A New Saddle....

[SoCalSteve]

Hi all,

If any of you have been following my quest to find the "perfect" saddle, then you will know that I am always open to suggestions. I have been riding my Brooks now for about 1500 miles and have truly loved everything about it except for the short rails (I have other bikes that it just wont work with) and its weight and ugliness (one mans beauty is another's eye sore).

Ok, to make this even longer, I saw in Bicycling Magazine that there is a new saddle by Specialized called the Alias. It comes in 3 different widths (great concept!). Has anyone had any experience with this saddle? Comments, opinions, etc???

As always, thank you all in advance,

Steve

PS: Still waiting on my Mike Garcia wheel sets x 2. Thank you all for your great suggestion to go with him. I have a feeling that I will not be disappointed.

[davep]

I've been on a Brooks B17 for about 300 miles, and while I have not yet decided if it the best saddle for me, its certainly in the lead at this point. I have to agree about the weight, but I think it is also the best looking saddle around. The honey leather looks great on any bike - IMO.

[Michael Katz]

While I can't comment on the Alias, the Fizik Arione might fit your needs. In the past I was a diehard Terry Fly user on all of my bikes. A generally comfortable saddle. On long stints of paceling, however, where I was constantly seated and riding hard, I would start to have uncomfortable pressure and tingling in areas that shouldn't. I recently switched to the Arione with Ti rails on one of my bikes. It's a very flat saddle and longer than most. The rails are very long also. It seems to work remarkably well for me. With its flat configuration, all the pressure is on my sitz bones and none on my groin. The paceling no longer creates any tingling. With its long shape, there is plenty of room to move around if I desire and with its long rails, it is the most adjustable saddle I've seen. I've done several 55 mile rides with half the time spent pushing hard in a constant paceline and it is so far the most comfortable saddle I've used. And its real world weight is 242 grams.

[SoCalSteve]

Thank you for the reccomandation. I am a big guy at 6' 5" 240 lbs. I need a saddle that is wide at the rear. Most saddles are around 130 to 140 in the rear. The Brooks is 170. The Alias is 155.

Thanks,

Steve

[Jeff N.]

Steve, I'm a little shorter than you, but we're about the same weight. I've tried many saddles over the years but I always have ended up coming back to the Selle Italia Turbomatic. The Turbomatic-4 Gel version is their latest, and a good one it is. I've always considered it the perfect saddle. I've got an older one in yellow/black color(Turbomatic-3) that I'm not using anymore. Gimme your address, its yours for free, if you like. Try it out, and if you find you like it, you can get a new black leather Turbomatic-4 from, say, EXCEL for about 70 bucks. Or just use this one...its still in fine shape. All versions are basically the same, with a few changes from one version to the next, mostly cosmetic. Jeff N.

[BarryG]

I am a big guy at 6' 5" 240 lbs. I need a saddle that is wide at the rear.
I am 140lbs and I need a saddle that is wide at the rear. Saddle width is dependent on spacing of the ischial tuberosities (sit bones). It's a total mystery to me, but there are few saddles that are 150mm+ wide. At this point, my BIG favorite is the Avocet O2 Air Men's (not racing), which can be ordered directly from Avocet. I hope to test ride the wide Alias when my local shop designates a demo unit.

Barry

[pdonk]

Might look "different" on a high end road bike, but WTB makes saddles with widths wider than 150

150 - http://www.wtb.com/products/saddle_purev.html
152 - http://www.wtb.com/products/saddle_powerv.html
170 - http://www.wtb.com/products/saddle_comfortv.html

Other saddles that look wide, not sure if they are, are the titec berserker and some of the SDG products.

I'm 6'3 and have weighed as much as 220 and find the most comfortable saddle I have ever ridden is a Selle San Marco - Bontrager Ti. It has a width of 120 at the widest point, but I have a thin frame. Other successes are Selle Italia Flites(normal and new flite genuine gel) and Turbomatics of various eras. Hate Avocet O2 Racing, torture device.

[Ken Robb]

like most things in life it's not as easy as just measuring the width: shape and flexibility of the saddle mean a lot. This was brought home to me when I bought the Legend with an Arione. I love my B17 saddles and I "knew" looking at the skinny Arione it would be a real *** hatchet. Surprise: it's very comfy, light, highly adjustable, and not screwed up with gaudy stitching and graphics.
Now if it just had sadle bag loops it would be perfect.

[Ray]

like most things in life it's not as easy as just measuring the width: shape and flexibility of the saddle mean a lot. This was brought home to me when I bought the Legend with an Arione. I love my B17 saddles and I "knew" looking at the skinny Arione it would be a real *** hatchet. Surprise: it's very comfy, light, highly adjustable, and not screwed up with gaudy stitching and graphics.
Now if it just had sadle bag loops it would be perfect.
Couldn't agree more. I was a confirmed B-17 lover and thought I needed a wide saddle to be comfortable based on uncomfortable experiments with skinny saddles. Somewhere along the line I tried an Aliante and now have these on all of my dedicated roadie bikes (those that I don't ride in street clothes - I still prefer the B-17 for riding in street clothes). The Aliante isn't the narrowest saddle out there, but it's waaaay narrower than a number of them that I'd tried and hated, so it's not all about width.

-Ray

[H.Frank Beshear]

Steve I've been riding a regal and like it, wide and comfortable. Do you have a list of the saddles you've tried ? Frank

[malcolm]

I put about 150mi on the new specialized saddle and I liked it although not as much as my brooks and no more than my arione. They measure your butt with this piece of gel to determine the width from the 3 avail.. I think mine was the middle width. A friend sells them and let me demo it for a while. I didn't buy it because over 40-50 miles the brooks is more comfortable, ugly or not and it was no better and maybe not as comfortable as my arione which I already own and I think is better looking. My 2 cents

[bags27]

Ken:
I am thinking of trying my Arione in place of my Brooks, and, like you, would need saddle loops. Caradice sells a heavy bracket, but I couldn't find anyone in the U.S. who still sells just the simple and very light saddle loops. But a nice guy in the U.K. does:
www.lloydcycles.co.uk
they fit the Arione and I will try it with the Caradice soon.

Someone at the site was going to show us how to bend the Arione with a heat gun to create the same kind of cradle that the Brooks has.