Hi,
I bought my first triathlon bike a bit over a year ago and the first impression was that I cannot ride that bike because of the saddle it had. It was just making a huge pressure to the perineum right from the beginning of every ride. I probably have a bit too much forward tilted pelvis by nature which makes this pressure problem even worse during aero position. Anyhow I was just wondering how can anybody ride a triathlon or a TT bike with a regular type of saddle.
Then I started looking at options and noticed quite quickly that there might be idea in these center splitted saddles. I tried one but I was still getting numb down there. Then I started to plan a saddle by my own. I have a 3D printer at home and made a prototype and another prototype and another and... until I was happy after maybe seven versions.
Last summer I used my own saddle the whole season and I was really happy for it. The main idea in my design was to make the center area as open as possible. I got some soreness to my ramus bones, but that was mostly because of very limited padding on my saddle. But the numbness because of neural impingement was gone. It was nice to be able to pee normally during the breaks of longer rides :-)
Now I have gone a step forward and just finished my new version which is made of carbon fiber. I added a bit more padding to it to make it even better. Unfortunately the season is already over here so I will probably get a chance to ride with this new saddle next summer. I hope my carbon fiber laying technique Is good enough to keep that saddle in one piece. At least it feels really stiff by hand. One thing which is making this saddle very stiff also is the way I fixed the rails. They are just straight titanium rails which go inside the saddle. This makes the construct very rigid. I like it a lot in that sense that I can feel the power from my legs going straight to the pedal and the saddle gives a rock solid support for the stroke.
Here are couple fo pictures of my saddle. I just noticed that it is not 24cm long which I guess is the minimum UCI lenght limit for saddles. Currently I am cycling just for my own enjoyment so the lenght doesn't matter so much :-)
http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
I bought my first triathlon bike a bit over a year ago and the first impression was that I cannot ride that bike because of the saddle it had. It was just making a huge pressure to the perineum right from the beginning of every ride. I probably have a bit too much forward tilted pelvis by nature which makes this pressure problem even worse during aero position. Anyhow I was just wondering how can anybody ride a triathlon or a TT bike with a regular type of saddle.
Then I started looking at options and noticed quite quickly that there might be idea in these center splitted saddles. I tried one but I was still getting numb down there. Then I started to plan a saddle by my own. I have a 3D printer at home and made a prototype and another prototype and another and... until I was happy after maybe seven versions.
Last summer I used my own saddle the whole season and I was really happy for it. The main idea in my design was to make the center area as open as possible. I got some soreness to my ramus bones, but that was mostly because of very limited padding on my saddle. But the numbness because of neural impingement was gone. It was nice to be able to pee normally during the breaks of longer rides :-)
Now I have gone a step forward and just finished my new version which is made of carbon fiber. I added a bit more padding to it to make it even better. Unfortunately the season is already over here so I will probably get a chance to ride with this new saddle next summer. I hope my carbon fiber laying technique Is good enough to keep that saddle in one piece. At least it feels really stiff by hand. One thing which is making this saddle very stiff also is the way I fixed the rails. They are just straight titanium rails which go inside the saddle. This makes the construct very rigid. I like it a lot in that sense that I can feel the power from my legs going straight to the pedal and the saddle gives a rock solid support for the stroke.
Here are couple fo pictures of my saddle. I just noticed that it is not 24cm long which I guess is the minimum UCI lenght limit for saddles. Currently I am cycling just for my own enjoyment so the lenght doesn't matter so much :-)
http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat