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    guruguy
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    you and your saddle

    Dr. Gabe Mirkin's Fitness and Health E-Zine
    April 8, 2012

    Bicycle Seats and Numbness in Male and Female Cyclists

    Several studies have shown that male bicycle riders can
    become impotent from pressing their genitals against a bicycle
    seat. A study from Yale showed that compression from a bicycle
    seat can cause loss of feeling in a woman's genitals (J Sex Med
    2006;3:1018-1027). Now, a new study from Yale shows that the lower
    a woman sets her handlebars, the more she bends forward and the
    harder she presses her genitals against the bicycle seat to cause
    this loss of genital feeling (J Sex Med, published online March 5,
    2012).
    Women who suffer the most genital numbness set their
    handlebars below the height of their seats. Riders set their
    handlebars low to lower their bodies so they can go faster. More
    than 60 percent of the force you press on your pedals is lost by
    the air resistance against you and your bike. So, to go faster,
    you make yourself lower and narrower.
    Most bicycle seats have a round back portion to support
    your buttocks and a narrow nose in the front. While genital
    discomfort during long rides is very common among bicycle riders,
    it is uncommon in professional bicycle racers. Experienced
    bicycle racers know how to choose and adjust their seats to
    prevent discomfort when they ride. They usually:
    * set the nose level with, or slightly higher than, the back
    of the seat,
    * adjust the height of their seat post so that they never
    straighten their knees during pedaling, and
    * chose a seat with just enough padding to prevent discomfort and
    width to support their buttocks.
    Noseless bicycle seats cause little or no genital
    discomfort, but racers cannot use noseless seats because they need
    to press on the nose with their inner thighs to control the bike.
    A noseless seat also forces riders to increase pressure on the
    handlebars, increasing their susceptibility to hand numbness.

    SBRA is a member of bicyclelongisland.org.


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