1. Gender Differences in Bicycle Saddle Pressure Distribution during Seated Cycling.
- Author
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Potter, James J., Sauer, Julie L., Weisshaar, Christine L., Thelen, Darryl G., and Ploeg, Heidi-Lynn
- Subjects
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POWER (Mechanics) , *CYCLING , *PRESSURE , *FORCE & energy , *BICYCLES , *DYNAMICS , *HUMAN powered vehicles , *SPORTS ,SEX differences (Biology) - Abstract
The article presents a study that investigates the influence of gender, power, hand position and ischial tuberosity (IT) width on saddle pressure during seated stationary cycling. Saddle pressure distribution was measured using an instrumented pressure mat. Results showed that there were significant reductions in normalized force in all saddle regions and maximum pressure in the posterior region when the power was increased from 100 to 200 Watts. Females exhibited a larger IT width than males while male centers of pressure were farther forward in the anterior and total saddle regions than they were for female. It is concluded that there is a significant gender-related differences in saddle loading which are important to consider when designing saddles.
- Published
- 2008
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