My Personal Mountain Bike Saddle Purchasing Experience

You have got updates. You realize you can have a ton of fun on the bike and are hoping to augment the capability of your trusty steed, yet where to begin?  What’s the single most significant update for the bike to make the ride more enjoyable or productive?

Hikers and backpackers will let you know that the number one urgency is getting the appropriate footwear after all the feet require quite a while.    No, for bikers, it is something different completely. I can’t say this without getting a bit personal! If you are delicate, then you best turn off for the remainder of this article.  It is your butt.   It is your bum –be wonderful to it!

Once I purchased my first real MTB in 2019 it came with a candy saddle or so I believed. Not so. It was a Selle Italia with traditional maple leaf corners to coordinate the mark maple leaves painted on the edge of my new Rocky Mountain Oxygen Race. Selle Italia is a regarded name in burden with a full line and 12 years prior, $1,250 was a great deal of money to drop on a hard tail, so I calculated everything was a great idea to go. That thing damage, particularly for any ride more than about one hour.  I guessed it was my fault–fresh rider, inadequate strategy, etc.  Again, not as I proved when I replaced it with a brand new WTB saddle which has been the ideal match for me personally.

How can I create such a fantastic option?   Allow me to note here–this isn’t an endorsement of one producer over another–an effort to describe that every butt is exceptional.  In my situation, the WTB saddle only fits better and your experience will change, that’s the major takeaway of the whole article.

Bike Saddle Structure

The fundamental saddle might be broken into four components: shell, padding, pay, and rails.  Shells are usually some type of plastic, but carbon fiber is growing more popular.  Padding is the squishy section between the casing and the pay; padding thicknesses will be different.  Covers may be leather, synthetic substance, or any mixture of leather with reinforced Kevlar corners.  Rails are often some kind of metal, with pure ceramic occupying the higher end of their functionality and price range.  These options involve tradeoffs that I shall discuss next.

Saddle Characteristics

Consequently, now you know the body of a saddle, it is time to select the bike saddle suitable for your intended usage and your body form.

A wider profile and much more cushioning provides more comfort but may also add weight.  If you are really intent on shedding g, then you may anticipate getting less money for your rush.  If you are an aggressive racer, saving each could be worth giving up a fantastic deal of comfort.  Cross country racers invest a whole lot of time from their saddle and their races are usually brief, so it is well worth the tradeoff to conserve everything.  For the best in weight reduction, it is possible to also receive a carbon fiber casing with titanium rails and no cushioning at all. If you are just a recreational racer, you then would like to search to find the most comfortable saddle that your budget will permit.  Many saddles lie somewhere in between, giving a fantastic degree of comfort at a fair weight.

You will find different means to conserve weight that we can all appreciate, without compromising comfort.  A pure leather coat is usually lightest, but Kevlar-reinforced corners provide increased durability with just a small weight reduction.  The rails are just another place where durability might be a concern, but the crucial tradeoff here is price vs. weight.  Pure titanium rails may double the purchase price of a similarly assembled saddle using CroMoly rails.  Whether that is worth the price tag is up to the purchaser.

Saddle Outline and Fitness

Deciding your desired features and level of functionality is the simple part.  Receiving the best fit might be a bit more difficult.  The fundamental saddle shape could be significant.  As previously mentioned, a wide, chair-like saddle will be comfortable, however, these are often confined to comfort bikes and seldom look on mountain bikes.  Rather, long, lean saddles have actual applicability on the trails.  For the racers, the lean profile, besides reducing weight, also allows for simpler, more efficient.  For the more technically oriented, the more narrow saddle is also simpler to slip behind for those abrupt technical descents; becoming your sit bones wrapped on the corners of the saddle is a fantastic recipe to get an end.

It seems like a part of the saddle is lost! Most high-end saddles include some type of groove or possibly a comprehensive hole during the whole saddle.  This groove is strategically positioned to relieve pressure in sensitive nether areas.  It actually does not seem like it’d function, but it will.

Women Saddles

Obviously, those sensitive nether areas aren’t exactly the exact same for both women and men.  Many girls are going to want to limit their searches into women’s particular saddles.  Alas, the selection of alternatives, which can be very overwhelming for guys, is somewhat limited in women’s particular saddles.  Many reputable companies have developed a reputation for giving a fantastic assortment of quality women’s saddles which truly help in providing comfort for your female physique.

Is it Possible to get a ride before Purchasing?

A couple of manufacturers actually provide traders with demonstration saddles.  Check with the regional bike shop to find out if this is true for any of those lines that they carry.  Otherwise, you are likely to get your best by simply trying different bikes. Discover what style and shape are comfortable for you and then attempt to purchase either the exact same saddle or a single constructed and shaped like this.  Alas, the wide variety of saddles for sale as stock equipment on new bikes is rather narrow, so you can need to extrapolate a little based on what’s available for you.  Many local bike stores will also have a liberal return policy and will permit you to change to a different saddle in the event that you absolutely cannot make peace with the one that you bought.

Considering that derriere measurements are such a private thing, these are not a lot of recommendations as starting points on your saddle hunt.