The Secret To Choosing The Correct Saddle
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- Picking the right bike saddle is essential to overall comfort while riding. Get it wrong and you can end up with multiple saddle sores and injuries. Alex and Ollie talk to a bike fit expert on choosing bike saddles.
00:00 Intro
01:03 What width should your saddle be?
02:15 Does more padding mean more comfort?
03:17 How do bib shorts affect your saddle comfort?
04:34 How do you pick the right saddle?
05:20 Try different saddle brands
05:55 Do saddles need padding?
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What saddle do you have?🚴♀️
Gelu & cheap Chinese stuff. Depends on the bike, from one extreme to another...
Selle Italia Novus superflow endurance. No break in needed and love it.
My new one is the Pro Turnix Carbon (155g) as of 2 days ago, to replace the Fizik (250g) saddle without a model stamped anywhere. I'm hoping it will be more comfortable than the stiff Fizik one.
I would like to know his take on tt-saddles on road bikes. It does not make sense to me that you are in an aggressive position with your junk crushed against the saddle. I don’t even know why you would need the front part of the saddle, except for the construction, in which it adds rigidity.
Favorite saddle right now is the Fizik Argo Tempo 160mm for road biking and the Fabric Cell Radius for upright biking short distances.
This video sets a new record for the least Ollie speaks in a video in which he appears.
Hahahah he's still stunned from picking up his new bike 👉ua-cam.com/video/94nxltinkEU/v-deo.html
3rd wheeling was the good doctor
@@gcntech More likely he's sulking because his bike wasn't superniced ha!
Videos on saddles always leaves me more ??????? than when I started 😄
I watched this twice yesterday and couldn't find anything that really gave clear advice on how to go about choosing the right saddle for you. As for his comment that sit bone width is irrelevant, what a load of absolute cobblers.
So what was the secret? We never did find out .
lol right!
When it comes to saddles, you have to try many and find for yourself what fits best. Thank god you can buy and return them to your local store.
I think generally a saddle where only your sitbones are interacting with the rear is ideal. I had a short nose saddle which was too wide on the wings and my inner thigh was sitting on it and would carry a lot of sores. The saddles shaped like the selle italia slr boost give that best ride feel.
The secret is spending silly amounts of money for a bike fit 😅
I definitely noticed when I accidentally tilted my saddle upward i started getting back soreness. Once i tilted it a bit down, back pain was gone! Couple degrees makes a huge difference on a saddle.
I’ve had saddle issues for a while. Excited to get a proper bike fit in a couple of weeks
Someone create a saddle loan scheme or library. It usually takes an hour for me to start feeling saddle pain so 5 minutes in a shop is not going to cut it. Your weight changes the shape of the saddle 'shell' ( stiffer = less flex ). In my mind, ideal would be infinitely stiff , the correct shape to support my sit bones and something that does not rub with minimal padding. I tend to ride in one saddle position but other people are constantly changing. This is likely why padding is needed to create a flexible element ? I'm no saddle expert. Just trying to navigate this nightmare of cycling and keep the cost down.
I think I'm now less clear what to look for in a saddle than when I started watching. Can we have a follow up please... perhaps also talking about what differences for different types of bikes... road, hybrid, mtb, upright city bike etc.
This guy should be a politician. Talked for 9 minutes without really saying anything that addressed the question of, "How do I choose a saddle that's right for me?"
I've tried many saddles through the years and have now settled on the All-Wings noseless saddle. No more numbness down there and zero perineum discomfort. There is a bit less lateral control due to the lack of nose, and riding without hands takes a little getting used to. There is increased pressure through the sit bones and an increase in weight bearing through the arms and palms but for me it's worth it.
I was told that women need wider saddles because we have wider hips. Some women do. I went down and down and down for years until I got a narrow saddle that finally fits me.
That's awesome, bike fits are always super personal. It's best finding what works for you and not worrying about the norms 🙌
Recently replaced my road bike saddle after it came loose from the rails, was creaking and moving back and forwards. The new one is a fabric scoop, very comfortable, and no issues on long rides. Although I do notice some pressure when in the drops, I wonder if going with the line-s or something with a cut out would be better.
