The Business Shrink  

If you’ve been in any metropolitan area in the United States or Europe, you have most likely seen police on bicycles. The practice is actually quite old with the first bicycle police documented in Kent County in the UK in the year 1896. By 1904 there were 129 rural police bicycle patrols operating in Kent County. You can read more about the history and use of bicycle police patrols over at this entry on Wikipedia. With the trend of bicycle patrols in full swing, problems have become apparent with health concerns for a large number of men riding the bikes daily for police patrols.

A recent study was completed and published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine which you can read here, to see if the list of health effects like erectile dysfunction and groin numbness could be eliminated by changing the typical bicycle seat, also referred to as the saddle. The typical bicycle seat has a protruding nose extension to maintain balance and stability but this has been proven to cause recurring problems for men using the seats long-term. The solution was to completely remove the nose extension from the bicycle seat.

Dr. Steven Schrader of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati participated in the study and commented that, “No-nose saddles are a useful intervention for bicycling police officers alleviating pressure to the groin and improving penis health. Different saddle designs may require some re-learning of ‘how to ride a bicycle,’ but the health benefits to having unrestricted vascular flow to and from the penis and less penile numbness is self-evident.”

A noticeable statistic from the study was the increase in men reporting they had no numbness in their genital region. Originally only 27 percent of men reported no numbness but that rose to 82 percent of men after 6 months of use of a no-nose saddle. The data showed that the noseless saddle reduced contact pressure of the bicycle seat in the perineal region and ended up improving penile tactile sensations.

One of the most positive results was the final decision of the police officers in the study who decided to continue using a noseless bicycle seat after the study was completed. An amazing 97 percent of the officers continued their use of these new innovative seats. The data might have swayed them when reports showed erectile function was increased after 6 months of use of the noseless bicycle seats.

This is the second study focusing on noseless bicycle seats and this could finally make waves in the consumer market of bicycle seats. There are roughly 5 million recreational cyclists that could benefit from alleviating the genital numbness, perineal discomfort and overall increasing their sexual health. How about you Business Shrink readers? Do you shy away from your bike due to discomfort? It looks like it’s time for a change in the way bicycle seats have been known to exist for men and probably women too!