable but I wonder what degree of the benefit a lot of people perceive (from a rocker) is due to it accommodating movement beyond very minor rocking.
That is movement beyond that which would be considered normal or acceptable on the saddle without crossing that line in to a wild rodeo. Discomfort which is probably or possibly masked out on the road with other undulations and shifts in pressure.
One thing I have noticed though is that pressure on the hands is alleviated with my rocker. I’ve had very mild palsy in the past. Could well have been a subscious effort to spread pressure. Have other users noted relief on the hands too?
Good question. The wide range of styles we see in the DIY rockers leads to varying degrees of movement and related forces. I suspect something around 1-3 degrees lean per side is good for normal, seated rocking.
I plan to do some testing at my shop using our saddle pressure mapper, to compare rigid and variable rocker movement. Based on comments I’ve heard from manufacturer testing, I expect to see notable differences.
I run my rocker with about the lightest centering forces I have seen from anyone. I also suspect my typical movement may be greater than many others. Overall, I think just about any movement added will be beneficial from a comfort perspective.
The subtle shift in loading on the hard and soft tissue is what I suspect matters most. I do think this can manifest in improved hand comfort as well. Some is purely from the fact that I tend to stand and change hand position to different parts of the bars. The rest is from the shift in the bar position that accompanies the movement of the bike and saddle.
It all goes back to my principle motto that a rigid bike is just not natural. We end up changing position on the bike for turns, lane changes, rotating through a group and all the other times we alter our position on the road. Each one of those minor shifts helps share the loading on our body.
It’s also the reason I see a rocker as being a better choice if you compare them to the Wahoo Climb. The Climb is great and I enjoy mine, but the frequency of use for it compared to the nearly constant movement of my rocker is not even close. It’s probably more than 10:1 or even 25:1 for rocker to climb movement when you look at even the most variable roads in Zwift for instance.
I think it’s hard to see how much the bike moves when you’re actually sat on it so I filmed my bars/top tube yesterday. Woeful quality from the front facing camera on my iPhone SE (really shocking!) but good enough for the purpose of this.
Quite minor but any more movement from the rocker juft felt unnecessary and that I was ‘balancing’ rather than just riding, if that makes sense.
I can replicate the movement shown above when sat upright (without holding the bars) with hands on the hoods but it involves rocking heavily purposefully.
Awesome video. That shows good movement similar to the one I shot. You can see the movement best in the bottom right shot, by watching the deck angle and movement. It varies all the time, even when seated and similar to your upright with no hands (after the sprint).
The naysayers used to say their bikes didn’t move that much. I suspect if I followed them with a camera, they would be quite surprised at how much their bike actually moves. I have shot some phone camera vids of various riders (including a national level pro) without their knowledge. The actual movement shown even when rolling “straight” is eye opening.
I’m happy to see the overall great reception to rockers this season. A year ago, we had many more people questioning and second guessing my attempt to share these. I think the growth and exposure over the last year has been enlightening to many.
I meant to comment on this. I agree and understand what you are saying. But I think that is one of the keys to getting the “riding” of a rocker, especially standing, to feel more like outside.
When we ride outside, there is not a ton of leveling force outside. It’s the subtle forces present from frame geometry in forward motion. That requires us to spend some effort (and minor focus after practice) to keep the bike upright. I am very close to that feeling because my leveling force is quite low. Riding my rocker is close to the attention and balance of riding motion rollers.
It is only slightly easier in the sense that I still have to maintain a centered position over the bike and actively “balance” the bike with input through the handlebars, saddle and pedals. I find it more engaging, and fun, and also makes the standing efforts much more like being outside. I seem to be in the minority and far to the outside of the bell curve.
My real goal is to match the outside experience (or at least offer the option for those inclined) via a refined rocker design. I am about to build some new designs to see if I am pointed in the right direction. Time will tell