I was having issues with my sit bones being the point of discomfort on longer rides and what I discovered when I bought a cheap carbon fibre saddle (under £30) off a well known internet retail site taught me more about saddle fitting than anything else.
1) With a hard saddle and padded shorts you can feel the sit bone contact points far more precisely than with a padded saddle.
2) Place the saddle front/back so that you are sitting on the saddle with your sit bones, not having them either side of the support (to far forward), sit upright with your hands off the bars if needed to feel this.
3) When you put your hands down on the drops then you should roll forward enough that you can't feel the sit bone to saddle interface anymore.
4) Now start considering on raising lowering the saddle and bars position with respect to each other so that when on the hoods, you can barely feel the sit bones making contact with the saddle or just at the point of not at all.
This is the ball park for a good starting set-up, at least for me it was.
It may take a while for the rest of your body to adjust to the new position as normal, but you should al least have the saddle in the right place for bottom comfort.
Also a saddle that has a small flare up at the back, a level centre section and a droop nose allows for a more comfortable lower bar position than one that is flush along its whole length. At least in my opinion.
Thought i needed a new saddle.. just needed to adjust it. The SMALLEST tilt up or down can make ALL the difference!!!
Is the seller Italia you show here top of the line for comfort, or is the Selle Italia FLITE titanium (vintage) better? Any advice is appreciated here
I once bought an imported cheap plastic Web pattern design saddle because it was amazingly light.
It was like riding on a brick.
Epic levels of shear crippling discomfort that was tolerable for less than five minutes. And bottom pain that persisted for hours.
"Super light weight saddle" it said.
Should have said, "bottom torture guaranteed" £12.
Ooooof that sounds nasty! It really is worth getting the saddle that works for you 👌
Hey GCN, I'm new to endurance road biking. Have you covered chamois in shorts, liners, bibs, how to care for them, what to wear with them, etc? I'm trying to figure out how to make longer rides better and what's necessary or not. Thanks! 😀
@blijVrouw GCN have loads of useful videos covering all your questions. But as others will agree, shorts/tights are a personal preference, so choose wisely.
I have it easy selle Italia SLR boost L any variation though my favourite is the endurance.
Bontrager Verse has long rails and Aeolus too but I have no experience with the latter.
So, essentially all of the non-information can be summarised by the comment at 5:20 - try different saddles until you find one that works for you. Very helpful.
Tldr: it depends.
Could have talked more about shapes, what works for most etc..
Just got my Sella Italia gravel saddle and it came all the way up from Italy! On its own.. how environmentally friendly is that! They seem to have a very low shop/try presence in the uk? Lets hope its worth the gamble, and it shouldn't really be a gamble?
Same here, ordered a Selle Italia from an Italian online reseller - into Australia. They're very pricey here, at least the mid-range ones.
I've been using my Brooks B17 since 2017-ish. Out of the box it was ridiculously uncomfortable alas it broke in eventually...or my butt did! 😅
I’m rather disappointed in this one. It could have been boiled down into: “Saddles: this is an arcane science; there are no guidelines the layman can use. You’ll only find the right one through a professional bike fit or blind luck.
That’s what I’ve done: 10 saddles and counting. My butt is not happy.
@gcntech: “trickier” is a tricky word. 😉
"Saddle discomfort is something that effects everybody" 🤣
Maybe I'll watch this video because my smallest folding bike has a saddle, but then I'll happily lay down on my recumbent bike again. 😜
Never seen Ollie so quiet hope he is OK ? 🚴🏻👍 pete
Still in shock over his new bike 👉 ua-cam.com/video/94nxltinkEU/v-deo.html
@@gcntechis this because he had a choice of paint jobs and can't believe he chose the most boring.
Shape and size are important. Got it
I feel like I've completely forgotten... I'm not sure what type of saddle was on that water bike Ollie tried out... can you all please put that video on your next episode so I can see what saddle it comes with?
