Bikkhu

Look, to put it quite simply: Saddles support your weight. The bigger the supporting area, the more your weight is spread around - hence more comfort. Cut off most of the supporting area and your weight is supported by just two small areas in your groin region. Let the chafing commence

dutret

Except that you don't want your weight supported on that center region. It leads to problems much more serious(to most of us) then chafing.

I don't trust this saddle(even with laminate) to do a good job of supporting anything in the long term but cut outs are a huge improvement in saddle design.

Bikkhu

while fully realising the utter pointlesness of discussing suitable saddle design I just would like to say that in my personal experience the WTB love channel-type construction seems to work, while Selle Italia Trans Am type cutoff leads to agonizing pain. But as I said, thatīs just me.

JeffS

I think most will disagree with you here... I know I do. Your sit bones are the only areas that can sustain that much pressure comfortably for any amount of time.

dutret

The love channel(or any other groove) accomplishes the same thing as the cut out. It sounds like a cutout transam just doesn't fit you.

charles vail

Don't work for them, don't know the owners or anyone connected to them, don't own one of their saddles yet. I have only spoken to a few current owners and have read several reviews of the product. The design, at first, caused me to question the value of cutting a slot in leather but when I looked at one close up, I realized how it could work. I have a friend in the leather holster making business and our past conversations regarding working with leather, helped me realize how this saddle works, as it does. While the companies web site might not be the best, at least they have one. I just don't get all the critisism based on appearance. Seems like a bunch of fashionistas frequent this site.

bmike

Not true.
Take a look at well worn Brooks' - in many cases there will be divots from the sit bones breaking in the saddle over hundreds of miles.
Try out the Specialized ass-o-matic saddle sizer at a bike shop and you will see the same thing - an impression left in the foamy stuff where your sitbones compress.

Lots of folks over on the Randon list on googlegroups have been trying the saddle. Many love them, a few have had materials issues and the manufacturer has replaced / returned / etc. with no problems, a few have found that they just don't work with their anatomy / riding style.

From my use:

• The saddle takes a bit to get adjusted properly (height, tension, etc.) This wasn't as simple as swapping with my Brooks.
• The saddle appears to handle water OK. I bought a watersealed version and I run full fenders on my rando bike. I've ridden in the rain a few times and water beads up. I've been assured by the manufac. that it can be ridden in the rain sans plastic bag cover. I'll see how it works out.
• The cut out does not pinch my anatomy. It moves and flexes but when properly tensioned it does not pinch.
• I've ridden 2 centuries on it. It is very comfortable with no break in period.
• As mentioned previous this saddle is wider than what I'm used to, this is my only complaint. If I don't get used to it I'll pass it on to someone who likes a B17 width.
• The cutout (on mine, a 'Titanico' version) is laminated from underneath with another piece of leather (I think). This is to reinforce the tensioning. I believe the models for lighter weight riders do not need / have this additional lamination.

Saddles are often a hotly debated / personal decision. On the brevets I've ridden I've seen everything from gel covered cruiser saddles to narrow carbon racer boy saddles to Brooks suspension saddles. It appears that many solutions work for many different people.



I'll report back as I use mine.

Back OT... no word from the OP?
Whats the story? Wrong saddle?

charles vail

Personal beef with Grant, huh? Rivendell makes you uncomfortable? Whats wrong with a little creativity?
I do not work for Sella An-Atomica.

And the last comment is completely uncalled for......dude! Are you saying that because I disagree with something, you now need to resort to implications that I am somehow friends with someones little sister?

By the way....enjoyed your White bike photos! Nice, clean looking machine.

comradehoser

bmike--it looks like the titanico is selle anatomica's widest saddle, you could have gone with the sette bella (the narrow), or whatever the medium's called.

personally, I think the videos show pretty well how the saddle works, and actually have made me interested in trying it out.

I think one thing to keep in mind is that leather suspension design works very differently from foam-on-plastic design, so that extrapolating from one is not a good way to judge the other.

And, as in everything, experience trumps speculation.

