After 10k miles I have gone through 4 seats on my (mostly indoor wahoo trainer) cx bike. I weigh about 160lbs. 2 have broken seat rails and the others stop supporting my sit bones near the 1 hour mark and I end up riding on the taint. So that is giving me about 2,500 miles per seat. anyone else have seat data?
I like my Ritchie Pro that came on 2 of my bikes and a Specialized seat for shorter rides (a little too much cushion).
Thanks!
I just use the same saddle I use outside. I’ve been riding for 30 years and I don’t think I’ve ever broken a saddle (and I weigh a lot more than you). Do you know what you’re doing when they break? Have you broken multiple models or is it always the same exact saddle model?
Something doesn’t sound right. Carbon rails ? Round or oval rails? Could the seat mount be overtorqued onto the rails?
This seat is currently failing, if i ride for 3 hours by the 1 hour mark i can feel the pressure is no longer concentrated on my sit bones and spreading to my taint. By 1.5 hours my taint starts to feel a little tingling by 2.5 hours its starting to go numb so i start spending a lot of time out of the saddle. By the third hour im done. A few weeks ago half way through the ride i did a quick change and swapped saddle and seat post and things felt great, for another hour. But that seat is old also.
The seat pictured has never been off that particular bike and it has over 5k miles and rarely gets used on the trainer (but the cx bike needs new BB bearings).
A San Marco seat that was on the CX bike that broke the rails. I have pictures but have to spend a massive amounts of time digging through Strava because the only let you view the most recent 100 photos without opening each activity looking for a particular photo. 
photo of said San Marco when it was new.
found it… i could easily squeeze the wings together with one hand, iirc it had broken a rail. shame cuz i liked that seat.
I’ve broken exactly one saddle in all my time cycling. And it was a carbon base, carbon rail saddle and it broke on a CX flying remount under my 190 pound weight. Not sure how you’ve managed to break multiple riding indoors. Bad luck or cheap saddles?
The pain/numbness problem sounds initially like a core strength issue. After an hour or more, you’re losing the strength to maintain a good riding position and start changing your position slightly by shifting your weight. Or maybe your fit is off and the indoor trainer is highlighting it where you wouldn’t otherwise notice it outdoors. Either way, 4 saddles in 10,000 miles sounds like way too often.
“the pain/numbness problem sounds initially like a core strength issue / or a fit issue.”
thats what I thought too until I did this ride and swapped seats after two climbs up the Alpe on the 3rd ride up it felt like magic then at the top no matter how I positioned my self on the saddle I felt the same issue arising. the swap was with an older seat from my Pivot mountain bike either way I left it on for the next week and same thing. after 1.5 hours no matter how I position myself on the seat I no longer feel pressure on my sit bones.
Distance
Moving Time
I’d say this actually supports the claim of your riding position. You did 2 rides up, and noticed the problem, swapped your saddle, giving your body a break from holding position and a little rest while you swapped, then it felt great for a bit before getting bad again. For me, even a 10 second stand out of the saddle is enough of a break to ease the discomfort of riding indoors. I stand for 10 seconds and then I can settle in again on the saddle and feel better. I’m not saying the saddle isn’t an issue, because it sounds like you may benefit from a new saddle of a different shape, but it does sound like it’s not the whole issue.
Again, points to fatigue. New saddle and same problem after riding for some time.
there was a 10 minute break each time down the alpe. had I continued to ride the same seat I never would have made it up the 3rd time! I know this because the second time up as soon as I sat down I was thinking holy shit, this sucks. by the time I made it up the second time it was very painfull. the third time however with the new seat was like I said, magic.
Poor fit on an indoor setup will exacerbate material wear. Hip rocking, side to side movement, unloading and loading of peices of equipment that are meant to be used outside instead of fixed to a peice of equipment that is rigid is my guess.
Presuming you took your pics with your phone, if you use iOS or macOS, you can search for bike or bicycle in Photos and it’ll show you most of your pics of your bike—or any bike.
Other operating systems and apps may also have this feature.
Gilles Berthoud Aspin on titanium rails is currently up to 144,000 miles.
