Do You Really Need A Bicycle Seat Cover?

Take heart! If there’s one thing that’s universal in the bicycling world, it’s the ongoing struggle with bicycle seat comfort. I suppose you’re in that boat, or you wouldn’t be on this page.

Seat or Saddle? Sitting or Riding?

You sit on a seat and you ride on a saddle. That’s how it is with Lazy Boy Recliners and that’s how it is with race horses.

But what’s that have to do with your aching bicycle butt?

Well, if you’re riding ‘casual style’, you’re sitting upright with just about all of your weight on the seat while you move your legs under you. If you’re riding aggressively, much of your weight is on the pedals and you’ve unweighted yourself from the saddle. Which of the two do you think would benefit most from the extra padding provided from a bicycle seat cover?

Right!

The upright rider.

Hold Your Horses, What About Cycling Shorts?

Bike shorts have been around for a very long time, and they may the solution to your ‘hard seat’ problem.

It occurred to me a couple of years ago, after marveling at a young bike rider’s hard carbon fiber saddle (literally zero padding) and wondering how he could ride astride such a miserable device, that we have a good amount of padding in our bike shorts. The young cycling zealot wasn’t sitting ’sit bones to hard carbon fiber’ after all.

And so it is with you, if you aren’t wearing cycling shorts. You may be seeking a bicycle seat cover for the padding, when there is padding to be had in cycling shorts.

But they’re so REVEALING!

How about a pair of baggy mountain bike shorts?

If you’ve got a good amount of extra baggage around your midsection, we’ll be just as happy as you are if you’d forfeit the stretchy bike shorts in favor of a less revealing pair of baggy mountain bike shorts. They still have the cushioned chamois pad inside.

But If None Of That Works For You…

You may already know all of that (I’m surprised you’re still reading, if that’s the case) but still want to dive into the murky waters of bicycle seat covers.

But what if it leads you down a spiraling vortex until you find yourself face to face with the limousine of bike seat covers? Providing over a square foot (12″ x 14″) of 1.5″ gel cushion, these seat covers have been mistaken for floating life preservers.

But who am I to mock something that gets you onto your bike?

It’s a rhetorical question. Please don’t answer if you’re in a public venue.

And Now I Have To Get Philosophical

Why do the greatest of gluteal masses need the softest of cycling cushions? In the vernacular- Why do the biggest butts need the softest seats?

That’s why the ‘comments’ section is open to all of you ‘butt-cheek philosophers’.