Whilst I've only been e-biking for a year and a half and only owned two (
well, three. First two were same make/model and were returned for controllers dying in first week) I have ridden regular bicycles for 40+ years and I really have to call bullshit on that... to a degree. Because personally? No. Just... no!
The moment I get on those wafer thin "padding what's that" narrow seats with the straight bars leaning way the hell forward, the area around my coccyx lights on fire. The pain starts out as an annoyance, and proceeds over the course of a ride up into the sacrum to the point it hurts to try and lift my ass out of the saddle. Just trying to dismount is pure agony. Likewise the neck pain of cranking the head way the hell back so I can even look where I'm going much less look-around is absurd. Do you want agonizing neck pain?
Because that's how you get agonizing neck pain!
This narrow seat lean way the smeg forward garbage isn't for everyone. A lot of us
just don't bend that way and have more pain --
in the first few yards just TRYING to ride that way -- than one would ever have in a comfy seat positioned upright.
The true absurdity being the mental-huffing-midgetry of saying "padding on the seat bad" and then wearing glorified diapers. As if it makes any flipping difference which side the padding is on! Is there padding between A and B? Yes. Job done.
A more common screwup is people using saddles that aren't smooth. Friction causes chafing, so the glossier, shinier, and slippery the better.
A reason I can't stand spandex. Scratchy, uncomfortable, clingy, sticky when wet, itchy when dry... and people wear this stuff by choice? I'd sooner wear wool underpants!
Though I have observed a lot of riders doing crazy stuff that would cause hand numbness... like not aligning their brake levers so that when your hand sits in the natural flat position, they are inline with your fingers. You want to know what causes hand numbness? Holding onto the bars with a death grip and keeping your fingers bent all the time. You're pulling the tendons taut instead of leaving them "relaxed and ready!" Same reason so many people get carpal using a mouse -- a problem switching to a thumb driven trackball where your hand remains in the flat and "proper" relaxed position and you're not constantly stressing the wrist and lower arm moving the mouse around instantly solves.
Don't even get me started on the damage narrower bars cause likely akin to the strain we see when people put their keyboard above navel level.
The ideal position is actually at the waistline though that can vary slightly based on the ration between arm and torso length.
I've been an accessibility and efficiency consultant both for web presence and office-spaces for twelve years. Including witnessing both for prosecution and defense in US ADA and UK EQA cases. SO MUCH of this "ergonomic" stuff people spew about bicycles reeks of the same scam artist nonsense you see with office furniture.
Manufactured fancy sounding BS bingo that has not a wit to do with comfort, and everything to do with suckering gullible masses into spending more money for more cheaply made and poorly engineered products.
Or as Steve from Gamers Nexus would say, "But what does that mean?"View attachment 137059
To that end whenever people talk about the "pain" being relieved by this narrow wafer-thin seat straight-bar ass-in-air position, I can't help but be reminded of the early '90's ergonomic stool scam, and the plethora of knee injury lawsuits that followed.
And today the same type of gullible quacks, morons, and fools light money on fire for anything labeled "gaming"
To be frank, the very notion that a bike "from the factory" and "as designed" is going to fit is absurd. The most basic rule, one size fits all fits nobody. I imagine if you're in the perfect 5'6" to 5'9" in the perfect 150 pound weight in perfect health, all that chazerei might actually work and you'd be fine with a bike "as designed". I know as I shed the 100 pounds the past 10 years a lot of "comfort" stuff that wasn't comfortable now is. But to go full on
flaw of averages? No.
A bespoke suit always fits. To that end, at least bike makers are now coming out with frames in different sizes beyond what size tire they take. Not sure when that became a thing, but I like it.
Though I really wish my aventure was 6" longer with 3 degrees more rake. That's what she said.
for your seat. The cover is not part of the seat.
