[Photography by Georgina Hinton]
The Selle Royal Explora saddle is built for comfort and practicality. Leaning more towards leisure riding, I found it more suited to my commuter than my gravel bike. It’s relatively heavy and the shapes slightly ungainly – especially at the nose, which is too wide and thick for serious off-road and mile munching action. That said, it offered seriously deep levels of comfort over rough ground, but I always found myself too aware of it when riding.
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Selle Royal Explora Saddle – Technical details
It’s definitely not a svelte or racey-looking saddle. I’d describe it as a little bulbous, and there’s a lot of meat on it. The rear offers a decent width platform and good shape, which tapers quickly into a wide nose. There’s only a slight dip in the shape through the saddle, so I can already see that it’s aimed at leisure and comfort rather than performance.
Its ergonomic design offers soft tissue relief in the form of a long channel and a thick layer of what Selle Royal describes as RoyalGel provides a very deep layer of soft padding for pressure relief to your sitbones. The saddle is 100 percent waterproof and nicely finished, and there’s an integrated clip system at the rear to attach one of their own saddle bags, which come in three different sizes.
The Explora saddle is available in three widths. I tested the Athletic version, which measured: 274mm length, 152mm width, weight 379g. It’s the best model suited to longer rides and more challenging terrain. The moderate is a little shorter at 273mm, and increases in width to 171mm and weight to 415g. For sit-up-and-beg style bikes, the length shrinks to 253mm, the width increases dramatically to a whopping 218mm, as does the weight to 598g.
With all this mention of comfort and suitability, it’s good that it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee if it doesn’t work for you.
Selle Royal Explora Saddle – Performance
To be honest, although this is a pretty heavy saddle, I’m more concerned with comfort and performance levels. It certainly isn’t the prettiest saddle I’ve ever used, but damn, it’s comfy. Comfy in the fact that the thick layer of RoyalGel padding and the ample build absorbed trail feedback over rough trails really effectively at my sit bones, and I didn’t experience any numness downstairs. So that channel must have been doing its thing – great when gravel riding. But this is a saddle way more suited to more urban/commuting duties.
I like a saddle that does its thing without being noticed. The Exlora is a saddle that I was always aware of when riding, and not in a positive way. Although the thick padding is comfy and really does absorb trail feedback, I always felt perched on top of it rather than sat into it – a symptom of its shape, which doesn’t offer much contour or cradling. I also got annoyed by the wide nose that rubbed my legs with every pedal stroke, which got somewhat tedious after only a few miles. It also hindered more dynamic cornering off-road in tight sections.
It felt more at home on my ratty commuter bike, with the waterproof material a real boon, especially when wearing more casual riding apparel; it also looks right on it compared to my gravel bike.
Selle Royal Explora Saddle – Verdict
I really rated the WTB Rocket Medium Ti saddle for fantastic comfort, support, and performance, and would happily ride it on my gravel bike; luckily, the £120 price tag drops to £90 if you opt for the Chromo railed version. If that’s still too rich for your wallet, the WTB Volt offers a steel-railed model in medium and wide for £50, which is a bargain.
The Selle Roya Explora certainly has its plus points, but with so many options around that offer both high levels of performance and comfort, this is one to consider more for commuting and leisure duties.
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