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TECH NEWS

road.cc People's Choice: your favourite saddles

Your favourite places to park your bum

What's your favourite saddle? In our last People's Choice survey we aimed to find out where people like parking their bums. The results are in, so without further ado, the envelope please.

5 Brooks B17 — 7%

If there's a saddle that deserves the title 'classic' it's John Boultbee Brooks' 1898 (!) masterpiece. That the B17 is still popular more than a century after it was first made is testament to the effectiveness of the design, which features a piece of leather stretched over steel rails. Brooks saddles conform to the shape of the rider's bum as they're used, and eventually become extremely comfortable.

 

5 Fizik Antares VS — 7%

Italian saddle maker Fizik has dominated high-end seating in the last decade or so with a range of well-made, comfortable and deservedly popular saddles. The Antares VS has a central groove to relieve pressure on the perineum so your bits don't go numb when you're riding.

 

4 Specialized Romin Pro — 8%

The Romin Pro takes to its logical conclusion Specialized's Body Geometry notion of careful shaping and a central channel — it features a complete gap in the middle. It seems to work well, making a strong showing in the poll.

 

3 Brooks B17N — 9%

The sportier, narrow version of the Brooks B17, with which it shares identical construction. This design only goes back to 1910, so it's a mere stripling by Brooks standards.

 

2 Fizik Arione — 12%

The long, narrow, flat saddle that shot fizik to prominence is still popular with performance riders. There is now a wide range of Arione variants, but they're all best suited to racing snakes.

 

1 Fabric Scoop — 13%

Formerly the Charge Scoop, and available in three shapes and a wide range of colours and specifications, this saddle is a perennial favourite because it offers excellent comfort at a very reasonable price for the base model.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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13 comments

Avatar
theoriginalrich | 8 years ago
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I used to have the Spoon on my old hybrid but when I up graded I got rid of the stock saddle and got myself the Charge Knife. Best decision I made.

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Angeld | 8 years ago
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I struggled finding a saddle that fitted for ages, going through 12 in 3yrs!
Managed to find one of the new a Specialized Toupe S-works on ebay for only £50 and haven't looked back, very comfortable, and is slightly better padded than the other Toupes, but even at 143mm is only 170g.
Would probably replace with a Fizik Antares vs, as not paying £200 for the S-works.

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Poptart242 | 8 years ago
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Bizarrely the scoop is the only saddle I've had that was bad enough to give me sores.... just shows they really are an individual choice.

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part_robot | 8 years ago
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Damn right. I got a Ti railed Scoop with my Synapse but I had a wee bit of a slide at 50kmh and the tarmac belt-sanded one side flat  22

Didn't think twice about getting another one to replace it and now I have the carbon railed version. Best saddle I've ever had.

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chef09 replied to part_robot | 8 years ago
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Can you please tell me which scoop you tried with the Synapse. I've got the Scoop Radius but I'm wondering if the "Shallow" would be better for the Synapse riding position.
Thanks

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bobinski | 8 years ago
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"Perineal favourite" surely  4

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ibr17xvii | 8 years ago
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No mention of Selle Italia is a surprise.

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kylemalco replied to ibr17xvii | 8 years ago
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I only came to see which was the best selle saddle, I've had fizik and spesh which didn't suit me. The charge spoon works on the mtb

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John_the_Monkey | 8 years ago
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FWIW, I liked both my Brooks (Brookses?) from day 1.

They started out "extremely comfortable" and only got better  1

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joemmo | 8 years ago
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Fabric scoop is very comfy but mine has developed a creak due to the loose fit between the base and the rails. Not terrible but a bit annoying

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vonhelmet replied to joemmo | 8 years ago
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joemmo wrote:

Fabric scoop is very comfy but mine has developed a creak due to the loose fit between the base and the rails. Not terrible but a bit annoying

I'm getting an odd clicking on my bike with a Scoop on it. It stops when I stand up, so I'm sure it's saddle/seatpost related. I've cleaned and greased the rails but I suppose it could be the join with the base... Maybe I'll swap it for a Spoon, which I've got on my other two bikes.

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joemmo replied to vonhelmet | 8 years ago
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vonhelmet wrote:
joemmo wrote:

Fabric scoop is very comfy but mine has developed a creak due to the loose fit between the base and the rails. Not terrible but a bit annoying

I'm getting an odd clicking on my bike with a Scoop on it. It stops when I stand up, so I'm sure it's saddle/seatpost related. I've cleaned and greased the rails but I suppose it could be the join with the base... Maybe I'll swap it for a Spoon, which I've got on my other two bikes.

mine is definitely the base, I can rock the saddle from side to side with my hands.

Avatar
Paul_C | 8 years ago
0 likes

glad to see the B17 and B17N get in there... but where's the B67? and the flyer models?

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