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Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

bicycling.com

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Re: Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

#81

Post by luqtas »

jerlam wrote: post #71
luqtas wrote: post #23

i cycled thousands of kilometers on this: https://mantasaddle.co.uk/ and i used Brooks and other good stuff before, for thousands of kilometers... the former doesn't even compare! no need for cycling shorts (tho i never used shorts with the Brooks too) and maybe isn't the most aerodynamic saddle out there but who f* cares :P edit: and i use exclusively the MS5 version, which has less room to distribute pressure

I'm glad it works for you. The lack of a saddle nose would be a problem for many enthusiast cyclists. Obviously people aren't sitting on the nose, but it's used as another contact point to control the bike at high efforts, when people aren't really putting a lot of weight in the saddle at all.

it still has a nose you can use to control your bicycle... despite ~ 4/5 of my 50,000 kilometers (that i stopped counting after that) being on conventional saddles, it's just fine to control with it, be it fully loaded (2 or 4 panniers) for camping @ a mild winter or with no rack at all; & i would say my frame geometry is _twitchy_ ;)

Re: Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

#82

Post by klyrs »

incomingpain wrote: post #75
klyrs wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, I didn't downvote you for being trans; that wasn't obvious at all until you edited your comment (yet my question specifically allowed for that possibility). I downvoted you for being reductive and dismissive of the problem; and for suggesting a "solution" that the article clearly describes as a common and inadequate approach to the problem whose application results in injury requiring surgery.

>I downvoted you for being reductive and dismissive of the problem; and for suggesting a "solution" that the article clearly describes as a common and inadequate approach to the problem whose application results in injury requiring surgery. You should re-read the article. Your interpretation doesn't align with my takeaway from it, and I'm curious why that is. The article mirrored my advice. Their number one golden ru…

> I do think you downvoted for me being trans.

Feel free to assume whatever you will about my body, my identity, and my motivations. But you're wrong.

Re: Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

#83

Post by amunster »

altairprime wrote: post #72
amunster wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally: yes. Mimic saddles are more comfortable for both men and women than identical non-mimic models. Myself (male) included - it was a significant improvement. It’s a simple change, softer padding, something that recreational riders have used for decades. When I sold saddles at the bike shop I would say “women are more sensitive than men, surprising none of them”.

Men’s behavior is not representative of men’s physical sensitivity. Anecdotally, as a former guy, I can absolutely report that I ignored tingling and numbness in saddles because I just assumed I was supposed to put up with it, and ended up giving up cycling as a result. As a gal, until this article came out, I’d assumed that cycling was essentially hopeless from a comfort perspective (because if they couldn’t solve i…

Agreed. In my experience saddle discomfort was a problem for most people. The cultural expectation was to ignore it, which is silly. A known issue for far too long.

Re: Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

#84

Post by yareal »

lelanthran wrote: post #29
yareal wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not an excuse. Men can and should be capable of "oh shit, we should fix this bad experience women have!" Without needing to center men's experiences.

> That's not an excuse. Men can and should be capable of "oh shit, we should fix this bad experience women have!" Why? I never see any of the womens books, magazines and websites my wife visit ever go "Oh shit, we should fix this bad experience for men first" before discussing anything. Demographics discuss what they find relevant, usually. Why is this a problem for you?

You aren't paying attention to women's media if you think that's the case. Plenty of women's media discusses the difficulties in men's lives. And when they do, for instance talking about testicular cancer, they tend to stay away from, "ok but breast cancer is worse actually. "

We should all be comfortable lifting each other up, rather than focusing only on our own demographics. Otherwise those without power will suffer needlessly.

