Cheryl Williams considers herself one of the lucky ones.
For three decades, Williams rode to and from her public service job without issue.Â
But when she was posted to Bangkok, she joined a cycling group to make new friends, and was convinced to take on increasingly long-distance rides.
Progressing from 200 to 400 and finally 600 kilometres, Williams started to experience what she described as “abrasion” of her labia.
“By the end of the ride, I couldn’t even sit on the seat anymore,” she said.
“I was trying to cycle standing up.”
Many women say they experience saddle soreness. (Getty Images: Maskot)
Alarmed, Williams started searching for answers online, soon realising “saddle soreness” was a problem many riders, especially women, were struggling with.
She spoke to a friend in her cycling group who confessed she had been hospitalised for two weeks because of an infection sustained while riding.
“She experienced so much abrasion and bleeding that she had open wounds, which led to the infection,” Williams said.
“That’s when I was like, geez, this is actually really serious.
“[I realised] maybe I was lucky that I had to ride quite a long way before I started having those problems.”
Williams’s friend was hospitalised for two weeks for an infection she sustained while riding. (Getty Images: Krisanapong Detraphiphat)
There are a range of potential solutions for saddle soreness, including the use of chamois cream, padded shorts and professional bike fits.
But some in the industry believe more radical change is needed, including Australian innovator Robin Macan.
Could bike seat design be the problem?
Macan, designer of the vabsRider saddle, began his eclectic career with a training in civil engineering.
As an engineer, he learned the “hierarchy of control” approach to managing hazards; that the most effective way to solve a problem was to eliminate its cause.
Robin Macan has a designed a new bike seat. (Supplied: Ataraxy)
He said many of the “solutions” to saddle soreness were ineffective because they focused on protecting riders, rather than eliminating the root hazard: the bike seat.
“Adjusting a saddle by half a degree to fit my physique seems not just futile, but like we’re clutching at straws,” Macan said.
Instead, he set out to design a new type of seat, which went on to win two 2024 Australian Good Design Awards and attract financial backers from more than 43 countries on a crowdfunding platform.
His first step was to challenge one of the key assumptions of how a bike saddle should be shaped.
The vabsRider is a dynamic saddle that moves while you pedal. (Supplied: vabsRider)
As Macan explains, because a traditional bike seat is static, it creates pressure on sensitive areas of the body, including the genitalia.
This contributes to cyclists complaining of a host of issues, including pain when going to the toilet, infections and even permanent changes to the labia.
By contrast, the vabsRider is a “dynamic” saddle which moves as you pedal.
“It enhances your natural body movement, so it doesn’t push against your body, but moves with it,” Macan said.
“When you’re riding a bike, everything is in motion, so your body should be in motion as well, rather than pressing into a static bike seat and then wondering why you’re in pain. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
The saddle also has a “split” design, meaning it has a distinct left and right side with a gap in between.
The gap works, following a similar principle to so-called cut-out saddles, by alleviating pressure on the most sensitive areas of the pelvis, including the genitalia.
A graphic showing the shape of old bicycle saddles versus newer models. (ABC News)
Macan tested this theory by employing exercise physiologist Anthony Mezzini to do a pressure-mapping study with a single cyclist.
Mezzini found the vabsRider reduced pressure by up to 80 per cent compared to a traditional saddle, due to its dynamic movement and larger surface area.
“Cycling pain and health issues are not sexy things to talk about, but there are people suffering out there,” Macan said.Cycling industry resistant to change
Macan is not the only one trying to revolutionise the saddle market, with innovations being trialled across the globe.
One of these, called the VSeat, employs a “noseless” design that was the brainchild of American Ani Armstrong.
Ani Armstrong’s seat has a noseless design. (Supplied: VSeat, Ani Armstrong)
She was born in Iran, but adopted by an Armenian family and came to the United States at age 12 after she was targeted by morality police for having strands of hair visible through her hijab.
Inspired by her father, who immigrated to the US to protect Armstrong, she said the VSeat was the embodiment of her “desire to do something that improves people’s lives”.
Armstrong also suffered from persistent groin pain when cycling, and stopped riding despite her love of the “freedom” it provided.
Along with her personal trainer, she invested her life savings into the seat’s design.
It was featured on US entrepreneurial TV show Shark Tank, where two of the show’s investors committed $US200,000.
VSeat received funding from its appearance on US TV show Shark Tank. (Supplied: VSeat, Ani Armstrong)
She said the idea behind the VSeat was that by removing the nose of the saddle, cyclists were more likely to put pressure “where it belongs”: through the sit bones rather than the perineum or other sensitive spots.
“Traditional bike seats, even the ones with holes in them, put pressure on the vital nerves and arteries in the groin, which causes pain, numbness and for some, with prolonged use, more permanent medical issues,” Armstrong said.
One problem her start-up faced was resistance from the traditional cycling industry, which, as noted by Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban, “doesn’t want to entertain adding any kind of cost to the manufacturing of bikes”.
Cuban argued the bike market was “not as big as we think it is”, with limited profit margins and appetite for innovation.
The VSeat encourages cyclists to put pressure on their sit bones. (Supplied: VSeat, Ani Armstrong)
Macan has faced similar hurdles, investing almost 10 years into the vabsRider design, as well as a “crazy” amount of his own money.
He said it was difficult to innovate in cycling because you were competing with big business.
“Currently, there’s a supply chain of static saddles, so you’ve got people paying to deliver and manufacture those,” Macan said.
Standard saddles generally cost under $100, but ergonomic and custom models can range from $200 to more than $1,000.
“To do something different is very risky, which is why you often need someone to come in and look at it from a different point of view, who has the tenacity to build and create something to get it into the market,” he said.