I always thought ti, carbon and cr-mo seat rails all had different ride feel. I think it's really subtle, definitely not as noticable as a frame or fork, but it's there. Maybe I'm wrong? Idk
That's really interesting, there will certainly be something in it but like you said, it won't make as much as difference to frame material 🙌
I think the Giant SL Contact system is a good start. Forward, neutral and upright depending on your basic riding position. It helps make so much sense of the mine field.
Regarding that "you have to think saddle + bib as one topic" there is a manufacturer that does exacly this: "everve" with their "ezero" system. The German GCN guys once tested it and really liked it.
Which saddle do you use Oli ?
Ritchey Comp Streem does work quite well for me. Should I add after 2 hours discomfort on it to simple being sore or is that my saddle.
Unpadded saddles is giving me childhood flashbacks. I'm sure anyone else who was a child in the 80s at some point had or knew someone with a Raleigh BMX Burner with a hard plastic saddle.
Go back a bit further and remember the first Unica Nitor saddles which had no padding or cover.
That hard plastic saddle 🤕
You Guys should make a Video about leg length discrepancy and saddle choice's or solutions especially with flat Pedals
Solution for that problem is usually shimming the cleat, not picking different saddle.
Would you be using a different saddle for flat pedals?
I understand less padding is more comfortable, I find gel saddle uncomfortable so use carbon saddle
How is it that thier is now measuring device, for this yet? When u get a pair of shoes u have that metal size thing. Thier should be a similar device for bike seats. It's really hard to talk about this at a bike shop. Should be simpler than current.
I have a selection of Brooks. Best is the Swift Titanium.
The saddle manufacturers rubbed their hands together when 'Spinning' became vogue. When spinning, pedal pressure ( torque ) is reduced because power was made with revs.
Reducing pedal pressure means more bodyweight is on the saddle.
Greatest bit of cycling advice I was ever given was "If you can climb a ladder, you can ride a bike up a hill." This was to demonstrate the cycling leg action is pulling the knee down FIRST, followed by extending the knee. Using this technique, body weight is partially lifted forward off the saddle. When pedaling hard, contact point on the saddle is 'on the rivet', the front rivet on a Brooks saddle.
My gelu k4 saddle cushion doesn't age, weird 😂
Correct saddle for the frame, the bike as a whole. Has to work for the rider until an upgrade is possible.
Why is it preferable to have padded shorts rather than a padded saddle?
The saddle should be firm without any sag over time to have the rails make you uncomfortable. It's job is to support you. Padding on the shorts is necessary compared to the saddle.
In my understanding, this way the padding and shorts move with you as you change position on the saddle (ex. going up a hill vs down). Having smooth material move with your legs also reduces chafing against the saddle as you pedal which can be made worse if the saddle is thickly padded with soft material.
All of my road bikes are equipped with the SI Flite 1990 model. No cut out, no grove.
As long as you've found the saddle that works for you that's great 🙌 How long have you used that saddle for?
My chief complaint is that there is no way to inexpensively demo a whole range of saddles. You end up spending hundreds and hundreds hoping you can sell ones that you end up finding uncomfortable. If I were a saddle manufacturer I would charge $100ish and send somebody my whole range of saddles to try. Then charge them for whichever they don't return.
SMP has a great demo program. The US distributor is Albacici. They sent me three demo saddles based on the app questions I answered and told me to keep them as long as I needed. I was charged for one saddle. If none of them worked I could send them back at my expense and would be refunded the saddle price I originally paid. If one works you send them all back, at your expense and they send you a new one of your choice. If you find a demo dealer you avoid the mailing back and forth. It is a great program and it helped me find the saddle that works very well for me. Too bad all manufacturers don't take this approach.
