I have a KH seat and the chaffing is almost unbearable after about an half hour of riding and hopping. Then when Im done I walk away with a big rash on my inner thighs. What things do you do to get rid of the chaffing some seats do to your inner thighs when jumping? Or is it just me? Should I get compression/bike shorts to wear under pants?
What can I do?
-Lee
Chaffing? man its probably you just you I don think that has ever happened to anyone. Haha just kidding. I think every singe unicyclist i have ever talked to has chaffed before. I ware compression shorts and those work well and they were only 15 bucks and i think bike shorts are kind of pricey but if you can afford them then go for it. Also if you ware boxers you can double up on those, i heard that works.
Hope this helps
Brian
Saddle rash… Ouch. Yeah, I’ve come across this a lot lately because of the winter weather. Try butt’er or another kind of shamy cream and bike shorts. works well. Also lots of lotion.
That’s butt’er, not real butter… that might work actually…
Don’t worry if you’re only getting rubbing when you’re hopping. In my experience the best solution is to go out and ride while you still have the rash/rugburn on your thighs. It’ll hurt like hell when the seat makes contact; but that’s the point. It doesn’t take much pain before your brain decides to change habits change so you aren’t making nearly as much contact as before.
After a while you don’t even notice the leg pain, it usually takes a good 3 hours of riding before I even feel the slightest bit sore anymore. Just bite your lip and think of something else.
Cornstarch between your legs and over your no-no’s are a good thing, it prevents rubbing but is messy and you practically bake a cake in your pants if you get wet…
So either suck it up, or put cornstarch on your package and hope you dont have sweat cookies by the end of the day…
I too have a KH, and know what you’re talking about. What bothers me the most is the front part of the seat that goes back a little bit when I stand up to hop. I’ve learned to just hold the handle (and therefore seat) just enough forward that the major concave of the seat is right between my legs, and it doesn’t chaffe there.
Dave
Edit: I always wear loose jeans and boxers, which don’t seem to effect chaffage.
What i did when i had this problem was to take duct tape and just wrap it around it so that you sit on something nice and smooth it helps a whole lot…
POW
after my Sunday Muni ride last week I had terrible chafed thighs…But this week, despite being in the saddle longer there’s barely any chafing. To prevent a lot of the redness make sure you’re clean in the trouser department before you go out riding else you’ll get what’s basically nappy rash. That and good cycling shorts’ll help (make sure you don’t get ones with a seam running up the middles of the pad…they’re not pleasant).
Kit
There’s a huge difference between jeans and bike shorts. I wear bike shorts, either just the regular kind, or the mountain bike kind with the lycra on the inside and something more “street” looking on the outside.
Hopping can lead to chaffing as well, especially if you’re squeezing the seat too much with your legs. Try to relax while hopping, or at least not use the legs so much. You might actually get better performance if you get all that friction out of there. Use the handle.
I find the best thing to do about chafing is to do nothing.
Once the chafing you’ve got heals, your skin will be harder there and not get chafed next time. Just keep on riding.
I find if I only do short rides for a bit, the first long ride I get a bit of chafing, but then it’s fine after that.
I rode 86.6 miles yesterday in combats, with a normal KH seat and I’m fine (except my legs are aching a bit).
Bike shorts, butt’r etc. all help a bit too, but aren’t 100% necessary unless you’re doing a ride that’s way longer than you’re used to. Pretty much anything is better than jeans though, if you’ve got some trousers that aren’t made out of denim, they’ll be better for riding.
Joe
I’m glad I haven’t eaten lunch yet… ewwww! dry heaves
I wear board shorts over padded bike shorts and can ride for hours without chafing. Skip the undies, they can remove skin from nasty places.
Also make sure you relax on the saddle as much as you can while riding. If you’re using your inner thighs too much you could be rubbing them against the seat.
You could try putting the seat up higher. Once upon a time I put the seat down low with the theory that I could hop higher- so I did lots of hopping and found that I got chaffed worse than normal. When the seat is down low it seems that it rubs more on parts which aren’t usually rubbed. With the seat up a bit higher it doesn’t rub as much and you can still hop OK. I’m not great at hopping so I could be wrong. The main way to stop chaffing I reckon is to keep riding when it heals and build up your resistant patches- and to wear trousers or shorts that have the smallest seams possible -jeans are one of the worst due to fat seams.