goraman

Seems there are two of them being sold on ebay that are getting good reviews.
Anyone try a carbon fiber saddle?

PROLOGO mountain road bike saddle seat full carbon fiber saddle black | eBay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfEf...&nohtml5=False



Full Carbon Fiber 3K MTB Road Mountain Bike Bicycle Cycling Saddle Seat Cushion | eBay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n855Z6dKWoU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RTC...&nohtml5=False

CliffordK

I've got one. Wanted to put it into my next build, but I'm planning on cranking out a 500 mile ride, and think I'll try to keep the carbon fiber saddle local for a bit.

Light as a feather.

UD Full Carbon Fiber Road MTB Bicycle Cycle Bike Saddle Seat La Bicycle Parts | eBay

Maybe I should try it out on my commuter for a few days.

goraman

I would test it by riding no further than you could ride home with out having to sit in case it just doesn't work out.

CliffordK

Yeah,
Like I said, I was planning on a couple of 150+ mile rides, and a couple of hilly half century rides. Probably coming to about 500 miles, and in excess of 10,000 feet climbing. CF would be great... but it could be an unpleasant ride with a failure. I can ride quite a bit standing, and can be rather light on the saddle, but that might just be over the top.

I've ridden on bare plastic in the past, and am thinking about tearing the cover off of one of my saddles. A little flex is nice, but one doesn't need a lot of padding.

Ok, the saddle on my rain bike was getting pretty tattered. So, it now has bright and shiny CF.

I've been running fenderless on the rain bike, so I'm not too excited with the idea of more holes in the seat

I should have about 40 miles on it tomorrow.

T Stew

I have one like the first from ebay, sold under Selle SMP name (obviously a cheap copy not the real thing for under $50). Was for my go fast/tri bike. I rode it just a few times last year, probably only a couple hundred miles on it tops so not a long term report but its held up fine. It's not as comfortable to me as my padded seats but that is a personal thing. For a short training ride or race it would fine. With it being very curvy though one can't move around on it a lot so your stuck to more of an exact position. I do worry that one large pothole or something could cause the carbon rails to snap, but maybe just paranoid about cheap Chinese rip offs. So far so good.

Retro Grouch 

And, in the case of the commuter bike, no farther than I'd want to ride home with no saddle after it had been stolen.

CliffordK

I won't stress about loosing a $20 saddle if it comes to that. But, the titanium seatpost I screwed it onto would be a pain to loose.

CF is flashy, but there are a lot of seats more expensive than $20.

goraman

They are actually made in the same place as the Selle according to what I have read,they are just 15 grams heavier on average.

SELLE has a very strict quality control and I'm guessing there rejects are being sold on ebay by the manufacturer .
The Selle are weighed to the gram and can't be over there specified limit.

T Stew

I highly doubt it but who knows. It is identical to the first link posted in the thread. It wasn't even sold under the Selle SMP name in the listing it was called "Lightweight 3K Full Carbon Fiber Cycling Road Mountain Bike Saddle Bicycle Seat" and it was from China. It just had Selle SMP printed on the saddle. I could measure the weight. It was sold by beautylife2014 on eBay but that user does not have the same model currently listed (was last summer when I got it).

CliffordK

Unfortunately one never knows about Chinese stuff. They are probably all similar. It should be easy enough to buy an authentic carbon fiber part from some manufacture, build a mold, then start churning out replicas.

While I think the outer layer is genuine CF, one has no idea what the core is without actually cutting it up, or looking at damaged goods. Even big name companies like Campagnolo will laminate CF onto a plastic core for some of their products (Athena?)

CliffordK

Ok,

I got out for about 35 miles on my Chinese CF saddle.

I think this was mine.
UD Full Carbon Fiber Road MTB Bicycle Cycle Bike Saddle Seat La Bicycle Parts | eBay

Now, I've said before that one should do a few hundred miles to do a true shake-down of a saddle. But, I'm not sure I'll get that far on it.

The saddle mounted up easily enough. As mentioned, the rails are non-round, but they seemed to be ok with my post. My post had good support underneath, plus a small clamp on top. Once properly mounted, and tightened, the saddle itself seemed sturdy enough (no long-term testing yet).

Hop on the saddle, and it feels like one is sitting on concrete. I do think one can habituate to the concrete feeling eventually, and didn't really notice the vertical compression after a couple of miles in my ride.

My biggest complaint, however was that the front part of the wing of the saddle (red in diagram) was very harsh and cut into the back of my thighs on the pedal downstroke.



I found this cutting/pinching feeling to be very uncomfortable.

Perhaps it is a sign that I'm a vintage cyclist. Oh, I also don't ride with britches padding.

I'll keep the saddle on the bike for a little while for a more thorough shakedown, but it isn't going on my upcoming multi-century ride.

Looking at the two saddles linked above, mine seems to be most closely related to the TIME saddle, although perhaps the TIME saddle is somewhat more slender in shape. But, I'd approach a saddle with such little wrap to the wings with skepticism.

The Prologo saddle is about twice the cost of what I paid. However, it seems to have much greater wrap of the wings, so I think it may alleviate the discomfort issue I was feeling.

I'll try to get some better photos tomorrow.

So, for now, the rating of my saddle (probably independent of the Prologo, and unable to confirm with the Time).



After an initial disappointment, I'm not ready to give up yet, and may try a Prologo, although, I'd love something with a little more flex designed in such as the Brooks Cambium C13 (if only it was a little cheaper).

02Giant 

The Prologo Chinese saddle shows up nowhere on the Prologo products pages, nor do they make one with that shape.

wphamilton

I have a Spyder knockoff on my main ride and it's honestly my best saddle for longer rides. Longer to me means 50-65 miles.

Road Fan

Considering where you have discomfort, l wonder if you can try sliding it backward about 5 mm. That should reduce the pressure at that point, without greatly affecting the support for your sit ones.

CliffordK

I did slide it back about as far as it will go. And, angled the nose down slightly. The upper support on the seatpost I'm using is narrow, so the seat may go back slightly further if I allow the rails to be unsupported in the front a bit.

However, sitting back, it also gives a bit more rearward of a pressure on the pedal stroke, and thus may even make the problem worse.

I'll play around with it a little more, but this isn't something that I've ever experienced with any other saddle.

Road Fan

Have some ideas, but I'm not sure what you mean about the rearward pressure and how it's of concern. I have felt what call a bias, but it doesn't present as a problem, IMHO.

But did the rearward shift relieve the pressure you were concerned about?

CliffordK

No, I think it was just as bad, if not worse.

molten

A lot of amateur saddles here.

fietsbob

Never would , Zero Padding its all about weight weenieness .. goraman just wants to buy stuff for its minimal weight I suppose ..( no matter the cost??)
Push a Big Gear Hard, and you Dont have much weight on your Butt.

I Had a Cinelli Unicanitor saddle un forgiving Nylon , but Weather Proof so I threw it in
with My AlAn Cyclo- cross frame & fork when I sold it.

CX OK as its only :45 long race on a muddy course , and have to Hose the Bike down to clean it, anyhow.

CliffordK

Well, I've ridden that CF saddle that I have for a few shorter rides, and it isn't as bad as my first ride. Although, it still has quite a hard concrete feel to it.

Push the big gears, and one's standing up. Saddle doesn't make any difference

Get the right design, and the padding should not make much difference. Consider the flex but lack of padding in the famous Brooks saddles. However, so far my Chinese saddle isn't quite there.

fietsbob

My Fizik saddle * even with steel rails is pretty light ,

My Brooks PRO by many opinion 'leaders' would consider it too Hard , and Heavy.

* A Black Vitesse Brompton special batch.

molten

I received a 'rip-off' result from [ebay seller] 'Bikewagon' (labeled as 'Bikewagon.com' on the shipping label). I sent a 'message' to this seller. Never got a reply. Seller has a high# of negative & neutral feedback.
The purchase was made some time ago --- before the above feedback built up.

Do NOT BUY from this seller.

dim

my new saddle: Gilles Berthoud Aravis .... not cheap, but I bought it based on reviews from other owners

I only recieved it on the weekend so cannot give a long term review, but for the short distance that I have used it, I don't even feel it, I don't even think about a saddle whilst riding .... it's very comfy straight out of the box (so far) ... and looks very good, and is quality

I will go on a long ride this coming weekend and will have a better idea.... but so far... so good

I'm tired of using cheap bad saddles (I've owned several bikes this year already.... some came with really bad saddles (with no maker's names and it felt like sitting on a concrete slab) .... (I've been buying and selling bikes for profit, so as to buy better)

CliffordK

I've bought a few items from Bikewagon (Salt Lake, Utah) without complaint. I think mostly Shimano parts which seem to be genuine.

goraman

I second it, bikewagon has been really good to me.
I have gotten some really nice stuff from them.