My first 20 years of riding featured **a lot** of saddle related pain. I tried a bunch of saddles \[randomly\] and a variety of padded bike shorts with no real change to my issues. It was bad enough that on a week long road trip I'd only ride say 4 days needing to take days off for my undercarriage to heal.
Then I found the first saddle that fit me well. Ditched the padded bike shorts and haven't looked back for over 10 years. I've got 3 saddle choices that offer from all day trail riding comfort \[standing a fair bit\] to all day gravel grinding comfort \[mostly sitting\] day after day for as long as I choose to ride.
My butt is no tougher than it was the first 20 years I just have saddles that fit my body well now. I've been injured and off the bike for 6 months with no difference in saddle comfort when I started riding again.
I don't use anything special for underwear. Although obviously you don't want anything with thick seams in the saddle zone.
My GF who is a new cyclist \[well new when she met me a bit over 10 years ago\] rides without a padded bike short and she is not one to suffer in silence.
June 1, 2020, 6:43 a.m. - Vik Banerjee
My first 20 years of riding featured **a lot** of saddle related pain. I tried a bunch of saddles \[randomly\] and a variety of padded bike shorts with no real change to my issues. It was bad enough that on a week long road trip I'd only ride say 4 days needing to take days off for my undercarriage to heal. Then I found the first saddle that fit me well. Ditched the padded bike shorts and haven't looked back for over 10 years. I've got 3 saddle choices that offer from all day trail riding comfort \[standing a fair bit\] to all day gravel grinding comfort \[mostly sitting\] day after day for as long as I choose to ride. My butt is no tougher than it was the first 20 years I just have saddles that fit my body well now. I've been injured and off the bike for 6 months with no difference in saddle comfort when I started riding again. I don't use anything special for underwear. Although obviously you don't want anything with thick seams in the saddle zone. My GF who is a new cyclist \[well new when she met me a bit over 10 years ago\] rides without a padded bike short and she is not one to suffer in silence.