Saddles

prando

I'm 63 and, weather permitting, get out a couple of times a week doing a 40 mile round trip. Been doing so for nearly 2 years. I wear 2 pairs of padded cycling shorts, but still feel that I could get a better saddle as, to be frank, my backside always hurts somewhat over the last part of my trip.

I have a Carrera Virtuosa wherein since buying, I have changed the tyres, pedals and over-taped handlebars. It suits me fine, albeit I'm forever looking enviously,at the Giant Defy & Specilaised ranges ( I will change one day !)

My question surrounds the saddle. How do I pick one ? I feel I want to try it out first. What do I look for ?

Seems such a simple thing. Maybe my rear end will improve ? :-)

Thanks

keef66

I took the view that I used to be comfortable riding all day on a Brooks saddle in my teens and early 20's, so I bought myself a B17 Special in honey. Looks lovely with the copper plated rails and big hand beaten copper rivets, and having saddle bag loops I got a Carradice Barley saddle bag to go with it. Jolly old-school.

The saddle is, as I had hoped, splendidly comfortable for all day rides. 86 miles is my current longest. I'm a sprightly 55 year old.

Hoopdriver

I'm a sprightly 54 year old - for now, next month 55 - and for 30 years and many tens of thousands of miles I have ridden on Brooks saddles and like keef66 I love the copper riveted B-17 Special. A beautiful saddle and perfectly comfortable. I wouldn't ride on anything else.

THat said, saddles are very personal and what is supremely comfortable for me may not work for you.

vortice

Tricky. I'm gradually working my way through what seems like every saddle out there! The way I would approach it is to work out which bit of your saddle works and which doesn't and then have look at which shape might work. For me I've established that I need relief in the soft tissue area, so I'm looking at saddles with a recess or hole and that the rear support like that provided by a Charge Spoon works too. The closest I've got is a Selle SMP, but it was too firm.

Buy second hand, try it out and if it doesn't suit, swap it on the saddle swap section of the classifieds or ebay it and buy another second hand one.

The other option is to go to a bike shop that has a try before you buy set up, like some shops do with Fizik saddles.

unixnerd

The Charge Spoon and lighter Knife always seem to get good comments, I have both. But I also have a Specialized Toupe with a central cut-out and it's even better for me.

nmcgann

Good advice from Vortice. Step one is to find out by trial and error what general shape of saddle is comfortable for you and then try saddles with that general shape until you find the one that you like the best. I don't think there is a way of cutting that process short as saddle comfort is a very individual issue.

One observation that I have found from personal experience is that saddle comfort was a big issue for me when I was overweight and unfit. Now that I am neither, I am a lot more tolerant of different saddles and I suspect that some of the ones I tried and discarded would be fine. (Apart from the brooks b17 - far too wide. Irritated a sciatic nerve and stopped me riding for months!)

drlodge

You could always try http://www.thebikewhisperer.co.uk/servi ... e-fitting/ as they "hire out" the SMP Selle saddles for you to try. Got the Lite 209 and love it.

prando

Thanks guys. As always on this site, helpful advice.

If any of you have one of the ones you mentioned for sale. Please let me know. PM ?. I guess I need to start somewhere

vortice

unixnerd wrote:

The Charge Spoon and lighter Knife always seem to get good comments, I have both. But I also have a Specialized Toupe with a central cut-out and it's even better for me.

How does the knife compare to the spoon?

TheCoo'sTail

I've mentioned this on another couple of threads in he last few days so apologies if anyone is reading this twice but,

Charge Scoop. Came out last week. I've had mine on a few days now and I like it so far. I have the Spoon on another bike and its great (for me anyway) but I think the Scoop could prove to be better still (for me anyway). I went for the Titanium version in both.

cattytown

Like others have said, there's going to be a bit of trial and error. I am going through a few. Tried a Fizik Arione as they get rave reviews - painful for me from the off. Specialized Romin was good, but at the moment I am on a Fizik Aliante Vs and think I may have found my saddle.

Paul.

Sprool

its going to depend on your proportions, your fitness and flexibility, and your riding style. I went through a few now have stuck with a specialized toupe, marvellous light and comfy saddle over short and long distances, suits me perfectly.

tigersnapper

If you've got the money, some Selle dealers do a measuring service which measures various parts of your body and movement range to match you with Selle saddle type. Not used it so don't know how good it is.

Jinx9

I tried the Selle Italia ID fit whilst in Italy. They measure your hip width, top of each thigh and the angle of your pelvis rotation. The results show which category you fit into to. The saddle they recommended for me is the Lady SLR Flow as I need a large cut our due to being very flexible. I had already tried this saddle and whilst I found the cut out relieved pressure on the crotch area, it killed my sit bones. They suggested I tilt the saddle up 1 degree but this has not helped either, so I have gone back to the Selle Italia Diva... and a numb crotch but comfortable sit bones!!! If they made a combination of the 2 saddles that would be ideal for me.

Personally I don't think their saddle identification system is in-depth enough as its done in a standing position. I may have had different results if I had been assessed whilst sat on the bike... who knows? I just know if didn't work for me :-(