Hello folks -
I have rather large thighs thanks to my days playing sports. I have been trying to find the perfect saddle for years now and keep striking out. I think I need ~150mm wide as I do have fairly wide sit bones. My two favorites are specialized roamin and power. However I am encountering issues with both. The Roamin rubs my thighs with its longer nose. The Power seems to hit the back of my thighs on the wings. Curious if any other larger thighed folks out there have found a solution for them?
You mean folks with no thigh gap? You can have tiny thighs need a wider saddle. You can have big thighs and a tiny saddle.
You’re probably looking for a small nose saddle as most saddles don’t go much narrower than the saddle rail width. Also, try lowering/raising the saddle position a bit and setting your cleats wider to keep your thighs from being pulled into the saddle. On Spec’s saddles, I need to run them a touch low to keep my thighs from rubbing at the bum-thigh intersection. Playing with the tilt to influence your fore/aft position on the saddle works too.
Give Prologo’s Dimension saddle a try when you inevitably break your Spec saddles…if they aren’t already creaking.
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The Phenom is kinda happy medium between the Romin and Power for me. Old bike I rode the power. Tarmac the Romin with mirror. My new gravel bike I tried the two without luck. Now I have the Phenom with mirror. All saddles are in 142 width.
If the Power saddle rubs your thigh on the wings you may want to reconsider the 150mm width. The method used by Specialized dealers of sitting on a foam pad and measuring the depressions is not necessarily the best way to determine sit bone width. Your actual riding position must be considered. If you ride sitting perfectly upright like on a chair then the Specialized method works fine but as a rider rotates forward the sit bone distance changes and gets narrower. The lower you get the narrower the measurement may be. Specialized saddles at their measured width per my sit bones using their method makes for a very uncomfortable saddle personally. I find I am much more comfortable on a narrower saddle. With respect to your original question,like yourself I have thighs that touch but have not ever found that nose width has any real effect. Rode many years on a Selle Italia SLR which is. Dry narrow in the nose but also rode happily on a Fizik Arione 00 which is fairly wide up front and currently using a Selle Repente Alena which is about as wide. I’m not sure if my reply helps at all but many factors come into play for saddle comfort. Best of luck.
I’ve tried multiple saddles over the years and have gone to the saddle shop to do the pressure point measuring with several saddles from Fizik like to Specialized tried and it turned out that what i came with installed on the bike was the best setup for me. It’s a Bontrager Montrose 148mm wide. I currently have the Comp version that I got 2nd hand as they are discontinued but had their pro version before and it was the same fit at a lower weight.