I bought the Arione Tri and asked about "break-in". The guy said that's an old throwback to hard leather seats (like Brooks?) that they need time to conform to your butt. New saddles have plastic shells. They don't break in.

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Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.

the arione is supposed to break in by actually cracking slightly at the wing flex sections as you use it. I doubt it would matter much what position you were riding in. Mine was definetely more comfortable after a couple of rides. I don't think it "breaks in" as far as matching your butt shape like a brooks, but it "breaks in" to give your thighs proper clearance when pedaling or something like that. Either way it's a killer saddle

yeah, what Tai said. I didn't notice any huge difference, but I do love this saddle.

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Hey SlowTwitchers:

I've been trying to embed an image of the shell of the Arione and Arione Tri so that you can better understand the exact technical nature of the 'break in' component of these two saddles. Have not been able to imbed. Each uses the same shell, so the features are identical.

I did however, find the image on this site at pezcyclingnews.com (this is not a plug for pez, it just happens to be where I found the image.)

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/...ullstory&id=1768

I'll explain also. Sitting in between the foam padding of the saddle and the black carbon reinforced shell is an insert made of a firm rubbery plastic. This piece does not cover the entire black shell (think of a sandwich, bottom layer is the black shell, middle layer is this white rubbery insert, next layer is the foam, final top layer is the cover) but extends out to the wings and then narrows to extend toward the rear of the saddle. It is designed this way for added reinforcement (I'll explain later). If you look at the bottom of the saddle you will see 'cuts' in the shell. The white rubber insert piece adhered on the top of the black bottom layer aka shell, is literally perforated. This means that as you ride the saddle and start breaking it in, that rubber piece starts perforating (okay, think of a magazine insert with perforations so that you can tear it out easily) and breaking apart. I explain the 'breaking into the rider' this way. I'm rather petite with skinny roadie climber's legs. Think of those legs and think of Jan Ullrich's legs. If both of us were to log some miles and then deconstruct the saddle, I think you would find that we each would have made deeper or different perforations in each of our 'rubber plastic piece' depending more or less on the size of our legs and how we each make contact w the saddle as we pedal. In this way, the saddle is breaking into the rider.

As mentioned, internally, the rubber insert extends toward the rear of the saddle. This is necessary to preserve the strength and integrity of the saddle due to the fact that we have made 'cut's on the carbon reinforced shell and due the fact that the saddle is so long with over 85mm rails (thereby giving the saddle more natural flex).

Do check out the image on that site. It helps w my explanation. I'll ask fi'zi:k to get one up on our site as well during my upcoming visit to the Italian offices.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

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Suzette Ayotte