Re: Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

#85

Post by yareal »

incomingpain wrote: post #59
yareal wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an absurd statement. It's a) not a fucking competition and b) nearly impossible for you to know that and c) not going to be universal for all balls-havers and all labia-havers. Also, like, what is your comment even aiming to achieve? Are you hoping people will be like, "oh yes, I'm interested in learning how we could improve the lives of women but this insightful comment about balls made me really think about ho…

>What an absurd statement. It's a) not a fucking competition and b) nearly impossible for you to know that and c) not going to be universal for all balls-havers and all labia-havers. As a trans person, having both equipment, and being a long distance cyclist. I was just sharing my experience. But as usual the anti-trans people on HN have censored my comment. >Also, like, what is your comment even aiming to achieve? S…

Then I retract b) in this case. You are in the nearly impossible case - a woman who does know that, for them, the situation was worse as a balls-haver.

But it's hard to generalize, and the original comment did an extremely typical thing in men's spaces -- taking a woman's experience and immediately responding with "but men also!" Could be your comment simply coincidentally fit the pattern.

Also, extremely fuck that transphobe poster. They can eat shit.

Re: Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

#86

Post by loeg »

Aachen wrote: post #76
loeg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some bike shops run programs called saddle libraries that allow you to try many before buying.

Isn't it also like chairs, beds, pillows, glasses' frames, bras, mice, etc. though? You can often tell when it's terrible but not when it's going to still feel good after the first 8 hours of continuous use Edit: further down the thread someone ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40492169 ) mentions saddle trials as a potential option, so I guess that confirms it. A saddle library sounds like a good starting point…

I think these are just different terminology for the same thing. You take the saddle from the library for a week or whatever -- it's not just sitting on it once in a shop.

E.g. https://www.freerangecycles.com/faq-1#:~:text=small%20(but%2...

Re: Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

#87

Post by [deleted] »

jerlam wrote: post #74
kazinator wrote: post #61

The saddle shown in the "Anatomy of a Saddle" picture doesn't seem very good to me. One problem is that the sitting area has a convex profile. Your sit bones should be placed on horizontal surfaces, like this - -. This thing is more like / \. What that does is drive a wedge between the bones under the weight of the rider, which is bad for the pelvis.

Keep in mind that enthusiast cyclists are not sitting upright on their bicycles, like a chair. Their torsos are rotated 45 degrees or even more horizonally for aerodynamics. Their legs are constantly pedaling and pushing against the front of the saddle, so they look like they are convex even though the rider should not be sitting on that part of the saddle. Realistically, only the rear third of the saddle should bear…

[deleted]

Re: Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

#88

Post by lelanthran »

yareal wrote: post #84
lelanthran wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's not an excuse. Men can and should be capable of "oh shit, we should fix this bad experience women have!" Why? I never see any of the womens books, magazines and websites my wife visit ever go "Oh shit, we should fix this bad experience for men first" before discussing anything. Demographics discuss what they find relevant, usually. Why is this a problem for you?

You aren't paying attention to women's media if you think that's the case. Plenty of women's media discusses the difficulties in men's lives. And when they do, for instance talking about testicular cancer, they tend to stay away from, "ok but breast cancer is worse actually. " We should all be comfortable lifting each other up, rather than focusing only on our own demographics. Otherwise those without power will suff…

> You aren't paying attention to women's media if you think that's the case.

I am paying attention, and I just asked my wife, and she says she can't remember ever seeing that happen in any group of women, online or not.

You'll forgive me if I take the account of actual women I know over the account you are selling.

Re: Cycling's Silent Epidemic: Labial swelling and pain in women

#89

Post by kazinator »

klyrs wrote: post #64
kazinator wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Balls and shafts stick out more than labia, so in this situation, it's entirely fair to suspect that the remedies for male cycling problems are of (even more) benefit to women. You know, like split saddles that don't poke at the crotch region, but support the "sit bones". Which are unlike the garbage saddles that come most cheap, bicycle-shaped objects.

> Balls and shafts stick out more than labia Do you suppose that this first-order reasoning was not available to the riders, their doctors, and saddle designers? Would you be willing to consider that balls and shafts may stick out differently than labia; and how addressing those differences may be more fruitful than reducing a 3-dimensional problem to a one-dimensional consideration of "more vs less"?

Once the mindset sets in that we're gonna deliver an innovative product to the market, all sorts of first-order reasoning is cast aside.
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