Carbon rail saddles...

ednino

I've got a new saddle. Fizik arione braided carbon rail

I'm scared to tighten then clamp up too much & crack the carbon :-/

Any advice? Are they fragile?

jgsi

The rails on my Arione cx seem happy to be nipped up fairly tight to be secure

owenlars

It is likely that the rails are solid carbon fibre not tubes so probably not very sensitive to crushing by over tightening. That said look for any torque recommendations on saddle or seat clamp and follow them. In the absence of any recommendations do the seat clamp up carefully with some carbon paste on the rails and some grease on the bolt and ride it, if it creaks or slips a bit nip it up a bit more. Don't get a great big bar and lean on it as something will give. I think that common sense is the rule of the day.

Don't forget that, in this litigious age, if there are no obvious statements about torque limits then the manufacturers probably don't see breakage as a risk.

racingcondor

I use Anteres carbon braided and have them clamped pretty hard. Great saddles, soo much stiffer than the Kium rails.

Believe the Fizik website sugggest 7-8 Nm (which is a lot).

I am however slightly less worried about doing something harmful as my seatpost is a Deda Zero100 so uses round cross beams to hold the saddle rather than anything that might have a sharp edge and cause a pinch if it's done wrong.

Be a little paranoid but in my experience you shouldn't have to worry if you're using a short handled allen key / bike tool to tighten them.

ednino

Thanks guys!

dennisn

ednino wrote:

Thanks guys!

Not trying to be an *sshole(although many on here would say otherwise) but why would you buy a saddle that you are afraid to tighten up in the seatpost? I would be afraid to sit on it if I thought it was that fragile. :?

rolf_f

dennisn wrote:

ednino wrote:

Thanks guys!

Not trying to be an *sshole(although many on here would say otherwise)

I wouldn't say so but you are starting to sound like a record that is ever so slightly very broken!

In this, as in the other examples where you make this point, the point is (IMO) that just because something might be relatively delicate in one direction doesn't mean it is any less useable than something that is more heavily over-engineered. I don't choose not to eat spaghetti because it is extremely brittle in its uncooked state - I simply take care with it until I have got it into its correct soggy state!

Put it this way - say you have a saddle with a steel rail that tightens happily anywhere from 6 to 16 Nm. You can happily tighten that up by feel all day long and not worry a bit about the torque. On the other hand, you have a carbon railed saddle that is only safe tightened from 6-8 nm it may well be a bit of a worry to tighten up but once done, there's no further worry needed. No problem in that.

dennisn

Rolf F wrote:

dennisn wrote:

ednino wrote:

Thanks guys!

Not trying to be an *sshole(although many on here would say otherwise)

I wouldn't say so but you are starting to sound like a record that is ever so slightly very broken!

In this, as in the other examples where you make this point, the point is (IMO) that just because something might be relatively delicate in one direction doesn't mean it is any less useable than something that is more heavily over-engineered. I don't choose not to eat spaghetti because it is extremely brittle in its uncooked state - I simply take care with it until I have got it into its correct soggy state!

Put it this way - say you have a saddle with a steel rail that tightens happily anywhere from 6 to 16 Nm. You can happily tighten that up by feel all day long and not worry a bit about the torque. On the other hand, you have a carbon railed saddle that is only safe tightened from 6-8 nm it may well be a bit of a worry to tighten up but once done, there's no further worry needed. No problem in that.

Maybe it's just me but I keep getting the impression that many people buy all this carbon stuff and then begin to obsess about a simple scratch in it. The pull to buy carbon must really be strong in them to get them to overlook this perceived fragility. Tremendous marketing job by the suppliers and manufacturers.

I have a great faith in bicycles that no matter what the material their are made of that they will support me and my fat *ss. I can't imagine buying a bike, if I thought for a moment, that it was like fine China and unusable without making me fearful of breakage.