The only thing that the nay-sayers can say with any authority is that the website design sucks. But so what, really? You could say the same thing about this one.

charles vail

Right on! These have been my sentiments since reading this forum. It seems that quite a few immature saracastic comments, attempting at humor and usually at someone elses expense exsist on SS/FG! Talk about narrow minded "fashionista" thinking.........I thought that SS/FG riders were more willing to accept new and different things! Instead, it appears that some are merely; cynical, saracastic, disrespectfull and ignorant!

If you don't like the way something looks or performs, don't buy it! From everything I have read about the Sella An-Atomica the owner/inventor is a avid but older cyclist, who wanted to design a better saddle, for long distance riding. Apparently, he has tested the design with multiple prototypes, using multiple riders, over thousands of miles, in all kinds of weather, in order to get enough feedback to refine the design and invest a bunch of money to get it into production. Any businessman with any sense, won't spend the time or money to market something that won't work and if they are dumb enough to do that, they will soon be out of business. Time will tell but from the comments I have heard the saddle seems to be a good product for many.

And.....I do not work for the company!

ryanday

Where the hell do these people come from? Every once in awhile a few random roadies or whoever the hell else they are make their way in here and cause a ruckus.

And "fashionista"? The buzzword here is "hipster."

disco2000

WOW!

Bikkhu

I can see it now - Since saddle contact area is obvioulsy irrelevant I am going to patent a SPD-like system that fits the seatpost end and clicks directly to the implants drilled in your sitbones. Just twist and click, people. Twist and click.

Shiznaz

don't miss!

charles vail

I suppose the "verbal combat" on FG/SS is a vain attempt at communicating with ever increasing and ingenious terms of indearment?

Trying to outdo each others sarcasim, to the point of personal insult, is not the way to make true friends IMHO! Apparently, this phenomenom is a product of afternoon sitcom brainwash televison were less talented writers sold out and wrote scripts for adolesant actors and millions of gen Xer's took that attitude with them in real life and made it a method of survival and peer approval. Maybe the effects of this thinking will be outgrown when reality sets in!

comradehoser

Bikkhu,

What do you mean by "saddle contact area"? The point is where and how the saddle makes contact. Sheldon explains it quite nicely in his discussion of Brooks saddles.

By way of experience, I can tell you straight off that for me, wide saddles, especially wide plastic saddles suck **** and cause thigh chafing, inefficient pedaling, etc. That's not to mention perineal and labial problems for men and women, respectively.

comradehoser

...maybe charles rides a fixie/SS?

bonechilling

On this board, anytime someone shows up pedaling some kind
of snake-oil cure-it-all bicycle product, and is roundly rejected,
they immediately claim that the participants in the discussion
are hipsters (or some variant of the term) who are too set in
their ways to try their new assless riding chaps or whatever
they're shilling.

Shiznaz

this reminds me of the spongey wonder saddle. That was an awesome thread! Countdown until Mr. Atomica pops in officially started!

charles vail

Substitute then.......hip, hip hop, hippy, hipster! Narrow minded and overly concerned with how something looks rather than how it works seems like a fashionista thinker to me.

comradehoser

If you read the thread from the beginning, I think the opposite of peddling (pedaling--ha!) happened in this case.

disco2000

[FONT="Century Gothic"][SIZE="2"]Trying to outdo each others sarcasim, to the point of personal insult, is not the way to make true friends IMHO![/QUOTE]

Wait, you're saying we can't be true friends?

'Cuz I was just about to bake you a delicious banana bread, but fine, be that way!

late

Hi,
I have had one for a couple years. It's a real nice saddle.

I am trying to understand what the problem is. Is the color the wrong shade?
If you haven't used it, they should be willing to take it back. What did you say, and
what did they say?

charles vail

Building my new/old SS from all my old parts and should have it finished this weekend. This Old fat guy will ride it 40 miles round trip to work, twice weekly. Just thought I'd hang out on the site for some tips but on this subject it appears some folks are stuck on preconceived ideas about what to ride on and how it should look!

disco2000

(again) = why this thread is useless without pics