It can be tricky, bike fitting and schemes like Selle Italia ID match 👉 ua-cam.com/video/E-sfmXJ8-Y8/v-deo.html Can be a great way to try new shapes and sizes out 👌
I use bontrager elite saddle and it has a tiny bit more padding than selle italia. Did ID Match and couldn’t stand the hard saddles. The tech pulled seat back but it kept poking me so I put it back to what it was prior to bike fit. Cleat positioning was the only benefit I got from a bike fit😅
for me the biggest issue is seat tube angle. i like my saddle to be alot more forward than normal. if i ride bike with normal seat tube angle it makes me sit on the nose of saddle which is very uncomfortable.
Have you tried a saddle that has extra long rails that allow the whole saddle to be more forward than most? I forget the model name of a Bontrager saddle I have. It is on the hard side and the cut out sides feel rough when you move side to side in the saddle. Hence Selle SMP range of saddles is great because the cut out does not hurt. Mine has no padding and even the 19 mm max thickness of the shammy in Assos Kiespanzer is not too much for me. Overweight sensitive bum 😢
depending on what bike you ride, theres pretty much always two options for original seatposts... they are mostly delivered with setback, around 15-20mm and you can get another seatpost without the offset so be able to move the saddle forward within clamping range
Interesting! Where has the forward fitting saddle come from? It could be a wider fit issue to help find the best position.
@@gcntech Selle SMP all fit more forward if needed if wanted. I do not recall the Bontrager model that also can be set more forward than most.
A top tip from a bike fitter on YT is to choose a saddle that is 12 mm wider than the width of your sit bones. Since I've gone from a 149 mm wide saddle to a 130 mm Selle Italia Sp-01 I can vouch that discomfort is no longer an issue on long rides. Today I rode 100 Km in 3:20:00 partly because I could concentrate on muscular effort rather than be distracted and slowed down by saddle discomfort.
I have an unpadded Selle SMP saddle that is the perfect shape and on Finnish cracked and pot holed roads it kicks like a mule on a carbon road bike with 28 mm tires. So 19 mm max shammy in Assos Kiespanzer is not overkill.
"We don't actually sit on our sit bones." Exactly! Thank you for saying this. I'm so tired of this myth. Nobody except commuters sitting bolt upright sit on their sit bones.
What do we sit on then?
@@BadTanLinesThe Perineum. The forward half of the saddle should be slightly up. With the lumbar vertebrae at 45 degs and the thoracic vertebrae at 30 degs, holding on the drops, the perineum sits flat on the saddle. Pulling the knee down with the glutes slightly lifts weight off the saddle. That is how the pros do it.
Not enough cyclists are coached fully.
Commuters are the largest population of cyclists tho, so technically most cyclists sit on their sit bones
@@jameslee-pevenhull5087 ouch! You think that can support your body weight?
Has this myth lead you to make the wrong decisions when buying new saddles?
Fizik Tempo Aliante
So for 9 minutes you are telling me you dont know? Come on GCN you can do better! And please just measure the sitbones. Even though in a road bike position you are not sitting on the sitbones, you are sitting on the sitbone arches. These are connected to you your sitbones so for saddle widht the sitbone distance matters most...
Key takeaway, trial and error
What is crazy wirh me, saddles if they have a cut out it feels comfortable. But if something is not exactly like right now and if i change the saddle my knees esspecially left one starts to hurt… i would like tontry different ones… but allways ended with knee problems..
I’ve never seen Ollie so quiet or so serious.😂
At 7:10 Oli thinks, enough of this BS, the truth must be said, "carbon seat rails make no difference"
😂
He is still getting over the blacked out Pina and wondering what bike he could be on elsewhere😢
He is worried about his balls, thats serious 😂😂😂
I just thought he'd seen a ghost. 😅 He didn't say one word.
Ollie is like a third wheeler in this conversation 😂😂
Still in shock over his new bike 👉ua-cam.com/video/94nxltinkEU/v-deo.html
Broke my saddle riding back to Brussels from Sweden - I blame the CRAP German bike paths. The authorities know they are crap but rather than fix them they just put up signs warning that they're rubbish (?!?) So it felt like i was being kicked in the nads by a small horse every 20 meters and so I ended up riding more on the front of the saddle to ease my achy bum, and on one spectacular bump I broke off the nose of the saddle. Fixed it with super glue - but it ended up breaking again later that day. Luckily I could ride with the broken saddle - and in the Netherlands and then Belgium for the next and final day the paths were smoother...
