[WFRTony]

Before my 35 mile ride on Wednesday morning, I raised the saddle height on my Double Cross about 5 mm to see if it would help my knee pain. My knee pain is gone, but I now have a rash where my seat meets the saddle. The heat and humidity have been extreme for Iowa the past few days, and in the past 24 hours, I spent at least 2-3 hours working in my fire dept turn-out gear. My shorts were clean when I started the ride, and I washed and changed clothes as soon as I got home. I am riding a Brooks B-17 with a pair of Cannondale MTB shorts. I have treated the rash with Bag Balm and it feels much better at the moment, but I am leaving for RAGBRAI tomorrow and it has me quite concerned.

My questions are:
Do you think the saddle height adjustment caused the rash, or did I create a perfect storm with the heat, humidity, and sweat to cause the rash?

Should split the saddle height difference and lower it a few mm to see if it makes a difference?

 

[cdhbrad]

I've had similar things happen when fine tuning saddle height and a couple of mm to high can make the difference causing the rub you experienced. Try lowering the saddle about 2mm and see if that helps. I keep a taillight clamp mounted flush to the seatpost clamp as a guide for making these minor changes. If you have one, use a 2 or 3 mm allen wrench as a spacer between the seat clamp and taillight clamp to give you a known amount for adjustment and then lower it down by 2mm, and see if that helps.

Too bad this happen just before you leave on a multiday ride.....but better to find it now than 2 days into the event.