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Ramus Saddles
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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
Last edited by: diyman: Nov 5, 21 12:45
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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I try to send those pictures again...

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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Craftsmanship looks pretty good! Curious what type of material you used for padding?
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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Here is one more image from the back side during assembly.



http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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For a custom-made / hand-made saddle, I would say that is very impressive for a 1st or 2nd effort.

Can you say more about how you designed it, and then how you made it ?

Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
DarkSpeedWorks.com.....Reviews.....Insta.....Facebook

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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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Impressive! It’s like a little pelvis, for your pelvis.

Any plans to commercialise it?
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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Nice job. Looks very similar to the Bi-saddle I used all 2018. Best part about it is it’s fully adjustable. I don’t want to ride with anything else. You can check it out here. https://www.bisaddle.com/
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Re: DIY Saddle [aavlee] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for your comment!

I found a roll of adhesive foam from Aliexpress and just cut that in shape. The foam is 2mm thick and in the first version there was only one layer. Now there are two to three layers in that current version.

Here is a picture without the fabric on top.

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [kquantum] [ In reply to ]
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kquantum wrote:
Nice job. Looks very similar to the Bi-saddle I used all 2018. Best part about it is it’s fully adjustable. I don’t want to ride with anything else. You can check it out here. https://www.bisaddle.com/

Thank's for the link and nice to hear you have found your perfect solution. I actually found this saddle just after I had finished my own saddle. Price wise I probably paid more of my own saddle after all trials and errors :-) but it was fun to make it anyways.

In the beginning of the project I sat on a cardboard and then could measure the distance between my ischiums. That's why I'm happy for the dimensions as they are now. It is also quite lightweight in around 170 grams which is of course very important too :-D

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [MattyK] [ In reply to ]
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MattyK wrote:
Impressive! It’s like a little pelvis, for your pelvis.

Any plans to commercialise it?

Thank you!

Well why not, it would be cool to commercialise it. You already made a good punch line for it :-D

Do you have an idea how it could be commercialised?

I don't have experience in bringing this kind of product to market and a lot of questions arise like, how to manufacture it, should it be patented, is it violating some patents, where and how to market it, how to prove its safety etc...

If some of the current manufacturers would get interested of the saddle I guess that might be quite relevant way to make it commercially available. Otherwise I think it would be a huge workload for me to make it possible.

But I'm open for ideas and it would be nice to hear stories if someone has commercialised some bike parts by starting the business from the garage.

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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Honestly I wouldn’t have the first idea. Maybe ping it to Slowman here, I’m sure he could offer business advice.

My thought is that you take the design to an established manufacturer like Velo (who make the saddles for just about everyone on the market) and see if you can get them to do it
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Re: DIY Saddle [DarkSpeedWorks] [ In reply to ]
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DarkSpeedWorks wrote:
For a custom-made / hand-made saddle, I would say that is very impressive for a 1st or 2nd effort.

Can you say more about how you designed it, and then how you made it ?

Thanks for your comments,

It has taken about a year for me to reach this point as I have been doing this on holidays.

I made the designed in 3D by computer and then I printed molds. Then the rest was made by hand.

Here is a picture of the tools I used.

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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diyman wrote:
I don't have experience in bringing this kind of product to market and a lot of questions arise like, how to manufacture it, should it be patented, is it violating some patents, where and how to market it, how to prove its safety etc...

If some of the current manufacturers would get interested of the saddle I guess that might be quite relevant way to make it commercially available. Otherwise I think it would be a huge workload for me to make it possible.

What I'd do... make a few and loan them out to people who can give you objective feedback. Abuse them and see what it takes to break them. Refine the design. Repeat.

Build them. Make a website. Take orders. Ship them. Give your customers great service!

I wouldn't worry about patents (if any) at this point.
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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diyman wrote:
DarkSpeedWorks wrote:
For a custom-made / hand-made saddle, I would say that is very impressive for a 1st or 2nd effort.

Can you say more about how you designed it, and then how you made it ?


Thanks for your comments,

It has taken about a year for me to reach this point as I have been doing this on holidays.

I made the designed in 3D by computer and then I printed molds. Then the rest was made by hand.

Here is a picture of the tools I used.


amazing

Grow with data: Dynamic Sports Data | eBay store
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Re: DIY Saddle [MattyK] [ In reply to ]
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MattyK wrote:
Honestly I wouldn’t have the first idea. Maybe ping it to Slowman here, I’m sure he could offer business advice.

My thought is that you take the design to an established manufacturer like Velo (who make the saddles for just about everyone on the market) and see if you can get them to do it

Probably they would do it. I guess If you make a deal of 1000 pieces they would make molds and do a series. But then you should still do the marketing and that costs too.

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [rruff] [ In reply to ]
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rruff wrote:

What I'd do... make a few and loan them out to people who can give you objective feedback. Abuse them and see what it takes to break them. Refine the design. Repeat.

