The saddle is the largest point of contact between the bike and rider, and can be one of the things that makes or breaks a ride. Saddle choice is very personal to each person and bike combination. It also depends on what style of riding you want to do. As with everything in selecting the exact specifics of this bike I didn’t really know what I wanted, but knew I wanted to be comfortable.
On previous bikes I had always used whatever saddle came with the bike, or if I wore it out/damaged it then a generic unisex one. This wasn’t working so well for me as I pushed for greater speed and distance, my nether regions were starting to suffer. Some of this could be resolved with seat position and bike set up, which I did some of on the old bike, but with this new build I wanted to get it right.
The best advise I got was to try as many saddles as possible, so I did. The bike was built and bought with out me selecting the final saddle, and I then worked my way through the store’s test saddles.
The first I looked at was the Brooks range of saddles as there is loads of chatter from tourers about them. Of course that comes with the general caveat that they take a while to break in, but the test one has had miles on them. I tested the cambium saddles which are not supposed to need this break in period. Not matter how much the internet raves about them I just could not get on with the Brooks saddles. I tried adjusting the positions and tilt but just did not work for me, which is why I am really glad I personally tested them.
I tried a few others but the one that worked the best for me was the fi’zi:k Arione Donna (I can’t find it on the Fi’zi:k website so might have been discontinued). I borrowed it for a while to do my normal commuter rides and as it was working well I tried it on my first weekend tour. (A success that I should write up some time…). It was only the sit bones that had a little bit of discomfort but there will always be a little bit of owch after a long ride. I have been slowly playing with the position of the saddle to work on the comfort including position and tilt.
