Trek Aeolus RSL AirLoom Bike Saddle

The Trek Aeolus RSL AirLoom Bike Saddle offers excellent comfort via a generous cut-out and has been designed for multi-surface use. It’s also a really competitive price for a 3D printed saddle – and even more so if you move down to the cheaper versions in the range.

This RSL (Race Shop Limited) version of the Aeolus is the top-tier, £329, 3D printed saddle in the range. Trek recommends it for road, gravel and mountain bike use.

It’s an Elastometric Polyurethane (EPU) 250mm long saddle and is available in three widths: 135mm (162g), 145mm (164g) and 155mm (167g). Mine, in the middle width, was 165g, or 177g with the included Blendr mount.

It has oversized oval 7x10mm rails – a slightly unusual size that either fits Trek’s specific seatposts that clamp the rails around the sides or third party posts built to take the 7mm x 9mm rail that clamp top and bottom. For top/bottom clamping posts, the important number is the 7mm width. (Trek says don’t use round clamps or you’ll crush the rails.)

3D printed

Trek’s clearly thought about this range. 3D printed saddles are awesome: they provide a variable/tuneable level of support/comfort/firmness across different areas of the saddle in a manner foam-filled saddles simply can’t match, and they wear-in to better conform to their user, but this technology comes at an often prohibitively high cost. Trek has however made three versions of the Aeolus.

This one, the RSL, is carbon shelled and carbon railed and available for £329/$425. The Pro is 180g, carbon and nylon hybrid shelled with carbon rails and costs £249/$275. Finally, the Elite is 242g, nylon shelled and Austenite (steel) railed for £170/$175.

To its enormous credit, the Elite is anything but. The price is a decent chunk less than almost any other 3D printed saddle you’ll find.

There are three widths in the RSL and Elite, and two in the Pro. This, combined with the three price tiers, means there is a saddle for most needs, sizes and price points in the Aeolus range. It is also billed as being for any discipline and any gender.

Trek are so convinced you’ll love it, they’re offering a 30-day risk-free trial. Simply return it or trade it in at the end of that period if you don’t love it. (Although it’s perhaps worth reading how proper cleat fitting and a new custom insole changed the comfort of saddles for me before you make an investment.)

On the bike

This year, I’ve been alternating between the Cadex Amp 3D for road-going rides, and Fizik’s 3D printed Aliante R1 Adaptive if there was a chance of gravel on my route.

I alternated my testing of the Aeolus with the Selle Italia SLR 3D carbon saddle. While on paper, they’re similar – both lightweight 3D printed saddles – in practice they were vastly different, and great counterpoints to one another. The Selle Italia is similar in size and weight to the Cadex Amp 3D I tested last year, and similarly delineated as ‘for road use only.’ It’s more of a perch, something you sit upon, whereas the Trek’s curves cradle you a bit more.

Out on the road, it’s immediately apparent the Aeolus RSL AirLoom is a very fine bit of kit. It was comfortable after 100m, and remained so 100km later when I felt like we had really got the measure of one another. I’m a big fan of the shape. It peaks and curves in pleasing ways that fit, and the slightly upturned tail I find really useful to push against when maintaining consistently high power on the road, or for recruiting more glutes if I need to give my thighs a break by changing position slightly.

Trek has refined the shape a little. It’s a touch slimmer in the nose and smoother in the transitions than the previous version. The structure of the lattice also provides a pleasant platform on which to sit.

Other saddles wear their 3D printing more overtly perhaps, and their surfaces can be rougher. Trek’s surface area is smooth and only barely punctuated by signs of how it was producted. If you didn’t know, you might think it was a stamped pattern.

Two other noticeable boons are the rails. They run practically the entire length of the saddle, giving a useful (crudely measured) 10cm clamping length, (versus about 7cm on the Selle Italia saddle of the same length, and about 9cm on the Fizik Aliante R1 which is 2.8cm longer nose to tail). This is useful in providing more positioning flexibility and there’s probably also a minor upgrade to vibration absorption over a longer sprung rail length.

The cut-out is generous, and again runs longer than other saddles, meaning no matter how much you’re pelvically rotating or where you’re sitting fore to aft on the saddle, your soft tissue should be free of pressure.

The material itself is a good balance between firm and plush: slightly firmer than the Fizik; plusher than the Selle Italia and Cadex Amp.

The Trek Aeolus saddle also comes with a Bontrager Blendr mount in the box, and this weighs a meagre 12g for mount and screws. This allows you to mount both a light and a saddle bag simultaneously, which most saddles don’t. It attaches directly to the rear of the saddle making for really neat integration.

Weight and fitting

At 164 grams, I’d say the RSL version is competitively lightweight for something so comfortable. Though it’s not quite as light as the Cadex Amp 3D (149g) or the Selle Italia SLR 3D Carbon (146g), it’s within striking distance, and 20 per cent lighter than the Fizik Aliante (195g). I’d argue the multi-surface suitability is a worthwhile trade-off for around 16 grams of weight over the Cadex and Selle Italia.

One very minor quibble, however. The saddle came with a sticker on it which reads: ‘ONLY use a Bontrager seatpost with 7×10 rail clamps. Using non-approved rail clamps can cause saddle rails to break, resulting in an accident, injury or death.’

I used it in a non-Bontrager seatpost, with top/bottom clamps 7mm wide, and it sat perfectly in there – I had no issue. This feels like an overzealous CYA disclaimer from Trek, and they confirmed it’s fine for use in 7mm wide top/bottom clamps – just not in round ones.

Value

I’d say the Aeolus RSL AirLoom offers 95 per cent of the comfort of the Fizik Aliante R1 Adaptive (£299), with a 20 per cent weight saving, while its multi-surface use marks it out from the aforementioned Selle Italia SLR 3D Carbon (£409.99) and Cadex Amp 3D (£349.99).

> Choose the right saddle for you and your riding — our top picks for every type of cyclist

As well as those, Specialized has just released a new S-Works Power with Mirror saddle (£350) that’s of similar dimensions, though around 30g heavier, and there’s a full test of that in the works.

Prologo’s Nago R4 PAS 3DMSS Nack (£315) may also merit consideration.

Conclusion

The Aeolus AirLoom is both comfortable and approved for multi-surface use, and with eight versions, spanning three different price points, it will appeal to a lot of people. Throw in useful features like the integrated Blendr mount, and the 30-day money back guarantee and there’s really no reason why this (or a version from this range) shouldn’t be on your shortlist.

Verdict

Great value, great comfort and lightweight

All the deals displayed on our review pages are pulled from a constantly updating database feed of the best affiliate deals available. The criteria for deciding on what are the best deals is who is offering the lowest, delivered price. In most cases we will be showing the very best deal available online, but sometimes you may be able to find an item cheaper. If you can please feel free to post a link in the comments box below. To find out more about affiliate links on road.cc click here.