Have always been vaguely aware I'm a bit asymettrical on saddle, had a bike fit years ago and pressure mapping showed right sitbone 15mm further back than left.
It has never been a massive issue but recently it has started to dominate my rides e.g. I spend most of time scooting about just trying to find the right pisition, as if I've completely forgotten how to sit on a saddle!
Suspect bike fit plus mucho physio will sort it but just curious what other people's experience is?
Ta
I have assymetric sitbones, malformed hips as a kid, but for me it means one is a bit lower than the other. So sat on a saddle I'm (made up numbers) taking 80% of the weight on one side and 20% on the other. Over the years that has resulted in an internal scar tissuey cyst thing that the docs don't want to remove because the scar and damage probably won't improve it and might get infected, etc. given where it is.
I looked at a huge number of saddles trying to find one that didn't irritate and no joy. They I saw a tour pro's saddle, where to alleviate a saddle sore he'd just taken a knife to the spot where the sore was sitting. Now all my saddles sport a hacked out hole in the covering and padding that my arse cyst sits in. It's not perfect but way better than feeling like I've got half a cherry under one buttock.
I get asked about it quite frequently and people tend to recoil and back away when I offer to explain and show them......
My guess - you have a muscle imbalance pulling your pelvis squint not that its built squint.
Physio would be my suggestion
Pretty sure we're all a bit wonky.
I'm lower, tighter, shorter on the left than the right, throughout my whole body really. It causes various aches and pains when riding beyond 3 or 4 hours.
A bike fitter once suggesting pointing my saddle very slightly off to the right which seems to work pretty well.
All my saddles gradually end up turned slightly to the left. I'm not sure if this is due to how I dismount or how my sit bones are. When I straighten them they don't feel right. I guess this is probably another reason to go and get a proper bike fit.
At a guess, physio and a lot of stretching will help reduce that distance. (Guess is absolutely what it is though - not medically trained and no intention to ever be!)
Pretty sure we’re all a bit wonky.
Probably, I have no obvious problems but if I am in the saddle for 5+ hours it's my right side core/back that gets tight and painful and starts pulling on the rest of me long before the left.
Pretty sure we’re all a bit wonky.
Yep, so I've been told! Think it's just if you let the wonkiness get out of hand that trouble starts.
Just shifting around on office chair I can feel what it is that is maybe required, shifting pelvis so I'm not sitting on the bit which is already sore from saddle seems to require more engagement from right side of core/right glute(s) and right hamstring. This maybe explains why I'm least uncomfortable when I'm in a tuck giving it beans along flat bits, perhaps this engages the glutes and hams more than when upright and spinning.
Would like to try and stretch out right hip flexor also but have been advised by a physio I trust that the hip flexors can only tolerate limited stretching (and that mine weren't especially short anyway) so I think it's all about strengthening the opposing muscles.
Twisting the saddle seemed to work initially, but twisting it to accommodate the sore sit bone would then put the nose in the way of the thigh on the same side! I've not recently experimented with my old Specialized Power saddle (very thin nose compared to even other stub-nosed saddles) or my Selle Italia Flite Boost, which has a relatively narrow nose but more thigh clearance on average than other saddles.
The good bike is going on the turbo now for the winter so I can stick a cheap seatpost in and start going forensic with the saddles whilst I wait for the physio to kick in!
I was wonky - feet pointed at five to three. Then I went to an osteopath aged about 27. After the biggest crunch I have ever heard and a few spasms, I'm now symmetric at ten to two. Small leg length differences are common, but as per TJ, I wonder if it's a similar asymmetry to mine.
I have the fear of big crunches!
Feet pointing is a curious one, I used to be relatively equally duck footed (perhaps not 10 and 2, more 5 to 1, but whatever has changed over the last year or so has seen me almost reverse that, if anything I find occasionally my heel wants to drift outwards on the left foot to the point where it will sometimes unclip!
I bet it's all related, I should be writing all these little idiosyncrasies down...
When Marco Pantani was younger his coach / soigneur was absolutely convinced he had one leg shorter than the other so he rode with a built up cleat in one shoe, turns out one leg wasn't shorter than the other his pelvis / hips were misaligned and it was soon put right with physio.
But we all know bike fits are never wrong 😉
If I get any discomfort it's definitely on the left side.
I used to ride road with the saddle to one side, I though it was better but then I realised it was an old saddle and it had slightly collapsed and was itself twisted so moving the nose was evening out the collapsed bits. Glad I got a new one!
Would like to try and stretch out right hip flexor
I tried several hip flexor stretches with limited success, but what really works for me now is going for a walk with really big strides, so that I have to dip slightly in the middle of each one. Reeeally frees up my hips, feels satisfying rather than painful like a good stretch should, and you end up moving fast and getting good exercise. And it's really helped my running.
Always have my saddle slightly to the left, otherwise my knee brushes the top-tube. Cycle fit sessions, and physio sorted other issues, but never pulled up anything realated to banging my left knee.
I sat slightly squint for decades until I had a really good sports massage, one of the deep muscles in my arse area was super tight, one treatment and my saddles have been straight ever since 🙂
Ha, as if by magic- fully adjustable saddle!
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/reviews/bisaddle-ext-stealth-review
I don't think I need one of these quite yet though...
I’m pretty much the same as molgrips but on the left. Hips slightly out due to a broken then fused coccyx at 24, shoulders out of line due to a shattered and rebuilt right shoulder in 2010. I twist slightly to the right as a result, so my body spends its time pulling me left and down from the back. My neck suffers the most.
I have good times and bad times punctuated with regular opposing stretches of my Hamstrings, Traps and Rhomboids these days. After the current bout of 12 and 6hr races I’ve just had 4 weeks of dry needling which now reverts back to monthly “maintenance” sessions.
