A bit of background to this story:
During the first week of July, I was on a long ride to Cedar Lake in Chester Connecticut, which is about a 85 mile ride for me from home, when I was struck from behind by a car just after an intersection. Although I was not hurt at all, my Cervelo R3 was retired due to stress fractures in the frame. This meant that I needed a new bike, which the insurance company was nice enough to provide, so I choose to upgrade to an R5. Dan at Cycle Concepts had one on the floor in my size, and offered it to me at a discount for just the frame. I went to look at it, and it was mostly black with some grey, but it was the Celtic Green that caught my eye! At that moment I knew my destiny...R5.
The only thing was that my White and Red Fizik Aliante saddle does not go with black and green, so that meant a new saddle. Well, since I had to get a new saddle anyway, the Aliante worked for rides under 40 miles, but gave me a bit of soreness in my soft places after that. I decided to at that point to go on the "Quest for a Perfect Saddle".
Having had a Brooks Pro Leather Saddle for quite some time on my old steel bike, 35 years or so, it was briefly in the mix. The problem is weight and style. Although the Brooks Pro is a beautiful work of art, atop the R5, not so much. It also weigh as much a my frame, so the bike would be a bit top heavy if you catch my meaning...Most people would say that I am already top heavy, and that shouldn't matter, but one can dream can't they...Therefore my brother Nick and I came up with a few criteria for the saddle:
1. It must be under 300 grams, preferably under 200, but beggar can't be choosers. 2. It must look good atop the R5 frame. 3. It must not hurt my tender back side on long rides.
The first time I decided to venture away from Brook was 2 years ago when riding indoors, so Dave had me go onto the Fi'zik site and read about their philosophy on saddle design and fitting. Their's is an anotomical effort to fit people by spinal flexibility, body type and riding style. I was a Bull, as most of us know already, so the Aliante was the choose. It works perfectly fine for all rides under 40 miles, which to be honest are most of my ride, except events and summer jounts. The quest continued...
Dan at Cycling Concepts in Rocky Hill, CT put me on the A...O'Meter to check my saddle width using my sit bone width. We had tried this once before, but could not get a reading as my back side has too much padding. This time it indicated about a 140 mm width saddle or Medium would suffice. Dan was convinced through prior testing and research that Bontreger had come up with the perfect saddle with the Inform RL. I happily tried this saddle there wider version as it had a 90 day return policy. So we put the saddle on and I road about a 40 mile loop around the reservoir. The first thing I noticed on the 148 mm saddle were the wings rubbing against my back side. This was unacceptable, so Dan suggested the smaller 130 mm saddle, bad IDEA. I had never been in so much pain as after my first ride with the narrower saddle. Today, after two weeks have lapsed, it still hurts. So the Inform was mis-informed, and history. The quest continued.
On my ride back to Cycling Concepts I took a ride by Berlin Bike to check out the Specialized Saddles, as Nick has a Toupe that he loves. When I got there I had a discussion of my needs with Scott, as he said he was trying the new Romin Evo, which is very light and he liked it, but he keeps swithing back to his Fizik Arione. Everyone had their favorite saddle, some like the flat seat that they can have more than one position on, and some like a more saddle like seat that only provides 1 position and you sit down in, while others need a releaf cut in the middle. Well when I went back, Scott was ocupodo, and I dealt with the owner, who did not know my story, and put me onto an Avatar, which Nick had already loaned me from his stock to try. I have a hard time with saying no, so when he said I could bring it back and exchange it, I said what the hay, and just went along.
The Specialized Avatar is a nice saddle and very comfy indeed, but weight over 300 grams, "Outside acceptable rance", and has two elevated pads where you side bones are for cushioning. The problem for me was that after a bit, those bumps would force my body forward on the saddle so I was siddle on the nose with the saddle going up my soft area...NOT GOOD. So I have been back there now 3, maybe even 4 time, trying to get them to order me a Romin SL. Which is what Scott was riding in the Evo model (Evo meaning very light). I like the Romin because of its shape. It has a saddle shape with a large cutout and a dipped nose in the front. I like the idea of the nose dipping downward in the front a bit to keep from catching my shorts on the nose after standing, which is very anoying a energy robbing. It is very similar to the Aliante design with a cutout. It comes in today....So the quest continues on...
In the mean time, I have several riding buddies, both indoor and outdoor who ride the Selle SMP. Sondre the Wrench at Cycling Concepts ride one, and I thought I would give that a try. Well, it cost almost $300. This is not something that I am going to buy to try, so I needed a fitting center, or a shop that lends out test saddle's and has the SMP's to try. I found that Central Wheel in West Hartford was on the list of Test Centers on Selle's site, so I went and picked one up. I tried to Glider model which is designed for medium to wide pelvices. The SMP had a large center cutout with a saddle shape and pronounced dip in the nose. This saddle provide on sitting position like the Aliante. I road it for about 60 miles in 2 days, and enjoyed it, especially when I moved in forward by 1 cm. This slight move provided a lot more power on the hills and I wound up with a 1 mph increase or better in my avg speed...NICE! However after the initial 20 miles or so, I notice that with saddle had a narrow band to sit in between the rear peaks and the middle hump. This must fit some euro gents bottom, but not my Bull butt. It was very noticeable. If the SMP was not $300 buck, I might try it over time, but cost prevents me from making the leap.
Today is the day my Romin comes in, so we shall see what that brings. If that doesn't work, Fi'zik has a new to 2011 saddle series called the Versus. The Versus version of most of the Fi'zik line had a center channel with no foam their. So the Aliante Versus, will be my next attempt if the Romin SL does not make the grade...The Quest Continues....
