Agreed on all counts.

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

You are aware that Eric is quite a superb fitter ;-)? I think he probably meant to see how different people use this BiSaddle model.
I’m using it and sitting all the way back on the saddle, but I see quite a lot of different customers during my fit sessikns using it at a different spot sitting on it. And all liking it as well. BiSaddle took a serious piece of the ISM pie since we introduced this brand.

Jeroen

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Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

I had the same issue late last year or early this year after only 1 year of use. BiSaddle did send me new uppers without any quibble, but it leaves me somewhat dubious about the lifespan of what for me is a very expensive saddle. I bought it with the combo of short and long uppers for experimentation and got caught for import duty coming into Ireland. So it cost about €500, easily the most expensive saddle I've bought. I too was told it may have been from a bad batch or this wouldn't have happened.....unless I used a lot of chamois cream.
I use chamois cream occasionally. Typically for very long rides, especially if they're in the wet.
A saddle that can't tolerate chamois cream seem unfit for purpose to me. Seems like you might want to make it pretty clear in the product description that a fair cross section of riders will have to change their habits if they want to use it!

This aside I've been happy wit the saddle. But it does stop me freely recommending it.

I did get to use my new Bisaddle SRT 2.0 Bonneville this morning. I measured and rode two 44m Zwift Active Recovery Workouts. Mid ride I did make a few tweaks. I widened the front by 30mm from factory. I also started level as instructed and lowered to -3% tilt. The slight changes helped a lot. It's the best I've ever felt post ride. Fingers crossed for continued improvements with small incremental adjustments.

* I did notice a small amount of pressure on the inside of my left groin. I may consider using the flattening wedge and possibly narrowing the back a little to alleviate that pressure point.

Looking to the large depth of knowledge here for some help in improving my saddle situation. I have a Cervelo P-series. This is my only bike. I use it for all my training, indoors and outdoors. About half my rides are in the aerobars and the other half of them are with people on road bikes so I am sitting up with my hands on the basebar. I was riding an ISM PR2.0 with 40 series foam for a few years. It was fairly comfortable when in the aerobars. But I did not like the upwards angle of the back of the seat when I was riding on the basebar. The upwards slope of the back of the seat felt like it was pushing me forward too much. I switched to the bisaddle SRT. The back of the saddle is flatter, which I like. I was able to get the nose width (54mm) and back width (140mm) where I wanted. I liked the shortness of the saddle, it allowed me to ride on the basebar and in the aerobars without having to move my hips much forward or backwards. This kept my hips in a comfortable position for pedaling whether on the basebar or in the aerobars. I have always found the bisaddle to not have enough padding. I cracked the plastic at the front of the saddle for both of the surfaces within 4 months of installing the saddle. Bisaddle covered new surfaces under warranty, but I don't want to keep a saddle that doesn't last a whole season.

I was thinking of trying the JCOB 55, Selle SMP T2 and the ISM PL 1.1 next.

What saddles would you recommend I try to replace my bisaddle?

I would recommend an ISM PR2.0. The saddle wasn't pushing you forward too much, something else was *not* pushing you back enough. It's hard to find a saddle that works well in the aero position *and* when on the hoods.

E

Edit: If you already had an ISM, I'd try the PL or PN 1.1 saddles next.

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

I haven’t ridden the ISM saddles since I was forced to in 2014-15 but regardless of how far I hung myself off the front of the saddle they were too wide for me. The ISM reps always just told me I was riding it wrong and then told me to use hydrocortisone cream to help with the “break in” period. It was so bad that I pulled out all the staples from the plastic cover and base, trimmed the plastic base down to a narrower width and glued it all back together. I had GeBioMized pressure mapping done to on my modified saddle and the stock version to confirm that it was an improvement for me. Sadly I really pissed some folks off by trying to find a way to ride comfortably. Next time I rejoined the team, they removed the modified saddle and put a stock one back on.

I of course have heard of this but cannot relate, as I always feel like the saddles aren't wide enough, not too wide. I've always wondered where the disconnect was. Like, when you hang off the front, how is there anything to rub? Or, am I doing it wrong?

FWIW, I use the Fizik Tritone/Mistica/Transiro "Large" which is 65mm wide and rounded off. Saddle is like 9cm behind BB and tilted down slightly.

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Old Roadie here, but I'll throw in my two cents.

