The Selle Italia SLR 3D Carbon is the Italian outfit’s new range-topper – and it’s a super-classy saddle with a correspondingly high price. It’s the lightest 3D printed saddle we’ve tested, and one of the most expensive ‘non-custom’ saddles out there. It is a terrific piece of engineering with movie-star good looks, though whether it wins a place in your heart and clamped to your seatpost will depend on both the depth of your bank account and how lovingly it fits your posterior.
Selle Italia has created something of a masterpiece with this saddle. It’s very light, very expensive and pair it with the right shorts and it offers decent comfort thanks to carbon rails that take the sting out of things. And with more time I think the 3D-printed material would become more comfortable still.
It also looks great.
I find a saddle’s aesthetics hugely important, as I believe no component changes your bike’s visual character as much. A great saddle really has to complement your bike.
Having said that, in the past I’ve been swayed by a saddle’s looks only to find I didn’t get on with it. Lesson learned: fit first, aesthetics second.
Actually, experience has taught me that the saddle fit actually comes second to achieving a correct bike fit. And my recent bike fit and cleat positioning adjustment session at Sigma Sports was eye-opening. It turned a saddle I was not loving into one I really liked.
In fact, Sigma is so convinced about the importance of cleat positioning that it won’t even consider pressure mapping your saddle until you’ve had your cleat position analysed.
One of my favourite concepts is the Bontrager triangle: Strong. Light. Cheap. Pick two.
With saddles, I think you can perhaps simplify this to something like ‘comfort and low weight have an inversely proportional relationship’ – increase one and you decrease the other. This isn’t absolute, of course, but I think it’s generally true. So let’s manage our expectations with a few facts.
The SLR 3D Carbon is the most expensive saddle I’ve tested. It’s Selle Italia’s ultra-premium version, and even the next model down, the 178g SLR 3D Elite costs over £300. This one, the 3D Carbon is the full-fat version, by which I mean it’s less fat – 35g to be precise
Selle Italia claims a 143g weight for the 145mm-wide model and our scales concurred. It’s a compact, 242mm-long road racing weapon, with 7x9mm oval rails – and I think it’s deeply beautiful.
The 3D-printed pattern has a wide and open lattice mesh that allows you to see the individual strands of material, and I think the exposed carbon wing/flap at the back is an attractive touch.
It has a huge cutout that also helps to keep the weight down.
It sat on my shelf for two days before I was able to ride it, and I found myself admiring its form. If beauty really is in the eye of the beholder, to me, this is engineering art.
The saddle is made in Italy, which goes at least some way to explaining its enormous £409.99 (or €459) price. Selle Italia says it is made with a singular focus: ‘Performance.’ In practice I think this means it prioritises low weight over comfort.
It also says that the saddle’s carbon rails have been ‘created with a brand-new carbon layup to ensure lightness and resistance, and an improved rail angle delivers better vibration absorption’.
Sitting comfortably?
This year I’ve been alternating between two great saddles: the Cadex Amp 3D and the 3D-printed Fizik Aliante R1 Adaptive. The Cadex got more use over summer when it was hot, as its cutout makes it airier than the Fizik. It’s also lighter and a fair bit firmer.
The Fizik is longer, heavier and more comfortable, and if Komoot (my favourite discovery this year) shows a bridleway or gravel on my route, it’s the Fizik that gets the nod.
The Selle Italia is aimed squarely at the road-only performance saddle market that’s occupied by the Cadex Amp 3D. It’s the same width, 3mm shorter and 6g lighter.
It feels different from the Cadex, though, with a little more give to the 3D-printed structure. The rails – in as much as it’s possible to isolate them – seem impressive, and I’d say that it’s a smoother saddle than the Cadex. There were fewer vibrations and big bumps were slightly less jarring.
The lattice
At the heart of the Selle Italia is the lattice, which comes to a ‘sharp’ edge that runs practically the length of the saddle.
To keep the weight to a minimum there’s very little material, and to support you properly, the material is quite stiff. And as this thin ridge is the highest contact point, it’s the first bit to interact with your shorts. But while it has a few millimetres of give, I could feel the slight edge.
I weigh 88kg and the ridge was definitely discernible while I was wearing cotton trousers (not my usual cycling wear but worn merely for testing purposes); if you’re 75kg you’ll be putting less pressure on that ridge and accordingly feel it less.
After that, I tried three different pairs of bib shorts to test the saddle. With the lightest weight shorts I could feel the ridge through my pad, even though I know that the Selle Italia shape is good for me.
However, I’ve got a newer pair of Kostume‘s sublime bib shorts with more life left to the pad, and a new pair of Assos tights.
The Kostume has a gorgeously plush pad and the Assos tights feature a class-leading Elastic Interface chamois that I think is without equal, and when I was wearing either of these two garments, the ridge was undetectable. And realistically, I think these are more in line the sort of shorts and tights that most riders buying the Selle Italia are likely to wear.
I think that the saddle is so performance focused that you need a reasonably firm pad to mate well with its shape.
And there’s presently a new wave of 3D-printed inserts being made into pads. I’ve got one coming from Rubber N’ Road, and Mike Stead’s presently testing a pair. I think there’s a good chance that shorts like these would partner the Selle Italia well.
Performance
This Selle Italia does what it sets out to do – this is not a commuting saddle. It’s for the performance-orientated and weight-obsessed rider looking for the lightest 3D-printed saddle out there.
