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Carbon Fiber Road Saddle - Rider Survey

by FrontCycles
Wed, Jan 29, 2014 13:18
7

I'm looking to get feedback on a new saddle design myself and another composite engineer are developing. The concept is to offer 3 different variations for three specific weight segments. Each variation will have a different degree of flex depending on the riders preference. Through the use of specific composite materials we intend to allow riders of all weights to select a saddle according to their specific desired flex.

I've attached a picture of the preliminary design along with a short brochure to provide a better idea of the current design. We would appreciate it if you could take 2-3 minutes to review the brochure and complete the 10 question survey. The is will help shape the initial design and provide valuable market information from experienced riders

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WFBF8KK

We would greatly appreciate any additional feedback you may have and forwarding the link with documents to anyone else who you may think could provide additional comments.

Thanks for all your support.

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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7 comments

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Yorkshie Whippet | 11 years ago
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I'm confused! What do you mean by performance?

Is it more aerodynamic than a "normal" saddle? In my dim eyes the performance of a saddle is a function of comfort and lightweight.

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FrontCycles replied to Yorkshie Whippet | 11 years ago
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Yorkshie Whippet wrote:

I'm confused! What do you mean by performance

Sorry for the confusion. This questions seems to be confusing and drawing a lot of questions from people taking the survey. The original intent was for performance to represent how structurally the saddle flexed or performed while riding.

After reading all the input and having time to reflect on the question, I agree we probably could of just gone with comfort/fit or Light weight and this would have covered all the needed options.

Thank you for your comments and feedback.

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andyp | 11 years ago
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Nice. Been using an unpadded Flite SLR for a few years, surprisingly comfortable.

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FrontCycles replied to andyp | 11 years ago
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andyp wrote:

Nice. Been using an unpadded Flite SLR for a few years, surprisingly comfortable.

We have found if the saddle is the right fit to the rider and when used in combination with padded riding shorts, the saddle is surprisingly comfortable.

We believe this to due the reduction of padding since most riders use a padded saddle in combination with padded shorts, so the rider sits lower to the saddle surface and there is one less layer for rubbing between the rider and saddle. Everyone is prefers something different, but many riders are surprised after a test ride.

This is probably similar with other all carbon saddles, not just ours.

Thanks

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FrontCycles replied to FrontCycles | 11 years ago
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Here is the latest saddle complete with all carbon 7mm x 9mm rails. We are unsure if the carbon rails are an added benefit other than weight as they appear to make the saddle assembly more stiff. The same carbon saddle with Ti rails is approximately 30g heavier.

We thank everyone for all their support and will keep the survey open for another 10 days for anyone interested. Once complete we will more than happy to share the results with everyone.

Here is the link for reference: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WFBF8KK

We are getting some very valuable and interesting feedback.

Thanks again for everyone's support

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FrontCycles | 11 years ago
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Thanks for the feedback.

Regarding our priorities, the first is tailored performance with the second being weight. The idea is to make use of different carbon fiber product forms to tailor the flex of the saddle according to the riders weight and preference.

Yes the saddle could be made of plastic, however there are two issues:

One, Plastics are typically injection molded and require expensive molds thus we must sell a significant number of them to amortize the costs.

Second, this doesn't allow us to tailor the flex of the saddle for various riders. It would be a "one size fits all".

I appreciate the questions.

Thanks

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joemmo | 11 years ago
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Interesting but looks incredibly niche. I've never tried one of these solid unpadded saddles - well not since my bmx days and those aren't really made for sitting on - but they exist so there must be something in it.

A question for you: is the top priority for this to be ultra light or is there a claimed performance advantage? If the latter then could you not mould it from a plastic to bring costs down and make it more mass market?

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