Continual Vigilance

The greatest source of discomfort for cyclists is the nose of their bike seat pressing on nerves and soft tissues. For men, this pain brings the additional worry of impotence. Impotence is caused by nerve and artery damage. Exercising regularly helps to keep arteries healthy, so bicycling helps prevent impotence, as long as it does not damage the local arteries and nerves.

Recent studies show that three percent of regular male bicycle riders become impotent, and virtually all of them felt pain or numbness before the problem occurred. When a nerve is pinched or the blood supply is shut off to the penis, a man feels numb. Men who ride with conventional bicycle seats and do not feel numb are not likely to be at risk. If you feel no discomfort when you ride, keep on riding and stop worrying. If you feel numbness, get a new seat.

Half of the penis is inside the body and the main blood supply comes from the area just behind the scrotum and in front of the rectum. So bicycle seats that press on that area can cause impotence, while those that do not have a nose and have a widened area to hold your weight on your sitz bones should prevent the problem. Some entrepreneurs developed seats that have holes in the middle. Their theory is that if there is no pressure behind the scrotum, there will be no numbness. However, no good studies show that these seats prevent numbness and therefore prevent impotence, because the nose in front of the hole still exerts pressure on the nerves and arteries. They may make the problem worse because the pressure on an area increases as an area deceases. Making a hole in the middle decreases the surface area of the saddle and therefore increases the pressure on the arteries and nerves.

The best way to avoid pressure on the arteries that carry blood to the penis is to use a saddle without any nose. I use a rectangular-shaped seat with rounded edges in the front, called The Seat by Ergo. Similar designs are available from The Solution Bicycle Seat, Easyseat, Spongywonder and Spiderflex brands. The Seat is wide enough to allow me to put my weight on the sitz bones of my pelvis instead of my crotch. I never suffer numbness and don’t worry about impotence, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Racers need to have a bicycle seat nose between their legs to help control the bicycle with their legs, but if you have no need to ride with both hands off the handle bars at the same time, you should be able to use a nose-less seat. Nose-less seats force you to bend forward. To keep yourself from falling, you have to hold yourself up on your handlebars. This puts a lot of pressure on your shoulders arms and hands, so you must strengthen your upper body and change positions often.

Other tips for comfort in a bicycle seat include:

1) Avoid seats with excessive padding. The greater the padding, the deeper you sink into the saddle and the more likely you are to feel numbness.

2) Use gel saddles. They are not too hard and not too soft.

3) Never tilt the saddle nose upward. The seat should be level or angle downward slightly.

4) Set your handlebars higher so that you do not have to bend forward. The lower you bend, the greater the pressure on your perineum.

5) Ride a more upright position. However, this increases wind resistance and will slow you down.

6) Change positions often as you ride.

7) Wear thin padding in your pants. Most good bicycle pants come with form-fitted chamois padding.

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Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

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Most of us got one when we were kids. Five years old seems about the age when kids are ready for their first ride. Getting your first bike is really a time of excitement. Most kids probably had training wheels on their first bike, these were used to keep the bike from falling down, while the kid was still on it. That was the trick with the bicycle, before you could learn to ride, you had to learn how to not fall off the seat. Once you learned how to ride, having your bike became a very liberating experience. It was probably your first taste of independence; you could just get on your bike and ride without needing help.

The bicycle has to be listed as one of the greatest inventions ever. No single person has been given credit for that, but some of the earliest forms of bikes date back to the early 1800s. Karl Drais invented something called the dandy-horse in 1817. His creation didn’t have any pedals, so you had to push it with your feet. In the 1860s, Frenchmen Michaux and Lallement created the pedal. This new version of the bike with pedals was called the boneshaker. James Starley improved on the boneshaker and in 1885, he released his version of the bicycle, it was called the rover. The rover was considered the first modern type bicycle.

Bicycles have gradually evolved into a great form of transportation. They were very popular, but times change. The car became more affordable and people were choosing a car ride over a bike ride. Bicycle sales started to go down. By the 1940s, the bicycle, which started out as an adult form of transportation, was now being viewed as a toy for kids. The bicycle fell on hard times until the 1960s when people had a renewed interest in their health and in the environment. Bicycle sales in the US really went up after the oil crisis in 1973. In the years to follow, we began to see more innovations with the bike; these included higher performing bikes and gears that went from 3 up to 18 speeds.

The bicycle has not only survived, but it has done as great job of adapting through time. It started out as being primarily for adult use and then it was reduced to a toy for kids and today the bike has the best of all worlds. Kids still love getting their first bikes. Bicycles are still used as a mode of transportation, especially on college campuses. And adults realize that riding a bike is a good way to stay in shape. Plus, sport has created a whole new use for bicycles. There is something called extreme sports where some of the competition requires using a bicycle to do airborne tricks. This sport alone, has created massive exposure and added sales for the bicycle industry.

The bicycle has created its own niche in the world and has been able to fit into so many different cultures. Unlike a lot of past inventions, the bicycle is just as vital today as it was when it was created.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Bicycles