Your article "Sex and the Serious Cyclist" is rather confusing. On one hand, it claims that cycling can lead to erectile problems, yet states that "as many as 4% of male cyclists have problems with impotence due to cycling." Are you kidding me? 4%? If the total American male impotency rate was 4%, Viagra would be nothing more than a dust collector on the druggist's shelf. I would suggest that those with this particular problem take up cycling and join the 96% who have absolutely no problem (in the saddle or out).

 -- Robert W.

Don't Dismiss the Numbers

As someone who spent much of his career in science, I must take exception to the following paragraph that appeared in RBR newsletter No. 66:

He (Goldstein) even did a study and reported that cyclists are four times more likely than runners to suffer erectile dysfunction. Sounds like real trouble -- until you see that the ED rate was just 1 in 100 runners and 4 in 100 riders.

A 300% increase in a rate of physical impairment is considered huge, almost no matter how low the absolute rate. In medicine, there is oftentimes a hullabaloo when a 25% increase is seen. The breast implant and hormone replacement therapy controversies are examples. There are many others, but you get the point.

I do agree that the sample size is probably too small. The way to challenge this conclusion is to demand a statistical analysis of the results. This exercise will determine if the conclusion is statistically valid. Such a test is essentially mandatory in most legitimate tests.

One other issue is that Goldstein assumed a cause and effect relationship between bicycle riding and ED. This may or may not be true. There may be other factors that were not considered. -- Murray S.

 

How to Measure Your Sit Bones

While the information in your article, How to Find a Safe Saddle, is all true, it misses one crucial bit of advice: How to measure the width of your sit bones and use that measurement to choose a saddle of the right width.

I found that sitting on a piece of paper on a firm (but not hard) office-type chair left two indentations that could be measured. When I took that measurement and applied it to pick a saddle, I found one that actually fit, and fit well. It also confirmed that the last two saddles I bought were too narrow.

Getting a saddle of good quality also helps. I ended up with a Selle Italia ProLink. -- Anker B.

 

Get 'Bent!

I read your article on seats and I tend to agree with you. For most of us it is a non-issue. However, one option was missed, recumbents. You don't have to give up cycling, just ride a different style. -- D.M.

 

ED? Who Cares?

Of course, to those of us who have been married for 20 years, erectile dysfunction is no longer a concern and hence not a problem. -- Jim V.

 

No Reason to Curtail Our Passion

I e-mailed the following note to the writer of the article in the Wall Street Journal:

As a racing bicyclist and a veteran journalist, I can honestly own up to a few occasional (and brief) bouts with numbness. They occurred many years ago, probably at a time when I set up my position on the bike myself. It’s likely that I did a bad job of it.

I can assure you that I have suffered no such dysfunction in years and years. I have better bikes, better saddles and better body position on the bicycle.

For the many, many thousands of miles I have ridden, and for all the stories I have swapped with hundreds of racing buddies, I must say that this phenomenon has rarely, if ever come up. (No pun intended.)

For me and my racing friends, any health issue relating to my sport is important. Many of us log 250 or more miles per week. In writing this, it is not my purpose to dispute the importance of this question.

However, I’d love to see such stories better supported by facts. Stories about bike saddles and genital issues hit every so often. They always seem to ring a little hollow. To date none has been supported (this is the journalist speaking now) by respectable statistics.

The one-location study of less than two-dozen bicycle policemen (several suffering from numbness or erectile dysfunction) didn’t necessarily cut it for me, either. Here’s why:

Bicycle cops on patrol are off their bikes much more often than are bicycle athletes (or even serious recreational riders). The makes me suspect that the cops in this study may have been riding bad bicycles with bad saddles. Their bicycles may have been poorly chosen for each policeman, and a good or bad position on the bike may have been purely a matter of chance for the cops in the study.

In any case, I am not sure this small study can truly be used to support warnings for all bicyclists. They do not necessarily provide reasons for me -- or anyone -- to curtail pursuit of our passion (as one of my friends suggested to me).

It is possible that for every cyclist who suffers numbness (or even dysfunction) there are thousands whose “functionality” is vastly improved because of the sport’s benefits to the circulatory system, as another recent study asserted.

Please keep us honest on this one, but please insist on better statistics.

 -- Tom B.

A Danger Worse than Impotence

Dr. Goldstein has said, "There are only two kinds of male cyclists -- those who are impotent and those who will be impotent."

A far more serious threat to public health:

"There are only two kinds of truck/SUV drivers -- those who are impudent, and those who will be impudent." -- Richard M.

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