Bike Seats
If you just started riding bikes your butt is supposed to hurt, so don't sweat it, it'll go away. What if shoes disappeared? Everybody's feet would scream for awhile, but soon we'd all be walking across gravel with no pain.
Saddles come in dozens of styles. Generally, newbies and infrequent riders tend toward big, soft seats, because their bottoms aren't used to cycling. The down side to riding a big, soft saddle is that your bottom and inner thighs float around on a spongy mass, chafing your skin. Frequent riders tend to like smaller, firmer seats, which chafe less and offer more freedom to shift weight to maneuver the bike.
Is there anything to the brouhaha that cycling causes impotency? Does ones willie really wane? To me those claims sound like people trying to sell us stuff or blowhards trying to get attention. I don't think you ought to be afraid, but you should always pay attention to your willie.
If it feels like your willie is getting numb, it's probably because you are sitting on it. Don't sit on your willie! Let's do some physiology starting at your solid waste port. Poke around. On either side, not far away, are the butt bones. Starting right in front of the exit port and behind the cajones is the base of your willie. What's happening is that you're sitting on your willie when you need to be sitting on your butt bones.
You're riding along and go numb-willie. Think about it. You're pressing the wrong place down onto the nose of the saddle. For immediate relief, scoot back a little on the saddle so your butt bones are square on the back of the seat.
What's the angle of your saddle? You want the seat's nose to be somewhere between level with the ground and about 3 degrees pointed down--while you are sitting on it. Yes, it's hard to tell what angle your seat is when you're sitting on it, but who wants a wounded willie? Take the time to study the seat angle while you are seated, considering that the saddle's cushions and springs compress more toward the rear. Yes, a cushie seat can poke the nose up, right into your willie.
How about seats with a hole down the middle? Some folks really like them, but the key remains--don't sit on your willie.
Padded, tight bike shorts are a tremendous comfort-increaser.
Did you bend or break your seat rails? That's a defective rider, not a defective seat. You're lead-butting. When you are about to hit a bump, suspend yourself on your legs by standing on the pedals. If you're breaking your seat imagine what you're doing to your willie.
She said, "Hey, what about my winnie?" Good point, male bike mechanics don't know as much about winnies as we would like, but we suspect the seat-comfort issues are about the same between willies and winnies. Female-specific saddles are shorter than men's and have a broader rear end. I'm not sure why they are shorter, but the back end is broader because women's butt bones are further apart than men's. The key cure for numb-winnie is the same as numb-willie--don't sit on your winnie. Scoot back on the saddle and sit on your butt bones. Keep the seat nose from level to 3 degrees down, while you are sitting on it.
You can adjust your saddle fore and aft by sliding it on its rails. You can change the seat level by adjusting the seatpost micro-adjust device.
You can adjust how you sit on the saddle, and the relative weight supported by your butt, hands, and feet, by changing seat angle, seat fore-aft position, seatpost height, stem angle, handlebar height, and cockpit length.
Numbness--don't despair. Experiment with different positions and different equipment. You can defeat it.