Build them. Make a website. Take orders. Ship them. Give your customers great service!

I wouldn't worry about patents (if any) at this point.

Thanks for your insight. This would be at least quite risk free and also cost effective strategy. At some point if the product would become succesful enough the production and marketing could be scaled up at that point.

Maybe I will come back here after I have made ten more those saddles :-)

One issue I actually have already in my mind which should be solved somehow. The length. Is it really so that the saddle has to be at least 24cm long to make it approved for racing?

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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That sounds like a UCI limitation. I don't know about tri.

If you can make a decent return selling them for $300 or so, then I think you can have a business. Maybe some custom options, different shape, padding thickness, etc? Mass production will be a big investment of time and money. I'd keep it a one man deal and let demand dictate whether you expand or not.
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Re: DIY Saddle [rruff] [ In reply to ]
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Hello again,

It is a cold winter at the moment so plenty of time to make more carbon fiber parts to my bike :-)

My recent project has been a pump holder. I bought a small pump and it has a holder which keeps the pump on the frame but it’s not in the centre because that way you can place a bottle cage on top of it. I already have two bottles so I could sacrifice one mounting place only for the pump and I wanted it to be just in the center line of the frame so I decided to see if I could do it myself.

This time I CNC machined a four piece mold from POM plastic and actually that method seems to work quite well. The final product came out from the mold pretty easily and I was really happy for the end result.

If you are interested to see how it comes out from the mold here is a link for a short video:


http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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Hello,
It’s been a while since the last posts concerning my saddle.
I have done some long rides during this summer with the current carbon fiber version and it has worked very well. The structure seems to be very rigid so I have no worries anymore that the saddle would fail under me even in some heavier conditions.

I have opened an Instagram page where my idea is to share my stories how I get a long with the saddle in the future.
Here is the link to my page if you are interested to see how it goes:

https://www.instagram.com/makerdiyman

Best regards,
diyman

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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Hi DIYMan,

Not to worry, I haven't forgotten about getting you my measurements. Honestly, I have been taking some time off form heavy training, and focusing on my job. I definitely want to get you my measurements and so we can work together.

Thank you,
Christian W.

Team Zoot-Texas, and Pickle Juice
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Re: DIY Saddle [Taugen] [ In reply to ]
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Hi Christian,

Great to hear from you. It would be awesome to get the saddle under a true pro testing.
Let’s see what we can achieve during the next winter while you still have nice summer weather to train hard. At the same time I will be sitting inside planning new saddle ideas and waiting for the snow to melt before the next riding season can start.

Best regards,
-diyman

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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diyman wrote:
DarkSpeedWorks wrote:
For a custom-made / hand-made saddle, I would say that is very impressive for a 1st or 2nd effort.

Can you say more about how you designed it, and then how you made it ?


Thanks for your comments,

It has taken about a year for me to reach this point as I have been doing this on holidays.

I made the designed in 3D by computer and then I printed molds. Then the rest was made by hand.

Here is a picture of the tools I used.

Looks pretty good, this is why I wish I had a 3D printer and a 3D scanner, I wanna make my own shoes, and was thinking if I could create a two piece mold for the outside and use a bladder on the inside, I could reproduce a lot easier then having to make a new mold everytime since you need to destroy the plaster mold to get it out of the new shoe.......unless there is another way besides making the show in two pieces or a big opening on the top part.

How many layers of carbon fiber did you use?

As far as bringing this to market, there are a couple of companies that make custom saddles (and use a similar process as is used for custom shoes). They are right at the $285 mark for a basic saddle (upgrade for carbon rails or type of shell). They also allow you to design your own saddle based on your measurements. If you could do it for that price or less you would have a decent market but at that price point I think you would be hard pressed to make a lot of money. Sending the package too and from, time spent uploading measurements, software for adjustability of saddle design, carbon fiber/ padding and top covering. They also offer a 2 year warranty. Not saying it cant be done but it might be very tough to compete
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Re: DIY Saddle [140.6sj] [ In reply to ]
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140.6sj wrote:
diyman wrote:
DarkSpeedWorks wrote:
For a custom-made / hand-made saddle, I would say that is very impressive for a 1st or 2nd effort.

Can you say more about how you designed it, and then how you made it ?


Thanks for your comments,

It has taken about a year for me to reach this point as I have been doing this on holidays.

I made the designed in 3D by computer and then I printed molds. Then the rest was made by hand.

Here is a picture of the tools I used.

Looks pretty good, this is why I wish I had a 3D printer and a 3D scanner, I wanna make my own shoes, and was thinking if I could create a two piece mold for the outside and use a bladder on the inside, I could reproduce a lot easier then having to make a new mold everytime since you need to destroy the plaster mold to get it out of the new shoe.......unless there is another way besides making the show in two pieces or a big opening on the top part.

How many layers of carbon fiber did you use?

