Saddlle of Choice

[GuyContinental]

There was recently a pretty good thread on this that covered measurement and surprising physiological differences between rear ends:

http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?4381-Sitz-Bones&highlight=large+human

I have/had maybe half a dozen seats hanging around because I foolishly thought that a super-skinny butt meant a super skinny (thong) saddle. Noop. I have some serious hips that required a serious fat-boy 155mm saddle. Now that I know that I put grades of the same saddle on both my road bikes (Specialized Romin 155)and I’ll probably use it until it’s discontinued and then stockpile a few.

[jabberwocky]

I ran cheap WTB Speed V saddles for a number of years, and still have them on some of my bikes. Heavy and a bit overpadded, but cheap and comfortable enough for rides under a few hours.

My favorite roadie saddle is the Specialized Toupe expert. Super comfy. I’ve not found an equivalent for the MTB; I have a specialized of some sort on there now and its ok, but not as fantastic as the toupe.

I do have a brooks on my touring bike. Its alright, but I wouldn’t say its amazing.

[bluerider]

I am a fan of the Fizik Antares. It’s sort of a middle ground of their road saddles, not the most minimalist Arione but not the plushy Aliante either. It just fits me.

[Dickie]

I finally killed the saddle on my road bike at the end of last year, and also purchased a new cross bike so I needed to do some saddle searching (much like soul searching but a little lower). The saddle on my road bike has been discontinued (Forte Pro SLX), so I lucked out and contacted a friend of mine who owns a bike shop in CT. He sent me a box of saddles to try out. I finally decided on a Selle Italia SLS on the road bike and a Serfas Stinger Race RS on the cross bike. I tried a number of Fizik saddles but didn’t like any of them, but they looked nice!

[bluerider]

Dickie,
Your post reminded me of something. Most Fizik dealers have bright green “loaner” saddles available to try out. I tried all three of their road saddles courtesy of BicycleSpace over the course of a month. It was great to put some real miles under their saddles before investing in their product.

[dasgeh]

LOTS of saddle makers do loaner saddles. My husband went about 6 months on various loaners. I think he ended up sticking with his regular saddle, but bought a noseless saddle after trying it.

[Dirt]

Great thread. Thanks for starting it.

The Specialized Butt-o-meter told me what I already knew. 143mm wide saddles are perfect for me. I need something that has a flat profile side to side and a very flat profile nose to tail. Anything else and really bad things happen to me.

Fortunately there area TON of saddles that fit that description nicely.

Road bike: Specialized Toupe 143 saddles adorn 4 or 5 bikes. They made a version with a little more gel padding in the nose that I liked on rides where I was playing with the wind and in the drops most of the day. Fizik Antares seems to be my favorite, though. I’ve done dozens of 10+ hour days in the saddle on it and I’ve never had a single problem.

Cross/Gravel Grinder bike: Toupe 143 is really good here too, but I just tried the Adamo Breakaway. I’m training for Dirty Kanza 200, where I’m going to be not only on the bike for 15+ hours, but also using aero bars on a rough surface. Some of the roads have fist-sized rocks for the surface. The Adamo design is both comfy for my sits bones and also is kind to my gentleman vegetables even when I’m in the drops or aero bars on rough roads. I spent a little time getting the saddle position perfect the day I got it, then went on a 125 mile gravel grinder the next day. It was flawless. It felt weird at first, but I’m happy with how it works. I’m a little sad because these saddles are insanely expensive and more than twice the weight of my favorite Fizik.

Mountain bike: Everything about the Specialized Toupe 143 would be perfect for the mountain bike except that it is very sharp at the front. When the terrain gets REALLY nasty, I don’t want something sharp and pointy anywhere on the bike if I can avoid it. Specialized Phenom 143 is quite similar to the Toupe, but with a hair more padding and no sharp plastic nose. I’ve got a few of those. Specialized made one for a while with the Tri-tip (extra padding for time trial and triathlon bikes) that I LOVED. I’m bummed that they discontinued it. That is the saddle that I use for the really long mountain bike rides. It has good padding at the front, but the shell of the saddle has enough flex to be comfortable all day. The 143mm Specialized Avatar is a great fit, but lacks the flex and support of the Phenom or Toupe. It is more like sitting on a brick, even though it has more padding.

Sorry to go on. There’s a lot of science behind saddles and it is easy for me to geek out.

Do your homework. Get fit for a saddle. It will give you a good starting point.

Rock and roll.

Pete

[Dickie]

@bluerider 47566 wrote:

Dickie,
Your post reminded me of something. Most Fizik dealers have bright green “loaner” saddles available to try out. I tried all three of their road saddles courtesy of BicycleSpace over the course of a month. It was great to put some real miles under their saddles before investing in their product.

yeah, a few of the ones I was sent were green demo’s. It’s a really good program, especially as saddles are so critical and specific to each rider. I really wanted to like the Fiziks, they were built very well and have a good rep, but sadly didn’t work for me.

[rpiretti]

Brooks B17 Narrow for me. Had it for a few months now and am pleased so far. It has formed to my nether regions and I think it will only get better. Time will tell!

[Dirt]

@dasgeh 47572 wrote:

LOTS of saddle makers do loaner saddles. My husband went about 6 months on various loaners. I think he ended up sticking with his regular saddle, but bought a noseless saddle after trying it.

Tri360 in Falls Church has Adamo, Prologo and one other brand that I don’t remember in their saddle loaner fleet. They’ve got the best selection of “try it before you buy it” saddles around.

Freshbikes has been VERY good at helping people get the right saddle. A good friend got a saddle that should have worked well from them, but it didn’t. Freshbikes was awesome about getting him the correct saddle with no hassle at all.

When you’re spending $90-250 on a saddle, it is good to try it out first, if you can. Failing that, ask the shop what happens if you try it and HATE it?

[bluerider]

@dasgeh 47572 wrote:

LOTS of saddle makers do loaner saddles. My husband went about 6 months on various loaners. I think he ended up sticking with his regular saddle, but bought a noseless saddle after trying it.

Yeah, this is definitely true. However, shops are inconsistent in the loaner saddles vs saddles they actually sell. I lot of times the “loaner” saddles are just saddles they have taken off other bikes they sold that customers didn’t want. So even if you find a great saddle as loaner. There is no guarantee that shop will actually have it. When I was shopping it was pretty consistent at Fizik dealers, they always had the bright green Fizik loaner saddles available.

[txgoonie]

A lot of folks on my team use Selle SMP saddles. One dealer did a very comprehensive write-up about his experience fitting customers and the saddles themselves. It’s long but well worth the time before getting started to find a new saddle.

http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/09/all-about-smps/

I’ve only tried one of their saddles and it didn’t work for me, but I’m eager to try the others (which I’ll do by trying out friends’ — they don’t have a local dealer). I really like that the nose dips down preventing any snagging of the shorts. I tried one Specialized Toupe that I hated, but I have a feeling the width you get makes a huge difference. So I wanna investigate that further b/c the price point on those is much friendlier than the Selle SMP.

A friend loaned me a Fizik Aliante with carbon rails that I would love to get for myself, but at $250 ain’t gonna happen.

[vvill]

I’ve found I prefer saddles with cut-outs for any longer rides. I ride mostly Nashbar saddles that are all made by Velo (I have 2x FR1, a R1 and a R2 which I don’t use). My 700c hybrid came stock with a saddle also made by Velo and that was the first saddle I liked, so I stayed with them. I also have some stock/take-off saddles laying around – 2x WTBs which are okay if you’re not riding seated all day, and a San Marco Ponza which I really don’t like. I should probably get a saddle fit one day.

I also have a Selle Anatomica (with cut-out) right now on my folding bike. It’s heavy but so is the bike, I can ride it more comfortably without bike shorts, and it’s a little better at soaking up those little wheel bumps than some of the firmer saddles.

I get the feeling most cyclists have half a dozen spare saddles laying around.

[Jason B]

Any of the stores loan out a romin? Just finished building a bike and was thinking of living dangerously and trying a romin evo.

[Tim Kelley]

Specialized Tri Tip for aero.

And then whatever is around for road, commuting, and mountaining.

[Author]

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