Which style saddle for gravel ?

[ssb94]

What kind of saddle do you have on your gravel bike, road or mountain (not looking for brand or model or model recs, just styles)? Are there gravel "specific" saddles that are worth considering? I'm leaning towards a road saddle since I already know what works for me, but I'm curious what others prefer and why.

[prototoast]

I use the same saddle I use on the road. It never occurred to me to use anything different.

[bigbill]

Same here; my gravel bike has a Regal, just like the others, except for my MTB which has a Selle Italia Max Flite. Gravel saddles are like gravel shoes, shorts, jerseys, and helmets; they are just marketing. Go with what you know because it has to get you home.

[joralieu]

Your saddle doesn't care what bike it is on. Use what works for you.

[Gggross]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I use the same saddle I use on the road. It never occurred to me to use anything different.

This!! Same for me.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by ssb94

What kind of saddle do you have on your gravel bike, road or mountain (not looking for brand or model or model recs, just styles)? Are there gravel "specific" saddles that are worth considering? I'm leaning towards a road saddle since I already know what works for me, but I'm curious what others prefer and why.

BITD, even MTB-ers used road saddles..And, OMG, road guys used MTB pedals.
Find a saddle that yer bum likes, buy more than one(cuz inevitably, they will change/cancel it) and go ride.

Gravel saddles are like gravel shoes, shorts, jerseys, and helmets; they are just marketing.

What he said...

[R3awak3n]

Companies came up with saddles and used the word gravel in them so that consumers buy some more junk they don’t really need. This goes along with other “gravel” products. As mentioned just ride what saddle you like and has worked for you

[johnniecakes]

Originally Posted by prototoast

I use the same saddle I use on the road. It never occurred to me to use anything different.

Ditto, gravel or road, my undercarriage is the same.

[tellyho]

The only benefit to a MTB specific saddle is that sometimes the shoulders are reinforced with some beefier fabric for those oops moments.

[CAAD]

My road saddles are bare carbon. Gravel I run a saddle with a bit of leather and padding.

[mstateglfr]

Brooks C17 on my gravel bike.
Thats different from my main road bike, which has a Brooks C17 Cutout on it.

They are different because one was cheaper at the time.

[TiminVA]

Same saddle for every bike

[benb]

I am not in the "same saddle for every bike" camp but it's not about tailoring the saddle for the terrain.

More I think I need a slightly wider saddle for bikes that have less drop to the bars. The lower the bars the more I rotate my hips forward, the narrower I need the saddle.

I have had a hard time lately actually finding the shapes I want in the widths I want.. there has been such a big push towards wider saddles that are generally too wide for me. 130mm is really where I am at with a bunch of drop. Hard to say with MTB but it's in the 135-140 range. Stuff now is way more likely to be in the 145-155mm range and that gives me trouble.

Whether I would want to be on the wider or narrower part of my personal range on a gravel bike would completely come down to what the positioning on the bike was like.

[EB]

If you have to ride up really steep loose stuff requiring seated pedaling, a longer nose that's less awful to put your butt on can be helpful, so you can slide forward on the saddle to maintain a powerful pedaling position. I use a MTB-oriented saddle (Spesh Phenom) on my garvel baik for this reason.

But that's not "garvel speshific," it's "MTB specific."

Otherwise, yeah, what everyone else said.

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by benb

I am not in the "same saddle for every bike" camp but it's not about tailoring the saddle for the terrain.

More I think I need a slightly wider saddle for bikes that have less drop to the bars. The lower the bars the more I rotate my hips forward, the narrower I need the saddle.

I have had a hard time lately actually finding the shapes I want in the widths I want.. there has been such a big push towards wider saddles that are generally too wide for me. 130mm is really where I am at with a bunch of drop. Hard to say with MTB but it's in the 135-140 range. Stuff now is way more likely to be in the 145-155mm range and that gives me trouble.

Whether I would want to be on the wider or narrower part of my personal range on a gravel bike would completely come down to what the positioning on the bike was like.

I think there is a lot of truth here. If a rider's position on a road bike is quite aggressive with a lot of bar-to-saddle drop you may very well ride on quite a narrow saddle. If the same rider wants his bars higher on a bike he rides off-road/gravel he might be more comfortable on a wider saddle. Then we have to remember that varied saddle widths don't always determine comfort. The shape/contour of the part that contacts and supports your butt is at least equally important. My awakening to this came when I bought a bike with an Arione saddle that looked like an ass-hatchet compared to my favorite Brooks B-17. Lucky for me I rode the bike before getting rid of the Arione because I found it very comfy too. This may be due to the Arione's design feature that allows its contour to conform quite a bit to the anatomy of a rider. Their are slits in the shell that allow some cracking and flexing of the shell. I have had several second-hand Ariones that came to me pre-cracked by the original riders but they alkl were comfy for me. I guess this could be because I was rather heavy for a cyclist and that may have caused me to increase the cracking of the shell to better conform to my behind.