portland376

I currently have a Fizik Arione R5 saddle with alloy (k:ium) rails and love it. I'm building up a new bike and have the opportunity to pick up either an R1 or R3 with carbon braided rails at a relatively cheap price. Is there a noticeable difference in padding/comfort between these saddles and the R5? I know the R1 and R3 come in at a lighter overall weight, just wondering if I'd notice an actual difference comfort wise. Any other thoughts in general otherwise on the saddles would also be appreciated. Unfortunately I can't get my hands on any locally to compare. Thank you in advance for the help!

allen254

i just bought a fizik arione R3 i went from the fizik aliante which had a very, (which i thought at the time to be quite hard padding), but a hard comfort, if that makes any sense,, and then switching from the Aliante to the Arione R3 the padding is way harder but still comfortable it took a bit getting used to but now no problems pretty comfortable for me.

I think the may use the same padding if it's in the fizik R family, i think the only thing that changes from the r5 to r3 is the weights and the bottom looks to me to be carbon fiber or fizik sayas thermoplastic something something i forget. but it's really light. ind i love my new Arione R3

dvdslw

I believe the padding is the same from the Arione Classic all the way up to the R1 Braided model. The 00 model does appear to have some special fabric with a hi-mod base and rails but at $300-$350 I'll pass. I'd say the R1 braided model is the best overall bargain if you can find it on sale. Arts Cyclery has them for $209 and if you hold out for one of their flash sales you can get an additional 10-20% off Fizik Arione R1 Carbon Saddle

George

They make so many models of each it's hard to tell. I was wondering the same thing. I just got a Aliante vex from Arts and they sent a return label with the saddle. If you don't like it just send it right back. It seems to me that the padding is more firmer than on the the older models. I tried to look up the different models in stages, but I couldn't find anything on it so I just went by price. Arts would be a good place to buy from.

OldsCOOL

I have the Fizik Pave' on one of my bikes so I cant comment about padding.

topflightpro

I believe the R5 has a lot more padding than the R3 and R1, but I'm not exactly sure.

The old base Arione, which I think is now the R5, had a lot of padding. Personally, I thought it was awful. The next model up, the Arione CX, which I think is now the R3, had less padding, and in my opinion, was a lot more comfortable. Going up, I think the padding stayed the same, but carbon was added to the shell and rails.

kleng

You should try the Arione 00, zero means zero padding,

I would suspect R5 has same padding across the whole range down to the R1
The changing saddle base and rails as you move towards the lighter arione's is what is changing the pad feel.

My R1 has soft padding with a lot of give.