Seat Rail Material

[Plum Hill]

Rode Flites for years, all with titanium seat rails.
Have made the switch to Flite Flows in the past two years, all picked up from here or eBay. Somehow got one with manganese rails. I had to change the seat post to a zero offset model to get the clamp in the designated area.
Comparing the manganese to the titanium rails, the clamp area on the manganese is about 2 cm smaller. Does this mean the rails are weaker near the bends?
Other than bling factor of ti, anything pro or con with either material?
Currently a porker at 200 pounds.

[Plum Hill]

Going to bump this up.
Seems Selle Italia has nixed the Flow. I have found Flows on sale but they have the manganese rails.
Anyone?

[jmoore]

I'm sure Selle Italia tested that rail material plenty before putting it into production. There is too much liability to put something substandard out.

I would put them on the bike and ride them and never give it another thought. The discontinuation of that model is likely a lack of sales, rather than something structural.

[9tubes]

Originally Posted by jmoore

The discontinuation of that model is likely a lack of sales, rather than something structural.

With Selle Italia, the discontinuation of that model might be despite lots of sales. They have a habit of discontinuing popular saddles for reasons that nobody knows.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by Plum Hill

Going to bump this up.
Seems Selle Italia has nixed the Flow. I have found Flows on sale but they have the manganese rails.
Anyone?

Keep in mind that when they refer to "manganese" rails they really just mean steel alloy. Manganese is a common alloying element, and manganese steel alloys have been used in bicycle applications for many decades.

[NHAero]

One thing I have noticed is that often the same saddle in a mfgr's line has almost the same weight with Ti or steel rails. For example, Specialized lists the Romin Evo with Cr-Mo rails at 273g and the more costly Ti railed model is 4g lighter. Usually to take full advantage of a less dense metal over steel the tubing is made larger, so if the saddle rails have the same OD there is less advantage of Ti over steel.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by NHAero

One thing I have noticed is that often the same saddle in a mfgr's line has almost the same weight with Ti or steel rails. For example, Specialized lists the Romin Evo with Cr-Mo rails at 273g and the more costly Ti railed model is 4g lighter. Usually to take full advantage of a less dense metal over steel the tubing is made larger, so if the saddle rails have the same OD there is less advantage of Ti over steel.

Look again. Saddle rails can't vary much in diameter, or they won't work with standard saddle clamps. Metal rails are usually 7mm (round); carbon rails are still 7mm wide, but often 9mm or 10mm on the vertical axis.

The reason that some steel saddle rails are often not much heavier than titanium is because some steel rails are hollow while titanium rails are usually solid.

[NHAero]

I don't think I said anything that contradicts this, I said it differently. Held to a constant diameter, there's less weight advantage of Ti over steel.

Originally Posted by Mark McM

Look again. Saddle rails can't vary much in diameter, or they won't work with standard saddle clamps. Metal rails are usually 7mm (round); carbon rails are still 7mm wide, but often 9mm or 10mm on the vertical axis.

The reason that some steel saddle rails are often not much heavier than titanium is because some steel rails are hollow while titanium rails are usually solid.

[pdmtong]

the diameter is a function of the material. I wouldn't read more into it than that. if that saddle works for you, go with what you can get. IMHO 200#s is not an issue unless the roads are so bad you are just getting pounded every ride you take.

[robertbb]

Having switched from carbon railed saddle to one with "Austenite" (steel), I'm sticking with metal rails and never going back to carbon.

All carbon rails ever did for me was make my wallet lighter and limit seatpost/clamp choices.

Flex of the saddle shell itself, plus padding (and of course tyre size/pressure) make all the difference. Aside from a few (literally, a few) grams I reckon there'd be zero real difference between the various metal options.

[Blue Jays]

Selle Italia needs to "calm down and stay the course" with their iconic saddles. They could have a crazy lightweight carbon shell with carbon rails, a SLR with choice of carbon or titanium rails, and a Flite with same choice of carbon or titanium rails.

Their array now is dizzying and most are of minimal utility.
If they were to lengthen the active product cycle they would sell even more…

[bigbill]

Here is my fifteen year old Selle Italia Max Flite. It has tubular Ti rails, and one of them quit about a week ago. I ordered a new Selle Italia Max Flite Superflow from CC and installed it last night. I did a side-by-side comparison, new versus broken, and other than some subtle differences in the cover material, it was identical to the tubular Ti rails.

I've broken two other saddles, including a Ti-railed SSM Regal and a Cinelli Unicanitor. All my bikes except the MTB (with the Flite) have Regal saddles; most are steel but a few Ti.

[Blue Jays]

Even as a longtime titanium fan…I will say the black steel/magnese rails on newer Selle Italia SLR saddles look pretty darn good.

It seems many contemporary seatposts are designed to be used with round 7mm metal rails as opposed to 7mm x 9mm taller carbon fiber rails. At least that is what I've been seeing in the marketplace.