Measuring sit bones: hilarity ensues

[Liesl]

Okay, Rivit Beth writes in their website: "There are plenty of ways to measure your sit bones, so I won’t go into them all here. Simply, you can do it yourself or have help from a friend, or spend a lot of money having someone do it for you. If you have a willing partner, use a measuring tape, assume the position and have at it!"

I am, for everyone's benefit, not gonna go into too much detail here but...(pun unavoidable) bending over, finding/palpating which part of the pelvis is actually what you sit on, discovering a ruler is not up to the task, and switching to calipers....

In the end (again, pun unavoidable) we got several rounds of wildly inconsistent data and I have no idea what the distance between my sits bones is but, I must say, the laughter was good for our souls.

We might try the sit-on-a-piece-paper-on-some-foam technique.

I hesitate to ask, but any advice or wisdom from this august group?

Riv Chica "Ever the High Road" Warrior

[Jon Dukeman in the foothills of Colorado]

I first sat on a pile of paper towels and took a measurement.It looked close to 130.

I then found out that Specialized dealers had a tool to measure sit bones.

I went there and they politely measured me, no charge.I looked at some of their saddles but didn't buy one.

The tool measured 130...it took about 5 minutes for them to set up and measure.

[Deacon Patrick]

My sit bone measurement was wide enough that it made Debbie w/ Rivet Saddles laugh with concern, though it was in the range of their widest saddle. I ended up preferring the Diablo, their narrowest saddle. Which is to say I am baffled how to do this correctly other than to trying a saddle out. That's one of the beautiful things about Rivet's 1 year guarantee. If the right saddle is one of their saddles, you will end up with it. If not, then you're only out shipping.

With abandon,

Patrick

[Daniel D.]

Would measuring the dimples I've put in my Brooks pro work?

[Lungimsam]

Try your LBS. some of them have a thermopedic memory foam type bench you can sit on that leaves sit bone indents in the material for you to measure.

[Dave]

cardboard works too.  Put cardboard on a bench, sit on bench while putting your feet up on some kind of elevated surface and leaning slightly forward

[Aaron Young]

Daniel D.,

Yes, that is maybe the simplest way to measure your sit bones (ischial tuberosities, to be technical).  I've measured mine before.  I used cardboard like Dave mentioned.  I found some of the thicker cardboard, but i had to really work to make obvious depressions.  Maybe I have a little too much "padding" covering my tuberosities??? :)

Aaron Young

The Dalles, OR

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[Garth]

    The obvious question is this .... What does measuring one's "sit bones" matter , as saddle fit/feel is strictly personal and isn't determined by any arbitrary method .  There are so many variables  , from anatomical differences in bone shape/width/structure to differences in personal pressure feel and tolerance and even pedal style and bike fit come into play . 

  My opinion .  . . .  fuhggetaboutit !  ! 

[William deRosset]

Dear Liesl,

The specialized ass-ometer (seriously) as described by others gives the most repeatable results. You might even like their saddles (most stores have a loaner program--take them up on it if interested).

I am comfortable (depending on context) on saddles ranging from 135mm to 170mm wide (if I sat genuinely upright on a cruiser, I bet a wider saddle would be okay, too), and sit right at the border between Specialized "narrow" and "meduium" widths. I do tend to trend toward saddles in the 140-145mm width range in plastic saddles, and around 160mm in suspended leather saddles, all with  moderate pitch (fore-aft variation in elevation) and only slight to moderate roll (side to side curvature).

Funny enough, I just slapped a Selle San Marco "bontrager titanio" saddle on my Boulder Road Sport bike and took it out, untested, for a 6 1/2 hour ride this afternoon. It was a climbing-intensive ride on an undergeared bike (so plenty of time out of the saddle in the 42X23), but it did fine. No numbness or squeaking soft parts. Width (checking with the calipers...): 116 mm! It is basically a 145mm saddle with the sides cut down for Keith's vision of mountain bike use (back in 1992), but proof that you never know what'll work well enough....

The Assometer, it isn't a bad starting place, but I wouldn't expect bone width to correspond too exactly to your preferred saddle. The proof of the saddle is in the seating.

Best,

Will

William M. deRosset

Fort Collins, CO

[Daniel D.]

Like Will says it gives you a starting point at least.  Rather than just throwing a dart totally in the dark.

On Sunday, July 12, 2015 at 2:01:50 PM UTC-7, Garth wrote:

    The obvious question is this .... What does measuring one's "sit bones" matter , as saddle fit/feel is strictly personal and isn't determined by any arbitrary method .  There are so many variables  , from anatomical differences in bone shape/width/structure to differences in personal pressure feel and tolerance and even pedal style and bike fit come into play . 

  My opinion .  . . .  fuhggetaboutit !  ! 

 

[Ron Mc]

yes, you gotta start somewhere. After 2 years on a Brooks B17S Imperial, my daughter has developed a comfort issue.  From examining the saddle, it looks like she's sitting right on the back rail.  So last night I sent Debra an e-mail looking for a demo.  While I had the saddle for a sit-bone measurement, I asked my daughter to sit on a memory-foam pillow, and got a very good demonstration and measurement from that.  Though my daughter didn't find the event hilarious - she didn't like the whole concept.  

[John Phillips]

The sitting on a piece of paper on foam method gave me 13cm, so I thought a B17 would work.

On the bike, I couldn't really tell which saddle felt right until I switched to a set of Barlow Pass tires. Marathons transmitted so much road noise, I couldn't tell the difference between crappy asphalt & and the wrong saddle.

I bought and tried several saddles until I figured this out.

Off the bike, what worked for me was placing a saddle on a foam pad on a chair and carefully lowering my butt till I could feel with my fingers just where my sit bones were.

Going through my collection of saddles showed me that I fit on a B67, and I just fit on a Berthoud Mente. The B17 was too narrow, even if I leaned forward as if I was riding in the drops.

John