msub

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum. There seems to be a lot of knowledgeable folks on these forums, so I joined in search of help with my bike issues.

I have a Selle Italia saddle that I bought at a flea market for $2.00 a while back that has been sitting around. Today I tried to install it onto my mountain bike which has a Kalloy (I believe?) 31.6 seatpost. This seatpost is the kind that has two adjustment bolts (one fore and one aft).

The problem is that the saddle rails do not fit into the clamp. The rails are spaced too narrowly on the Selle Italia saddle. I measured the distance across the outside of the rails to be about 48mm while the outside distance on my other saddle (which fits) was about 50.3mm.

Does the Selle Italia saddle use some sort of different standard for seatpost clamp width? It is a well worn older saddle, and appears to have the words "Trans Am" stitched into it. It's hard to tell because the ink is shot. My initial guess was that this saddle uses a clamp width that is no longer popular, and that I will have to track down an older seatpost if I want to use this saddle.

Torchy McFlux

Just spread the rails by hand while tightening the seatpost bolts. Saddle shells are plastic and have some give. It will work fine.

msub

I tried flexing the saddle a bit - it looks like it will work, and that I'll get my money's worth. I'll find out later. Thanks for the tip.

I'm just curious though, is this issue pretty common? Do I just have a messed up saddle, or did there used to be a seat post that mated up perfectly to it without tweaking?

bikeman715

yes this is very common.no you will not mess up the saddle.

pkpsu

had this same issue with a new regal I had recently bought. Just tighten the seat rail clamp down real good like people said before. Mine started to squeak a bit because of it so I just taped the contact points on the rails with some electrical tape.