Objectively, it’s a tremendous achievement. It’s super-light, and it has vibration-dampening rails that I think actually work. It’s wallet-worrying expensive, of course, and my testing experience also suggests you’ll need a quality chamois to get the best from it.
The saddle has a neutral, very flat shape that makes it suitable if you’re a dynamic rider who moves in the saddle, while the Cadex is a little more undulating.
But there’s another advantage to 3D-printed saddles – they wear in and fine-tune themselves to your shape.
If I was looking for a new performance saddle, I wouldn’t go back to foam given the choice. The 3D printing is superb, the saddle will break in and get more comfortable and that ridge will wear down to become imperceptible. The comparatively short time I had the saddle just wasn’t enough for it to fully settle in.
Value
Okay, this is expensive. Very. But its price isn’t out of line with other top-end options.
Selle Italia also has its SLR Boost Tekno that’s pricier still at £429.99, and the Boost 3D Kit Carbonio Superflow that’s the same price as our test saddle and looks to be a slightly curvier alternative.
Other options include the Cadex Amp 3D that’ll cost you ‘just’ £349.99.
Specialized has recently released the new £350 S-Works Power Mirror that has similar dimensions though it’s 50g heavier. We have a full test in the works.
The Prologo Nago R4 PAS 3DMSS Nack is another 3D mesh saddle with a £349.99 price.
For more options, check out our best road bike saddles buyer’s guide.
Conclusion
Selle Italia has an almost cultish following, and If you love the brand and have good history with this shape, this is the current zenith of the form.
The carbon work is excellent, the 3D printing seems durable and the flat profile is terribly racy. There’s a respectable amount of comfort for something this light. Let’s face it, it was never going to feel like cashmere, but I don’t doubt the design would wear in and become more comfortable over time. I also think it’s about the best-looking saddle I’ve seen. So, if this fits you and you want a road-specific saddle – and you have the budget – it’s an upgrade over basically everything else out there.
Verdict
Super-light, super-pricey and deeply gorgeous – pair it with the right shorts and the comfort’s good too
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road.cc test report
Make and model: Selle Italia SLR 3D Carbon
Size tested: L3
Tell us what the product is for and who it’s aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
Selle Italia says: ‘The legend has evolved. The brand new SLR 3D Carbon takes comfort and efficiency to the next level with a 3D printed lattice structure that retains the unbeatable SLR sitting shape and uses carbon rails.’
This is the no-compromise range-topping road racing saddle from Selle Italia.
The carbon rails absorb road chatter well and are genuinely well engineered. The saddle is crazy light, very flat and neutral – and commensurately expensive.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
‘The carbon rails have been created with a brand new carbon layup to ensure lightness and resistance, and an improved rail angle delivers better vibration absorption.’
I absolutely agree.
‘3D printed cover with dedicated and proprietary pattern featuring differentiated cushioning zones that provide progressive absorption over the entire surface area, ensuring the cyclist optimal comfort and support.’
I don’t disagree. I had minor hotspots when wearing some old shorts, which was rectified when I wore some nice new, well-padded shorts.
A nicely made, well-finished, tough and durable-feeling bit of kit. As you’d expect for the price, of course…
It’s super-light, which makes it an option if you’re looking to trim weight.
And once I’d paired it with some newer, higher-end shorts – the sort of shorts it’s likely to be paired with – comfort was decent too. The carbon rails reduce road chatter and the carbon lattice shell will mould to your body even more over time.
With limited time, it seemed good.
It’s very, very light. It’s exceptional as it is – and the narrower version is even lighter.
This is, of course, completely subjective and your mileage may vary.
While Selle Italia is perhaps prioritising performance and low weight over comfort with this, once I’d pair it with decent quality shorts, the comfort was good.
Rate the product for value:
Astonishingly expensive, yes, and your friends will be saying ‘how much?!’ – but it’s appropriate for the world-leading lightness it offers.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
Rather well, not a perfectly comfortable saddle, but it has no aims or pretences at that.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
I love the aesthetics.
I love the engineering that goes into a component like this – and the unashamed aim at placing performance above everything else.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
A slightly annoying ridge in the saddle.
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
This is never going to compete on price.
It’s an unashamedly expensive, compromise-free endeavour to get to the lightest and the highest performing version of the SLR that Selle Italia could engineer.
That said, the price is on a par with that of a couple of other Selle Italia saddles, and I mention a handful of other saddles around the £350 mark in the review.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? No – how much!?
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Perhaps – if they were a competitive rider looking to minimise weight.
Use this box to explain your overall score
It’s a terrific piece of equipment, but I’d happily take a few more grams of weight to get a little more comfort.
But as with all saddles, comfort is subjective, and with more time I’m sure that comfort would have improved further.
I still think this is a world-class performance saddle – and a very very good bit of engineering.
About the tester
Age: 45 Height: 178 Weight: 95
I usually ride: Custom titanium gravel My best bike is:
I’ve been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Most days I would class myself as: Experienced
I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, touring, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb,
1 thought on “Selle Italia SLR 3D Carbon”
I have the model a few down
I have the model a few down from this, The Selle Italia SLR Boost Kit Carbonio Superflow. I did try the 3D printed Elite version and one thing this review doesnt quite mention directly is its a pain to live with if you are someone who naturally moves about in your saddle. This isnt due to bad fit, some people just like to slide back and forth a bit depending on the gradient or thier style of riding
The issue with this only worsens over time too since it does eventually shape itself to you, but if youre shifting, even only a cm ot so that effects the moulding to your shape.
Another thing that is never mantioned about these 3D lattice saddles, they are a total bitch to clean.