As far as bringing this to market, there are a couple of companies that make custom saddles (and use a similar process as is used for custom shoes). They are right at the $285 mark for a basic saddle (upgrade for carbon rails or type of shell). They also allow you to design your own saddle based on your measurements. If you could do it for that price or less you would have a decent market but at that price point I think you would be hard pressed to make a lot of money. Sending the package too and from, time spent uploading measurements, software for adjustability of saddle design, carbon fiber/ padding and top covering. They also offer a 2 year warranty. Not saying it cant be done but it might be very tough to compete


Hi,

Interesting idea to make your own shoes. So you would like them to be carbon fiber also from the top, not just the bottom right?
If the whole shoe would be CF I guess you would need a really really perfect fit to avoid any blisters. That bladder sounds good. I have seen that they use bladders a lot in bike frame manufacturing. But perhaps you could also print the inner part of the mold but you would just make it from multiple parts. For example three parallel parts where you can take the center part out first and release space that way to be able to take also the peripheral parts out.

I quite much agree on your comments what it comes to commercialization. I have my daily job so at the moment I cannot be a full time saddle maker and as you said it would still be quite a challenge to make it profitable. What I have been thinking lately is that if I could get a fair amount of interest towards my saddle I could perhaps think a bit more professional and cost effective ways of manufacturing the saddle. This would mean decent metallic molds and industrial protocols to cure the carbon fiber. I definetly don’t want to risk my health by starting to play with toxic resins on a daily basis in unprofessional circumstances. But if one day I am in a situation that I would have a hundred pre orders waiting for the saddle to be manufactured, maybe at that point I could establish a professional manufacturing protocol which I could use to make these saddles couple of hundreds more with reasonable costs and within a reasonable timeframe.

For my current saddle I used around 12-14 layers of carbon fiber. One layer was around 0,33mm and I was aiming for 4mm total thickness. Around the titanium rails the thickness is much more just to be sure it can hold the rider’s weight.

-diyman

http://www.ramusseat.com
https://www.instagram.com/ramusseat
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Re: DIY Saddle [diyman] [ In reply to ]
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diyman wrote:
140.6sj wrote:
diyman wrote:
DarkSpeedWorks wrote:
For a custom-made / hand-made saddle, I would say that is very impressive for a 1st or 2nd effort.

Can you say more about how you designed it, and then how you made it ?


Thanks for your comments,

It has taken about a year for me to reach this point as I have been doing this on holidays.

I made the designed in 3D by computer and then I printed molds. Then the rest was made by hand.

Here is a picture of the tools I used.

Looks pretty good, this is why I wish I had a 3D printer and a 3D scanner, I wanna make my own shoes, and was thinking if I could create a two piece mold for the outside and use a bladder on the inside, I could reproduce a lot easier then having to make a new mold everytime since you need to destroy the plaster mold to get it out of the new shoe.......unless there is another way besides making the show in two pieces or a big opening on the top part.

How many layers of carbon fiber did you use?

As far as bringing this to market, there are a couple of companies that make custom saddles (and use a similar process as is used for custom shoes). They are right at the $285 mark for a basic saddle (upgrade for carbon rails or type of shell). They also allow you to design your own saddle based on your measurements. If you could do it for that price or less you would have a decent market but at that price point I think you would be hard pressed to make a lot of money. Sending the package too and from, time spent uploading measurements, software for adjustability of saddle design, carbon fiber/ padding and top covering. They also offer a 2 year warranty. Not saying it cant be done but it might be very tough to compete


Hi,

Interesting idea to make your own shoes. So you would like them to be carbon fiber also from the top, not just the bottom right?
If the whole shoe would be CF I guess you would need a really really perfect fit to avoid any blisters. That bladder sounds good. I have seen that they use bladders a lot in bike frame manufacturing. But perhaps you could also print the inner part of the mold but you would just make it from multiple parts. For example three parallel parts where you can take the center part out first and release space that way to be able to take also the peripheral parts out.

I quite much agree on your comments what it comes to commercialization. I have my daily job so at the moment I cannot be a full time saddle maker and as you said it would still be quite a challenge to make it profitable. What I have been thinking lately is that if I could get a fair amount of interest towards my saddle I could perhaps think a bit more professional and cost effective ways of manufacturing the saddle. This would mean decent metallic molds and industrial protocols to cure the carbon fiber. I definetly don’t want to risk my health by starting to play with toxic resins on a daily basis in unprofessional circumstances. But if one day I am in a situation that I would have a hundred pre orders waiting for the saddle to be manufactured, maybe at that point I could establish a professional manufacturing protocol which I could use to make these saddles couple of hundreds more with reasonable costs and within a reasonable timeframe.

For my current saddle I used around 12-14 layers of carbon fiber. One layer was around 0,33mm and I was aiming for 4mm total thickness. Around the titanium rails the thickness is much more just to be sure it can hold the rider’s weight.

-diyman

Did you only use weave or did you also go with UD?
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