You described Finnish roads too. Our issue is frost changing the ground under the asphalt breaking the asphalt each winter.
@@JanneRasanen2The German bike paths just have tree roots too close to the surface making large ridged bumps. Then every few Km's there's a sign post saying "Radweg-Schäden" yeah. Right, like THATs helpful!
Crikey, this bloke's arse must hurt from just sitting on the fence so much!
It’s anybody going to mention that wrong ssaddle selection may cause you numb/tanggling hands?
Noting every situation is slightly different, my numb/tingling hands issue ultimately ended up being the handlebars being too far forward from the saddle (not the saddle itself). Going with a shorter stem and changing the seat post to 0 offset (original was 20mm offset) made my hands happy.
Wrong saddles can cause a whole host of issues, but it's not always the wrong part. You've often got to look at the fit as a whole 🚲
This subject needs way more than nine minutes
The padding should be different for different riders weight. Lighter riders need us. less padding. The ankle of the saddle is also important.
Great point, there is a fine line between padding for comfort and stability though. Do you like a padded saddle or prefer something more stripped back?
Please do a version of this question for commuters or folks not using chamois. In this video we got one side comment about commuters sitting upright. I both commute on an electric cargo bike and ride weekends on my road and mtb bikes. A well-fitting saddle is equally important for all three and they are very different from each other.
Ollie looks like that shocked dog from video memes 😀
What's the point of having padded shorts and why not have all the padding on the saddle?
The saddle should support you. The shorts cushion that support a bit. If the saddle is padded eventually you will sink a bit into it and bottom out so to speak on the rails.
So to sum it all up what have we learned?
Absolutely nothing 😂
yeah it's a real struggle.
almost all road cycling saddles are to wide, especially for guys.
Well not everybody , when Chuck Norris rides his bike, he only wears a chamois so the saddle doesn't feel too much pain!
Underated but ugly, > selle smp drakon and similar models.
If padding was so bad, bib shorts wouldn't have any at all. Everybody needs padding, insisting it be in a specialized article of clothing rather than built into the bike is just another bit of snobbery. Hard saddle means real cyclist who gets to sneer at anyone with a padded saddle who might be wearing-- gasp- gym shorts.
Padding isn't bad in shorts but not ideal in a saddle. The saddle should support you. The shorts cushion that support a bit. If the saddle is padded eventually you will sink a bit into it and bottom out so to speak on the rails. Like I tell my patients when it comes to their beds, a bed can never be too firm but it can be too soft. As long as you are set up properly when sleeping I can use two cinderblocks and a piece of plywood and help someone sleep like a baby. A bed shouldn't conform to your body, your body should be supported by the firmness of a bed. Memory foam is the worst. Similar with saddles. Like mentioned in the video if a saddle is truly designed properly for the human body as well as the right size/fit you don't need very much or any padding as long as you have padded shorts. It has nothing to do with snobbery but has plenty to do with structure, anatomy and biomechanics. It took me 3.5 years to finally get the saddle that worked the way it should. Some were close but you know what they say about being close. Wound up with an SMP Composit that has no padding. I never thought that could be but it is.
Well that's 9 minutes of my life I'm not getting back. Not the best content you've put out still no further forward other than sit bone measuring is pointless 🤔
Come back to this at some point and watch it numerous times along the way. After taking 3.5 years to arrive at my saddle bliss everything he says is spot on. Everyone is looking for that magic pill so to speak. Anything worth anything unfortunately takes time and sometimes we need to hear basic tenets over and over before we realize the value.
it´s a shame that the only "fact" they state is completely wrong. sit bone measuring is super accurate for choosing the right width.
@@justmeasure measuring your sit bone on the specialized saddle jig doesn't take into account pelvic rotation as you don't sit bolt upright on a road bike. This was a marketing way for specialized to sell more saddles. Most bikes come with a saddle that's too wide makes selling to a mass market easier