IMPORTANT: This content is deprecated. Please visit the new CYCLELICIOUS 2.0.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
By Yokota Fritz
Byron uses drawing salve, AKA "black ointment." Drawing salve is a skin cream with Ammonium bituminosulfonate which is made from oil shale and, apparently, nobody really knows how it works.
I use whatever is around the house, which is sometimes hydrocortisone cream but is usually diaper rash cream, the kind made with cod liver oil and zinc oxide. Both work very well for me. What do you use?
P.S. No, I will not post photos of my saddle sores.
IMPORTANT: Please post comments for this article at the new CYCLELICIOUS 2.0 version of this page.
Comments:
Preparation H works well. It numbs and reduces the swelling. During RAAM nothing seemed to work. I did't really have a saddle sore. It was more like the skin was just gone.
As a "pre-saddle sore" medicine I use Bag Balm, rubbed well into the chamois. The only time I need this however is when temps get consistently above 70F
Keeping it clean is the first thing, followed by vaseline or bag balm. Also, get out of those shorts as soon as possible. I've written up 14 ways to avoid and treat saddle sores that might be helpful.
Thankfully I have never developed saddle sores and hopefully I never will! This doesn't sound like an area of cycling that I would particularly enjoy :)
I use bag balm to cure just about anything skin related. I had some really bad sores when I was riding 500 miles a month. I ended up using my daughter's Boudreaux's Butt Paste worked like a charm. For my pre-sore treatment I recently switched from Bag Balm to Beljum Budder. It seems to stay slippery for the entire length of the ride as oppose to the Bag Balm which eventually gets absorbed into the chamois. Plus is safer with my synthetic chamois. It still ends up making my saddle shinny too... which looks cool in photos!