Flex in Fizik Versus Saddles (compared to standard)

voicycle

Anyone ridden both standard and Versus versions of Fizik saddles enough to comment on how the flex in the shell compares between the two?

I'm one of those riders that MUST have a channel/cutout. I recently swapped a Fabric Scoop Radius for a Line Elite and both the shape and the cutout are spot on. Padding is appropriate too, but the shell doesn't seem to flex at all and that's putting a time limit on my comfort each ride.

Then the other day I rode a Fizik Antares (standard) on a long ride and it felt almost perfect - except for the lack of a channel or cutout. So I was about to pick up an Antares VS but its construction looks similar to the Line and I worry it might be similarly stiff.

Hopefully someone here can answer from experience: does the Antares VS feel exactly like the regular Antares but with a cutout, or will I find it to be a rather different saddle altogether?

manoirdelourde

Why do you think you must have a cutout?

I used to think the same, and was using mainly Selle Italia including the SLR Superflow, they were good but not perfect.
Then I bought a new bike came with a regular Antares R5 in white (with matching bar tape), all my previous saddles were black so I left the Antares on the bike while I looked for a white SLR at a decent price. I am still using the Antares a year later, including having done Lands End to John O’Groats on it, the most comfortable saddle ever for me.

Obviously saddles are very individual, and I haven’t answered your question . . .

voicycle

Haha yes it is a great saddle and I'm actually not in a huge hurry to replace it - instead I'm using it as my reference point to replace the Fabric. If it's as good as I hope then I'll end up replacing the standard Antares too, putting Antares VS on both bikes...

manoirdelourde wrote:

Obviously saddles are very individual, and I haven’t answered your question . . .

Yes. Unless there is a cutout I have pretty much a 1hr limit on the turbo or a 3hr limit on the road before I Become (un)Comfortably Numb (this includes my testing on the standard Antares).

manoirdelourde

Have you had a bike fit? It could be that your position on the bike is all wrong and that is adding to your saddle comfort problem.

ayjaycee

I use Antares VSX Kium on two bikes and find them very comfortable over any distance. That model has a 20mm deep channel and seems to me to be quite flexible (or, at least, I've never thought they seemed stiff). One of them does let out the odd creak when I shift about but that's solved with a very small drop of oil every now and then where the saddle joins the rails. Find a decent Fizik dealer and they should have a range of saddles that you can take away for trial purposes before you buy - in my case, the LBS let me keep one for a week which was plenty long enough to convince me.

voicycle

manoirdelourde wrote:

Have you had a bike fit? It could be that your position on the bike is all wrong and that is adding to your saddle comfort problem.

Yep, been fitted to the bike with the Fabric saddles. I'm doing my own fit on the others but using that as my reference. This is a long term issue for me across 12 saddles on 8 different bikes over the last 6 years. It includes riding positions across the spectrum from sit up and beg all the way to crit racer - I'm fairly certain it's just a quirk of my particular anatomy that a centre channel (or even sometimes just a cutout in the shell but not the cover/padding) is really important for me.

Oddly my most comfortable road saddle was actually the stock one on a B'Twin road bike (now sold on). Not perfect but close - had the right amount of flex and enough of a relief indentation to be good for about 5 hours. That and an early Specialized Body Geometry one were best so far. As mentioned in my original post the shape and flex of Antares is right for me but I need the cutout/channel. I was just looking for a direct comparison in shell flex between standard Antares and Antares Vs to make sure I wasn't about to replicate the rigid experience of my Fabric Line.

I'll see if any of my LBSs are Fizik dealers and ask for a tester. Failing that I'll just pick one up used and sell on if it doesn't suit.

barongreenback

I went from Selle Italia with the cut out to Fizik Aliante with no cut out following a bike fit. My scruttocks have never been happier.