Fizik Antares R3 Open

The Fizik Antares R3 Open is a well designed saddle for a whole range of riding styles, thanks to good shaping, supportive padding and a cutaway that can help if you suffer from numbness. It's a bit expensive for metal-railed saddle, though, and not the lightest for the money.

As I find with the majority of Fizik saddles, straight out of the box the padding is pretty firm, and it takes a good few rides to bed in. While never enough to create discomfort exactly, at first I was a touch sore when getting back onto the saddle the next day.

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After 150-200 miles, though, the Antares softens and moulds a little, and from then on I found it remains comfortable. One upside of the supportive padding is that it stays in place around the central opening, instead of squidging down into it like some padding can.

With many new saddles seemingly getting shorter and shorter, the Antares is pretty old school with its long nose and wide rear section. The nose is narrow for plenty of clearance if you have large thighs, and the whole seat allows you to move around a fair bit to boost comfort and bike response.

You can easily slide back when climbing, and use the wide rear section as a platform to push against.

At 141mm the Antares is reasonably wide (a lot of saddles are around 135mm), so there's plenty of space for support, though if you want more there's a large version which increases that width to 153mm.

The Antares R3 uses a carbon-reinforced nylon shell and K:ium aluminium rails. K:ium is an alloy specific to Fizik and is drawn into 7mm diameter tubes, and allows a bit of extra flex on top of that afforded by the shell/padding. It all goes towards taming road vibrations and works well.

The Microtex cover sheds water well and is hardwearing too – I leant the test bike against various walls during rides, and it's left no sign of scuffs or marks. The cover is firmly glued to the underside of the shell (the Antares is handmade in Italy, and the quality is good throughout), but it doesn't look quite as neat as comparable saddles from the likes of Prologo, which sandwich the cover between the shell and an additional layer.

One neat addition is Fizik's integrated clip system, filled as stock by a branded nameplate, which allows easy attachment of compatible saddle bags and the like.

At £129.99 Antares R3 Open is fairly expensive for its build, if not excessive given its quality, and there are some cheaper competitors out there. The Prologo Scratch 2 Tirox saddle is very comfortable indeed straight out of the box, well finished, pretty much the same weight as the Fizik at 226g but a fair bit cheaper at £104.99.

The Fabric Line Race Shallow comes with titanium rails and is a touch heavier at 243g, but reviewer Hollis was very impressed with the comfort and it costs just £74.99.

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The Antares R3 Open is a well made, well-shaped saddle that's comfortable for all tempos of riding, especially once the padding has settled in a bit. However there are some very good, very comfortable and similarly-specced saddles out there for less money.

Verdict

Supportive and comfortable saddle for fast rides or slow, but expensive given its build