Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

TECH NEWS

Will this AI-designed, cheese-inspired 'sit device' consign bike saddles to history? Swiss inventors claim wide and weird creation eliminates rear discomfort

The DAIMON 'bike-board' - of which one variation is fittingly dubbed the Emmental - is said to do wonders for your pelvic region, with its creators even boasting that you won't need to use padded shorts any more

Swiss start-up Mornera has developed a new bike seat – or 'sit device', or a 'bike board' as it interchangeably calls its creation – crafted utilising artificial intelligence (AI) to the max. DAIMON, the brand's first "gluteal bike saddle", promises to revolutionise "the well-being of every mindful biker", with an AI-based saddle design that is quite far from anything we've ever seen before.

Mornera Daimon emmentaler AI saddle

Navigating through Mornera's website is almost as confusing as the wide, futuristic shape of the seat itself, but there are plenty of big claims. One of those is that this sit device will "eliminate any type of inflammatory process on the pelvic region" – attached to a board shape that seems to be mostly targeted at mountain bikers and urban city riders; although Morena does say that "DAIMON is conceived to replace traditional interstitial bike saddles in mountain biking, road biking and city biking." We'll be keeping an eye out at the Tour de France come July, then... 

The shape is likely to divide opinions, and our resident mountain biker Liam at off.road.cc didn't hesitate to give his verdict: "That looks like the kind of saddle you absolutely do not ever want for MTB."

mornera daimon saddle riders

Well, perhaps those who share Liam's view just aren't quite ready for the bike seat revolution that Mornera is aiming to start here. The inventors say the 'bike-board' is "conceived as if it were a snowboard", whatever that's supposed to mean. 

The main idea behind the wider rather than longer design is that you can shift your weight from side to side, instead of forward-back as you would on a traditional saddle. And this, according to Mornera, "is precisely this continuous change of interaction with the sit board that allows not only to avoid any type of physical discomfort, but to also tone the back muscles." 

Considering how many of us cyclists constantly complain about back pain, that claim to tone the back muscles? That does sound quite appealing. To achieve the purported back-toning, Mornera has truly utilised AI and thrown the saddle-design book deep into the bin, because it is very much unlike others with its wide, board-like shape. At 298mm, it's about twice as wide as most regular road bike saddles.

It must be said, though, that despite its unusual shape, DAIMON has something in common with Saddlespur, the viral saddle with a backrest, and this prostate-friendly creation: they all aim to eliminate saddle discomfort. 

The seat is also 130mm long and 69.5mm tall, which makes it everything most saddles are not. All this has been done to correct what Mornera claims is a "huge misunderstanding" in traditional saddle designs: 

Mornera says: "Classic interstitial saddles are based on a huge misunderstanding: freeing the thigh matters most of all. Artificial intelligence says this is not true, unless you accept physical pain while trying to shatter world records.

"The question is very simple: freeing the mobility of the thigh at the expense of a compression of the perineum is not a good idea, even less for those who practice sports at an amateur level, where interstitial saddles are not imposed by any regulation or technical committees."

Mornera Daimon saddle

The brand also goes as far as saying that with DAIMON, you won't need any more padded bib shorts, "strange central hollows" (more commonly known as a cutout or pressure relief channel) or "ugly orthopaedic solutions". 

What about those 'wings' then? According to Mornera, they are the key to helping you to keep moving on the saddle and sit on your glutes rather than on any soft tissue. 

"Providing the saddle of your bike with an active elastic flexion and a shape memory solution to amortize those return forces from the ground otherwise hitting your bone structure. The rail frame flexes and returns to its original position like a spring, in perfect harmony with the natural movement of the biker’s body on the pedal. Gravity forces get absorbed. The challenge of protecting your body from harmful back forces is won," Mornera boasts. 

Despite its quite chunky look, the DAIMON has a claimed weight of 263g and is available in all sorts of colourways, including 'Emmental', which as you might have guessed, resembles Emmental cheese with its large holes. The base is made of nylon, the rails are steel and the padding is silicone. 

Prices are set at 205€ per seat (about £171) before import duties and the like.

If Mornera's bumptious claims haven't cheesed you off too much and you'd like to find out more, you can head over to the Mornera website.

Suvi joined F-At in 2022, first writing for off-road.cc and then road.cc and ebiketips too until August 2024. She contributed to all of the sites covering tech news, features, reviews and women's cycling content. A lover of long-distance cycling, Suvi is easily convinced to join any rides and events that cover over 100km, and ideally, plenty of cake and coffee stops. 

