Actually, it's two problems related in that they both have to do with
how the seat contacts my body in ... uh... "uncomfortable" ways.
I've got the "Anyone Can Ride A Unicycle" from Miyata (1984), and it
mentions that "women seem to enjoy a distinct biological advantage" WRT
unicycles, because they are free from "supererogatory excrescencies"
(whatever that is -- I can imagine), but then only mentions that a bathing
suit can be useful before abanding this most-pressing subject to warn
the reader to use shoes when riding (!).
Well, at least with me, neither a bathing suit nor shoes help relive this,
uh, *pressing* problem I have when riding. I'd like to improve my skill,
but no matter what I do I go down in *crushing* defeat. It's to the point
that I feel my hopes of becoming proficient are *squashed*.
I have no problems riding a bycicle, but after being a unicyclist on and
off for about a year, I find if very difficult to understand how a >man<
can ride w/o a certain "manly pain". And even when this pain isn't an issue,
I still have pain that would beset a woman rider as well.
*Every* mount is followed by a few minutes of shifting and re-adjusting
and standing on the pedals more than I should and tense worry about an
unexpected bump in the road before I either 1) fall or 2) find a
comfortable un-crushing compromise between the seat and my more un-womanly
body parts. When I find that happy medium, I then feel confident to try
new skills and such. But even then, it isn't long before the seat hurts,
because the bones of my pelvis are almost in direct contact with the seat,
and the skin/muscle in between becomes sore and tender. I'd expect a rider
of any gender to have this problem....
I've talked to a unicycling friend, Jack Halpern, about this. He wrote the
Miyata guide I mentioned, so I'd think he'd know something about this. He
tells me that "you get used to riding" and that it's not a problem for
anyone he knows. Well, I've been riding about a year, and I *definately*
have not goten used to it. He says it's not a problem for him, and since
I've met his kids I know he's got the, uh, same type of biology as I have,
so I have no clue why I should be having such >extream< problems. I guess
he thinks it's all in my head (so to speak), so he suggested I write to
this mailing list.
I'm new to the mailing list and don't know the population here, but I
hope I can speak frankly. I've tried everything from wearing baggy sweats
with no underwear to very controlling briefs with jeans, and the problem
is generally the same. On one front, I find that sometimes (not all the
time), there is inTENSE and IMMEDIATE pain from skin or hair "caught" and
pulled during the action of settling down in the seat. Standing (VERY
quickly) and readjusting usually solves this problem right away.
But the real problem is that on another front there is the gender-related
issue. Among the gender-specific items that might contact the seat, I've
only the problem with the testicles. Despite my joking attitude above, the
problem really isn't one of "crushing", but of how things become adjusted
and settled. As the weight is transfered to the seat, things are moved and
shoved out of the way. Jack says that things should end up resting more or
less on or to the side of the seat. Regardless, things need to move *up*.
What's usually painful for me is that rather that remain in the scrotum and
move around freely, the testicals move up out of the scrotum into my body
(where it's not natural), almost to be a lump under the skin on my lower
belly (exaggurating here to explain). Since this is not where they're
supposed to be, there's no room, and the pressure is very, very painful
in a way that no man needs to have explained and that no woman can
understand.
I understand the biology involved with heat and cold, and that when it's
cold the testicles "recoil" toward the warmth of the body. I would suppose
that this would increase the tendency for my experiencing the problem,
but I've found consistant pain through the winter and summer as well.
If, after much adjusing and apparent random shear luck, I'm able to get
things settled in a comfortable way, the relief of being able to sit with
my full weight on the seat is palatable. But then, the final front hits.
Once I get to the comfortable situation, it's more or less my pelvis sitting
on the seat, and the padding isn't enough to stop the intervening skin
and muscle from becoming tender and painful. This kind of pain is wholly
unrelated to the gender-related pain mentioned above, but highly limiting
nevertheless.
I'm 6'3 (192cm) so wonder if maybe my body size is inappropriate for the
(standard size adult) seat I have. I asked Jack Halpern about it, and he
says that when he rides, the seat contacts not his upper legs, but his
torso. Until then, I'd thought that maybe due to my height, maybe my legs
were too far apart for the seat, and I was missing out on some very-upper-leg/
seat contact to help ease the burdon from the skin under my pelvis, but
now I have no idea why it hurts for me and not for others. When I ride with
the seat backwards, I find it's *much* less paiful in both the ways I
descirbed above. But it also feels funny (since it is indeed backwards).
I currently have several layers of bubble-wrappin taped to my saddle, and
that seems to help to some extent.
Jack said that maybe the seat height is an issue, but even after he spent
considerable time to analyze me and the seat height (i.e. found the "ideal"
hight for me), the problem was unchanged. Even today I tried to ride
a cycle that was about 6" too short, and one that was about 1" too tall,
and in both cases I had the problem (although the too-tall situation was
more painful).
I'd like to ride more, but at this point it's getting to be just not
worth the pain. I's been 8 hours since I rode for 45 minutes earlier
today, yet I still feel the pain from the tenderness from the pelvis/
seat contact. And for the 45 minutes, it seemed like half the time
was spent just trying to get to a situation where I felt I could concentrate
on riding and not on the various painful pressures.
I'm pretty desperate. Any ideas?
Thanks,
*jeffrey*
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey E.F. Friedl <jfriedl@omron.co.jp> Omron Corporation, Kyoto Japan
See my Jap/Eng dictionary at http://www.omron.co.jp/cgi-bin/j-e
or http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/cgi-bin/j-e