The Best Way to Treat a Saddle Sore
Is prevention.
There are some simple steps that you can take to help prevent saddles sores.
*1) Good Personal Hygiene. Keeping the body clean prior to riding will help tremendously. If you are not able to bathe immediately after a ride, you can use alcohol wipes to disinfect the area prone to saddle sores or keep bottom wipes with witch hazel with your riding clothes.
**2) Wear shorts or pants to the trail, or bike ride. This will keep your bottom away from your cycling shorts and chamois for a longer period of time. You can slip your cycling shorts on in the car when you get there, it only takes a second to slip them on and will keep your bottom feeling fresher longer.
**3) Change out of your cycling shorts immediately after your ride. This will eliminate a car ride home in a sweaty chamois.
*4) I always like to take a shower, especially before I do an endurance or ultra-endurance cycling event or long training ride. This will kill any bacteria that would be present otherwise, giving you a fresh start to a long day on the saddle.
If a shower isn’t available, I keep rear end wipes with witch hazel, to clean the chamois area prior to racing, plain alcohol swabs to clean the less sensitive areas.
On over night trips, especially ultra-endurance events, it’ good to have alcohol swabs in your bike bag. They’re good to have for cleaning disc brakes, cuts and scrapes, and unexposed areas of your rear end.
Reducing friction is imperative in the prevention of saddle sores. Making sure your cycling shorts have a tight fit on your body will keep the material from folding around and rubbing/pinching your skin.
Stiff saddles are another great way to reduce the friction on your lower quadrant.
***I think, the best and most effective way to prevent Saddle Sores is to replace your cycling shorts frequently. I rotate 3-4 pairs within a 6 month period of time, making sure I get at least 2 fresh pair twice a year.
This with good personal hygiene seems to be the best for prevention.
There are great chamois cremes available that have natural bacteria fighting ingredients. These are helpful especially if there may already be an infection. Generally speaking, I have switched to a more natural blend of skin oils, not specific for cycling. Sometimes, as needed, Assos chamois creme or a little bit of Noxemia or similar product do a great job of decreasing bacteria in the area.
Once a saddle sore is present, there are a couple of different approaches worth trying. Although alcohol swabs can be uncomfortable on the open sore, it’s the best way to dry it out and kill the bacteria. Applying it frequently. Lubricating the area is beneficial, lotion will, counter-intuitively draw the oils out of the sore. It will also keep it more comfortable in your daily activities of life, as well as protecting it from outside moisture.
Boiling water and soaking a wash cloth with hot water on the area will also help draw out the oils.
Along with shifting your body weight frequently on your saddle, the prevention steps above are the best way to treat a saddle sore.
* It’s been years since I have experienced saddle sores, I credit rotating my cycling shorts, and changing in out of my cycling shorts at my riding site the most.