Very much appreciated.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

what my eyes see do not matter to me. what my taint feels is what matters to me. the only thing the saddle needs to do is work.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

This is true. But the trick is how to get people to try it in the first place so that they know it works. Many excellent products have failed for marketing reasons.

I think Nick will get this right. What we are seeing online is not his actual product launch. We're just the lucky community that gets to be a part of the process early.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

Thank you both. I do view this as a little bit of a sandbox and I truly value all critical feedback. Dan, I will get something for your taint and in the mail your way! Ha

One thing I can say, is that putting stuff out there definitely puts my hand on the burner and keeps me motivated to work hard and faster

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

I was curious about any professional fitters you engaged for feedback during final prototyping as well as those whom you have approached to fit and demo with clients as you go to market. There are several here on ST that I think would be interested in fitting with Miles Saddles, and that could be a decent channel for you to promote your products.

As you indicated and Slowman and others have written about numerous times, saddles are extremely personal for each individual based on individual morphology, fit, and personal preferences. There simply is no one-size fits all. Padding softness is one example stated earlier in the thread, and of course shape, dimensions (width, length, height), material covering (grip or slip), and for triathlon particularly, availability for rear hydration and/or storage can all factor into that decision. Have you considered variations of your saddles, such as width or padding level, as you ramp production?

I'm in the market now for a new saddle to replace my worn ISM Road and in fact just purchased a JOF from another Slowtwitcher on the Classifieds forum to try out. I'd love to give the V8 a go when available! -c

Yes, to engaging with bike fitters (note: I've done thousands of bike fits in my time as well, and often do fits for the athletes we sponsor). I'll post some Instagram videos soon that show some of the UX research we have conducted and continue to conduct.

We've been speaking with bike fitters worldwide and will continue to do so. We need their partnership and feedback.

In the OP, I spoke a tad about hydration solutions, but 100% will have for both TT and road/gravel that work well with the Wolftood BRad system - no proprietary stuff to lock you into our products.

One size fits all: we agree. That said, there is a bell curve and we've worked insanely hard for years to identify that peak of the bell curve for softness and dimensions. The feedback we have so far, from many many many users, is that it just works for them: in any position, on any bike, at any speed. That said, we will obviously keep innovating. Different densities of cushioning is easy for us to do; that said, our current BASF Infinergy cushioning uses a mix of their small and large beads (will post videos on this) in a proprietary mixture we developed alongside BASF. It provides a feel that folks who like pure carbon are excited about, and folks who are super sensitive (see above post on this topic) are very satisfied with. I'm a researcher by training and I've been applying those skillsets to an exhaustive degree. I'll talk about that on instagram, soon, as well. Measurement is useless if you can't translate it into a pragmatic outcome.

We'll announce presales soon. Much appreciated!

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

Disagree. I spend more time to off my bike than on. I agree that feel is much more important than looks. But, It’s not that hard to do both

I will try the saddle just because I’m always willing to try née saddles. But, the typical hyperbole (all day comfort, power claims etc) is off-putting

This is a healthy take on it, and the sandbox notion is why I felt it was ok to bring it up here.

I say my comments as a former graphic and industrial designer (I designed outdoor furniture for big box retail in a past life lol), and engineer. No matter how objective people claim to be, there are details that convey quality in a product, and maybe hint about how well it was developed. This is something like commercial prejudice, because given two products of unknown origin, we give the benefit of the doubt to the prettier one, often erroneously.

Again, maybe hint is the key word, since it doesn’t serve as true measure of quality, but things like curvature of surfaces on the saddle, particularly where there contact is not expected, require thought and finesse to make them smooth and appealing. Does a company that spends this effort do it at the expense of true comfort, durability and performance r&d? Probably more often than not.

I think I can spot a genuine aerodynamic design, which has been iterated on (any practically “optimized” design must be the output of many iterations), and one that merely claims to be aerodynamic, but has the design signatures of someone’s first CAD project.

I’m no ergonomist, but I’d grant your ergonomic development from observation. Yet I don’t observe surface qualities (“tension” is probably the most succinct term that comes to mind) that make me think there is a lot of refinement in the manufacturing, mold making, etc. I don’t think it would take much to get there, but I do feel it needs to get there.

Spot on observations. Those aesthetics are what we've been working on in this stage. Was actually use on the phone for a while this morning getting it sorted out to be able to start tweaking our solidworks models. We've saved aesthetics to be the absolute last step. I've seen waaayyy too often companies start with aesthetics. We're starting with ergonomics knowing that aesthetics are small tweaks to make at the end. It's good feedback.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

i see that preorders are up.

we all know that cycling and tri is expensive, but can you speak to the saddles costs? not at all going to be a nay sayer here and "throw shade" your direction, but your products are on the highest end ive seen, and i have a custom dash collecting dust because i cant ride it for more than an hour. i dont mind dropping money on a product that will work, but i hate the idea of dropping this much then not being able to ride it.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

Thank you for the question and giving us (me, David Simmons, Craig Edwards) a chance to respond.

The $650 price is for the handmade saddles. The mass produced versions of the saddles we are working towards producing will be in the ~$250 range that's come to be expected from saddles in this category.

The handmade saddles are very light - currently sub 100g. Yet, they have foam that makes them, according to our early adopters, more comfortable than the big name saddles they've used in the past. The saddles are also very strong with no rider weight limit at this time.

There are saddle brands with prices in this range, but they do not have cushioning, have low weight limits and are also handmade, hence the price. But the biggest reason is the labor: these saddles have one piece rails and shell - they're made at the same time, by hand.

All this said, we have a 30 day return policy - if you don't like the saddle, return it for a full refund, no questions asked.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

i was really curious if the price was driven by the fact that this is your first run and the hand made aspect.

the "off the shelf" model at the lower price point seems very competitive and solid price point for the product.

thanks a lot for all the info you've posted here. ill be placing a preorder. just gotta move some money around. :-P

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador