Carbon Saddles

izza

As saddle starts to wear, have started looking at replacements.

At top end, I have seen the carbon saddles such as Fizik Arione K1. Fully understand that a lot to pay for a 100g weight loss but ignoring the weight/money issue, is there a significant reduction in the levels of comfort for carbon saddles.

Pokerface

I have no first-hand experience but knew a guy who rode on a full carbon Selle SMP saddle. And said it was the most comfortable thing ever.

I was looking at getting one myself but was put off by the massive price tag!

cougie

Mate of mine had an all carbon saddle - he only rode a max of 25 miles on it though.

Saddles are so personal - you could get on with it, or you could hate it. Do you even know if you like the normal version of the Arione ? I'd start with that before forking out almost £300 for something I may not get on with.

giant_man

carbon saddles, hmmm ....... character forming? lol probably .......

izza

cougie wrote:

Mate of mine had an all carbon saddle - he only rode a max of 25 miles on it though.

Saddles are so personal - you could get on with it, or you could hate it. Do you even know if you like the normal version of the Arione ? I'd start with that before forking out almost £300 for something I may not get on with.

Yes I have an Arione now.

giant_man

Not everyone suits an Arione, or a Charge Spoon, or an Antares, I could go on and on .... it's just such a personal thing.

trailstar

i have the SLR Kit Carbonio Flow.. It is an absolute beast of a saddle. Its so light and comfortable and i find the carbon rails take a fair chunk of the vibrations as well.

only issue is that the carbon rails are thicker, so you'll probably find you'll have to do some fiddling with the seatpost clamp.

Monty Dog

I think a lot comes down to the quality of shorts you are wearing and the shape of the saddle - I've sat on a couple and they didn't exactly strike me as something I'd like to endure for 6 hours - there was simply no give, but I'm not a heavy rider. Likewise, like carbon bars - the consequences of crashing get expensive whereas you might just nick the cover on a lesser saddle. Probably would be OK for a hilly RR will lots of out of saddle efforts - but Paris-Roubaix sportive would a different proposition.

sungod

i've got two ariones...

base model on one bike

cx braided on the light bike - this has carbon rails and nylon/carbon base, it's only 10g heavier than the cx braided carbon, which in turn is only 10g heavier than the k1 (all weights from wiggle)

to save the extra 10-20g, the cost gets much higher, so cx braided seemed the best value

it's a *lot* stiffer than the basic arione, i'd expect the cx braided carbon and k1 are the same or stiffer

so like monty dog says, it depends on you+shorts+ride

i find it fine with castelli shorts with their px2 pad, but i've also got some assos shorts and with those after 2-3 hours it gets uncomfortable if i don't shft position enough

there's no useful give, rough roads are 'interesting'

btw i'm using it with fizik's cyrano alloy post, it's light, and the clamp is great with the carbon rails, toying with the idea of trying a carbon one to see if it adds a little more give