welcome back to a brand new episode and series of bug fit tuesdays we're going
to be filming quite a few videos today first on the agenda short nose saddles like this
short nose saddles have become increasingly popular over the last few years today we're
going to discuss why who are they really for and should you be riding one on your bike
so a few years ago i think it was probably specialized with the first of the table with
the power there was a bit of a radical shift in saddle design and it was basically cutting off
the concept was to cut off the first few centimeters of a part of the saddle
that really shouldn't really be used shouldn't be sat on and it resulted in
this the the main philosophy behind it is it it enables you to get the seating area of the saddle
comparatively much further forward uh while still conforming to the uci's
five centimeter rule that rule is basically that the nose of the saddle cannot be any it has to be
at least five centimeters behind uh the center of the bottom bracket uh it's basically a means
of restricting and limiting how aerodynamic a position you can get thank you uci ultimately
the main goal was get seat further forward open the hips up and uh allow a slightly more aero
dynamic position which for some people works for a lot of consumers creates a lot of problems but
that's what we're going to explore today so i think it's fair to say that consumers don't
need to follow the uci rulings but a lot of people still get good results from these saddles you see
a lot of them on women's bikes specialized powers i've seen i've seen those all over the place why
are people getting good results from them and why do you think they're using them in the first place
short note sales they tend to have quite large pressure relief channels i think the first it's
important to understand that or or consider that uh if you're having saddle issues it's
probably not because of the saddle that you're riding depends on the saddle but for the most
part most saddle issues as a result bad positions the reason that most people are likely to get good
results for the satellite this is that it does have a very large pressure relief channel now
what that means is a lot of saddle issues tend to be as a result of genital soft tissue discomfort
and generally most saddle issues tend to come about as a result of an asymmetric interaction
with the saddle oh you're right listing to one side now the bigger the pressure relief channel
the more likelihood you have of actually hitting that pressure relief channel whereas you take a
conventional saddle like this pro griffin which is one of my favorites uh you're less likely to
hit that pressure relief channel than you are this one which is almost double the size which so to be
honest the the reality is i don't know because i haven't seen absolutely everyone i'm not a messiah
but there's a monty python joke there isn't there for the more senior viewers my general
feeling and attitude is that yes they have a larger press relief channel thus there's a higher
likelihood of you actually hitting that pressure relief channel with your soft tissue i don't think
it's got anything to do with the with the lack of nose because the reality is that the the seating
area is pretty much the same does that mean you can recommend these for people or what are the
results that you've been getting when you've tried them on people in bike fits i'm finding that there
are actually more negatives to this philosophy and design of saddle than there are positives
uh mostly on the grounds there were two things actually and it it depends on on the saddle but
if we sorry specialize to point you out but uh one of the one of the main concerns i've had
uh historically is the flare angle and the the overall width of the thing and to be honest with
you they are seemingly getting better but one of the problems with an excessive saddle width
is that it quite often results in you clipping the wings of it and what that means is the rider ends
up actually gravitating to the nose which doesn't exist in the first place so actually it ends up
being quite problematic so as a result you end up with saddle issues but you also end up potentially
with neck and shoulder issues as well so my point is that by trying to clear the width of the saddle
most people tend to sit slightly further forward um onto the nose of a noseless saddle that's one
problem the other problem is really about how it's about their intended application and if we kind of
go back to that uci ruling about having to have the saddle at least five centimetres further back
now for for a professional racing cyclist i must it's rate that that probably works
quite well let's think about how a professional racing cyclist is built they've got virtually
no upper body mass what that means is that they don't really have to sustain that upper body mass
now and we have to have a brief talk about uh what saddle for aft or the horizontal positioning of
the saddle actually influences it influences a number of different elements influences
uh hip mobility and hip function it also influences most in my opinion one of the most
important elements of it is it influences weight distribution the further back you
have the saddle the more you load through the pelvis the further forward you have the saddle
the yes the more it opens up the hips but more it throws the weight into the front of the bicycle
now if you think about what i was saying about uh how a professional cyclist is built all of their
weight is below the waist if they've got virtually no upper body mass they haven't got shoulders they
haven't got arms they want torsos they've just got legs yeah you then transfer that philosophy
of pushing the saddle really far forward and apply it to a man in his 50s who sits at a desk all day
and carrying a few extra pounds it don't work because all they end up with is a hell of a lot
of weight and pressure on the front of the bicycle and not only are there discomfort issues with that
or you end up with numb hands neck and shoulder issues and inability to look ahead there are also
handling ramifications you do not want lots of weight on pressure on the front of the bicycle
because what it's going to do is create lots and lots of oversteer the analogy i often use is
and some viewers might remember doing this as a kid is when you've got your mate on the front of
your bicycle when you're riding a bike uh if you think about how it used to ride you make
a very small adjustment to the handling and the whole thing with dive and the same can be said
for having too much weight on the front of the bicycle so this is and this is one of the findings
we've had from you know from using jigs and and experimenting with positions so saddle setback
and we have physiotherapists to thank for this historically and racing has always been
the concept has always been to push as far forward as possibly can to open up the hips
the problem being there are lots of other ways of opening our hips increase the stars reduce the
crank length reduce the reach all of these kind of things uh but ultimately going back to the short
nose saddle thing it really is about getting that saddle legally as far forward as you possibly can
and i think you should be asking yourself well are you racing no well in that case leave it at home
try a conventional saddle i think that uh i mean the most popular sabbath we sell is a traditional
shape uh with a pressure relief channel cut out and i love it what about it i've been riding
one of these this is a boost by italian is it a short nose saddle it's kind of halfway in between
so that's what we're going to start seeing is like the evolution of the short nose saddle
very very short kind of short and then before we know we'll be right back where we started
unless you have to abide by uci rules how do you define a short note saddle at the end of
the day obviously it's short nosed but this is a pro griffin and and that italian boost that you
were talking about i think there's a 10 millimeter difference this is i would i mean i would call the
the griffin a traditional or conventional saddle shape and design uh whereas the boost
i i think it's probably marketed as a as a as a short note saddle we found didn't we this is 10
mil longer than the power is so the power is 20 mil shorter than than most saddles uh actually
the ndr is pretty similar as well from pro logo uh and you know i have i have varying
results with these saddles uh but my general take away is that they is usually negative um almost
almost always in fact uh but that doesn't mean to say that they don't work for anyone you know
it works they work for some people this is the thing that you you can't generalize in in bike
fitting everybody's different all humans are different i'd never say never uh at the end of
the day so that concludes today's episode of bike fit tuesdays if you're tempted to try out a short
no saddle know why you're doing it don't try to use it to medicate for an already existing problem
with your position but also don't be afraid to experiment as always please like comment subscribe
leave a question down below for james and he'll do his best to answer them also check the link
down below to james's shop if you wanted to book a bike fit with him he's based in london
and he really knows what he's doing what are you doing he's spinning around on a chair