Saddle Height. There's a bazillion methods/formulas/theories for this. A long time ago I stumbled across one that made a lot of sense and, at least for me, is also the most comfortable. You produce maximum power when standing going up a steep hill. Your body will automatically set the correct knee angle, ankle angle, etc., to achieve this (and it also accounts for the cleat position). Your saddle is at the correct height when you can stop pedaling at bottom dead center, lock your leg (without changing knee angle, etc.), and slide back onto your saddle without changing anything (you don't have to raise up OR lower yourself).

I ride old school wide nose saddles, like the old Felt Super Lites, but a birds eye view looking down you'd see it's not perfectly straight, but offset to the right. So, when I get into the aero bars and slide forward onto the nose, my bits & pieces hang to the left of the nose (I naturally "hang" to the left).

Hope this helps someone.

I'm currently working out some saddle issues myself.


Same.

For road riding - I rode the original or classic Fizik Arione for years - never had a problem. Then all of a sudden last year it did not really work for me any more. Something changed.

Since then I've been on a bit of saddle search and not found one that is REALLY great for me - all are just OK, ie by about 3 hours, I'm ready to get off the bike. I could keep going but, the saddle discomfort is not really killing me, but it's not great either.

So far I have tried the Fizik Arione Open, the Arione R3, the Antares, and now I have the Shimano Pro Stealth - all of these have been saddles we have had kicking around the home shop - so I have not been out of pocket for any of them.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I have been riding the same Arione for like 15 years on the road. Love it. Wonder what changed. Maybe loss of muscle mass as we age?

Eric

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

I have been riding the same Arione for like 15 years on the road. Love it. Wonder what changed. Maybe loss of muscle mass as we age?


Eric,

Not sure!

Same here. Been a dedicated Arione rider since they first came out. Generally, the saddle feels too narrow now. The wider platform of the Pro Stealth feels better. The problem I have with the Pro Stealth is there is only one location to sit on it - right in the pocket. Also the padding is VERY thin and it's a pretty firm ride. It's not bad, but it's not super great.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I remember the tribike fitter would ask

“Which side do you hang to?”

I always said left so they pointed the nose of the saddle to the right slightly

I just moved my whole body to one side since I had a convenient leg length discrepancy.

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

I've realized that I prefer a wide position front and back with about 3% saddle tilt. The front width of 60mm to 65mm. It came stock at 55mm. This width allows more of a cutout and also keeps the weight on my pubic rami. I get better stability and weight distribution.

I also prefer 135mm rear width, which was stock. My sit bones measured 93mm, which makes 135mm unusually wide, but I can feel full sit bone support. The majority of my weight is on the pubic bones, but just a small amount is to the rear. Odd, but I feel more overall stability and comfort going wider.

I'm the same.

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Interestly I saw a site that talked about useable saddle width at the rear. It mentioned to deduct 1cm off the total width of each side for useable width. At 135mm total width that puts me at 115mm. My sit bone measurement is 93mm. Bisaddle recommends adding 1cm to 4cm. Adding 2cm puts me at 113mm or around 115mm. Based off useable width I'm spot on. The 1cm deduction from either side eliminates the outer edge of the saddle that curves. Based off the measurements it makes sense why I feel better with that width.

Glad you are having some success.

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Thanks Eric! I appreciate your input and advice. It's been very helpful.

Studying your bike for unusual wear patterns can also help. The attached images are from my training bike/test mule that has well over 20K miles on it. I noticed that the black anodizing was wearing away on only one side of the seat post. This, plus looking at the wear pattern on my street shoes, helped me realize I needed an angled wedge between the cleat-shoe of my right foot!

I’ve also got a P series and love my PR 3.0. It’s like the heaviest saddle on the planet (over 360 grams!) and looks dorky, but it’s heavily padded and as comfortable as it gets. We all know that comfort = speed, even on a tri bike.

For sure. Comfort equals power and aerodynamics.

E

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Any opinions about syncros belcarra tri?

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Sorry if my english is pretty bad, I am not english native

Hi, thanks for reaching out. I feel like this saddle is just a "normal" saddle with a cutout, and I'm not sure about the width of the front end. I think I'd like this as a road saddle.

Eric

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

“You are experiencing the criminal coverup of a foreign backed fascist hostile takeover of a mafia shakedown of an authoritarian religious slow motion coup. Persuade people to vote for Democracy.”

Thanks!!

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Sorry if my english is pretty bad, I am not english native