Add new comment

21 comments

Avatar
Veganpotter | 6 months ago
0 likes

Will the UCI give them a length exemption as a prototype?🤡

Avatar
TimPedaller | 6 months ago
1 like

"conceived as if it were a snowboard"
I thought you stand on a snowboard.
 

Avatar
TimPedaller | 6 months ago
0 likes

"AI" designed... so this is (presumably) the product of what the people who wrote the AI program know about cycling and human anatomy, and what data/information they were willing and able to include in the program.

I would be interested to learn who they are, what their individual and collective experience of cycling is, and the extent and depth of their knowledge of human anatomy and physiology.

Avatar
TheBillder | 6 months ago
0 likes

If only there was some trusted team of people that could test these innovative products and let us know if they're really useful...

Hankering after a Manta: https://mantasaddle.co.uk/. Might ask for one for Christmas.

Avatar
Alexander Wang4 replied to TheBillder | 5 months ago
0 likes

You can try visiting a Facebook group where there are many users.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1035545629861747 

Avatar
froze | 6 months ago
0 likes

YAWN........

Avatar
OnYerBike | 6 months ago
0 likes
Avatar
Sredlums | 6 months ago
0 likes

This is not a new kind of saddle at all.

There's a brand called 'All Wings' that has been selling (well, at least offering for sale) saddles very similar to these for a few years now.

https://all-wings.com.tw/index_E.aspx#

The only real difference is that they don't extend further then where the sitbones are, so it's less wide.

Avatar
Alexander Wang4 replied to Sredlums | 5 months ago
0 likes

evo4 Super hornet

Avatar
Terry Hutt | 7 months ago
2 likes

We'll know it's good when the UCI bans it. 

Avatar
chrisonabike | 7 months ago
5 likes

Reminds me a bit of a furby.  Or a gremlin?

Avatar
Oldfatgit | 7 months ago
0 likes

Ahh ... the Internet.
Where anything can be written and posted with little or no requirement to prove ones claims.

Avatar
KDee | 7 months ago
2 likes

OK, I'm tired and grumpy today, so here goes.

Sounds like all the marketing BS around this was written by a half-witted AI.

Why is it so wide? The supports don't need to extend past the silicone pads at all. Structurally they should not be required.

Allows for zero fore-aft movement.

Absolutely awful, ugly, pointless, shit design.

I like the Emmental pattern.

Avatar
Blackthorne replied to KDee | 7 months ago
2 likes

Looks cool and I would love to give it a try. 
My only thought would be whether these guys have ever actually mountain biked... as moving the body way behind the saddle during descents is an intrinsic maneuver that would be impeded by this design, especially with the dropper compressed. 

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to Blackthorne | 7 months ago
0 likes

Blackthorne wrote:

Looks cool and I would love to give it a try. 
My only thought would be whether these guys have ever actually mountain biked... as moving the body way behind the saddle during descents is an intrinsic maneuver that would be impeded by this design, especially with the dropper compressed. 

Seems to me like this kind of idea might work better for road/commuting instead. However, I'm sceptical as saddles have been around for ages and no-one seems to have figured out this design before - I'd like to hear reports of cyclists trying it out over long distances.

Avatar
KDee replied to hawkinspeter | 6 months ago
1 like

I've seen something similar here in NL. The rok zadel or "skirt saddle".

 

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to KDee | 6 months ago
0 likes

KDee wrote:

I've seen something similar here in NL. The rok zadel or "skirt saddle".

That increases my scepticism, if there are similar style saddles that don't seem to have become very popular. They look like the kind of saddle you expect on a more upright, commuter bike where you bear more of your weight on your behind.

Avatar
Sredlums replied to hawkinspeter | 6 months ago
2 likes

The 'rokzadel' (similar to German we don't use spaces between words in Dutch when they describe one thing) was not developed as a (better) alternative to a regular saddle.
It stems from a time when women weren't supposed to be wearing trousers, and the pointy nose of a regular saddle wasn't deemed very practicle/elegant when sat on while wearing a skirt.

So basically they just chopped of the front part of the saddle and let the ladies deal with trying to sit on that. They were in fact quite common not too long ago (I'm 54, in my youth I saw them in use regularly), but have totally fallen out of fashion because, well, luckily, nobody cares about all that anymore and women wear whatever the hell they want.

Avatar
Car Delenda Est | 7 months ago
2 likes

Forget about blood flow this thing looks like it wants to server your blood line..

Avatar
peted76 replied to Car Delenda Est | 6 months ago
0 likes

Car Delenda Est wrote:

Forget about blood flow this thing looks like it wants to server your blood line..

erm.. yes this. It looks like a very bad accident waiting to happen.

Avatar
HLaB | 7 months ago
3 likes

Its too late for April Fools!

Latest Comments