Arione Unbelievable!

Triathlon Forum
1

OK, at 1st I didn’t buy it. I have ridden a Ti Flite ever since they 1st came out (14-15 years?). I have done 12 IMs and all the training on a Flite. Never really had much of a problem, but I tend to scoot around on the saddle a bit. So, the longer “sweet spot” on the Arione peeked my interest.

Then I thought “nah” why change a good thing. I have never liked the seat pads and never really wanted a softer seat - stopped my scooting and my boys would get stuck. So I just stayed with the hard slick narrow and smooth Flite.

I’ve put up several posts over the last months asking about the Arione, but nothing really knocked me over. Tom’s article got me looking, but never really put me over the edge. I even went to the shop to look at them, but just couldn’t do it.

Then, Dan puts up the Arione article and I just couldn’t take it any more. I go straight down to the bike shop and buy one in the limited edition (I bet they just say that) World Championship model, bring it home and put it right on. Then, between rain, work, etc, I don’t even get to try it out before Friday when I was heading off on a 125 mile cross mountain ride to my sister’s wedding (Tour de Darci).

I am so picky about my stuff that my wife thought I had cracked! Why try a new saddle on my longest training ride, ever! Well at about 115 miles I started to notice that I was on a saddle. I mean the thing is fantastic! It has a nice long sweet spot, was comfortable, allowed a nice forward position on the flats, and I could scoot back to push on the 6 mile climb.

So, the Flite hangs on a hook in the garage. The Arione is flat out terrific. In fact it was almost like having my old pre-steep angled bike seat shifter back. This thing was made for me.

Oh yeah, and my reason for while saddles? When forward in aero position, a black saddle will get hot so that when I slide back to climb my butt gets hot. Now, I like hot butts - just not mine!

2

I, too, am a Flite rider converted to Arione for my road bike… It really is an improvement. I also converted from a Flite Gel to a Visiontech Triathlon Gel for my TT bike. Big improvement, too. Now, on my TT bike, my neck soreness is the limiter to time spent riding.

3

Ktalon,

Just a couple thoughts on the neck soreness. First, of course is positioning. Next, is just getting acclimated to riding in aero position. Third, and this worked for me, is doing behind the neck chin ups - yes they are hard, but they absolutely eliminated this problem for me.

An alternative to the chin ups (harder than you’d think) is to lean back against a wall and flattening your spine against it. While in this position put you arms in L shapes against the wall ie upper arm horizontal at shoulder height and lower arms vertical going up above your head. Then flatten arms against wall and hold.

Good luck,

4

I was wondering, why not the arione for both road and tri? I’m only wondering, kuz I just picked up the azoto triathgel. It’s nice but was wondering if the arione is really THAT good. (not that I can do much about it now. I’m committed to try it out for the year. well see.

5

I completely agree with you having ridden the Arione on my new bike for about 1 month and had problems last year with saddlesores (VERY painfull) on a Flite GEL model.

This friday i rode a 280KM trip with approx 91/2 hours in the saddle without any problems. About half the ride i was in the tribars and moved forward on the saddle without any problems whatsoever.

This is the best saddle i have never tried.

6

So, the Flite hangs on a hook in the garage. The Arione is flat out terrific. In fact it was almost like having my old pre-steep angled bike seat shifter back. This thing was made for me.

Ahh ! The good old seat shifter. A fine invention if they could have ever got the weight down. I’ve been reading all the Ariane reviews with interest, but admittedly have to now find a LBS that stocks them. I’ve been riding flite or Avocet O2 now for 15 years and keep going back and forth between the two, never quite satisfied with either, but happier with them than anything on the market !

Dev

7

I wasn’t too thrilled with my new Arione at first, because I was using it on the trainer, and all the vibrations were being transmitted directly through the saddle. But after a 3.5 hour ride outside on Saturday, I have to say that the Arione, in combination with my Mr. Flitie saddle pad and a generous helping of Chamois Butt’r, seems to have eliminated all numbness, chafing, and other discomfort.

It’s a very refreshing change, I must say.

8

got a new on on ebay, received it Friday, put it on my beater yesterday for a quick tes, ended up riding for over an hour - I like it! And this was, by far, the most expensive saddle I have ever purchased. Got it for about $15 less than suggested list. Worth it.

9

I rode all last year on the Azoto. Tom D. took one look at my size and said that the Azoto was a lot of saddle. I went with the Arione and it is now the most comfortable saddle I have ever ridden. It is narrower which fits my smaller frame better (5’10/145) and gives me lots of position variety.

Larry

10

I hate to ruin the Arione lovefest but I had one on my tri bike and didn’t get any “revelations” like you all did. I had the Azoto before and didn’t notice much difference in either. I like the flatness of the Arione but it is just too hard on the nose. Couldn’t stay in the bars for a long time with this saddle.

In all fairness, I rode it for 200 miles or so, so I am not sure if I need to stick with it for a longer time.

11

One of the major problems PC’ers have, once they adapt, is the problem of saddle soreness on the longer rides, apparently from increase pressure on the saddle. Sounds like this saddle could be, at least, a partial solution to this problem. Are there any PC’ers out there with experience with PC’s and this saddle? (Or any other solution to this problem.)

Frank

12

Those are good exercises, unfortunately, my problem stems from old football injuries where I have a self-fusion process going on between C6 and C7. As long as I only have pain/numbness problems without any loss of strength in that arm, I’m going to stay out of the operating room…well, at least as a patient!

13

Dr. Day wrote: Are there any PC’ers out there with experience with PC’s and this saddle?

Yep, that’s me. Arione seems to have fixed the problem. Just to be sure, I put a Desoto pad on top of it (yes, it fits!), and it’s THE best saddle I’ve had since the old banana seat schwinn I had when I was 10…I bet I never rode that banana seat schwinn more than 20 miles at a time, but I never remember seat “issues”, either.

The Arione is just too hard in the nose area for my taste on my TT bike…that’s why I went with the Vison Tech Triathgel on the TT bike. Very happy with it, too.

14

So, Yaqui, have you done any 5 hour rides with the PC’s and this saddle or the Vision Tech Triathgel? If you were to race on the PC’s could you concentrate on the race and not get distracted by your sore butt (at least no more than ordinary folks on regular cranks and other saddles)?

Why do you think it solves this problem? Does the extra length allow you to move around more? Or what?

Frank

15

I have a three hour ride on the Arione/road bike/PowerCranks…Zero problems with numbness, soreness, etc. I don’t move around on my road bike saddle very much, so the extra length doesn’t matter to me. It just has a certain amount of spring to it that seems just right…at least when on a road bike. I don’t think I’d like this saddle as a triathlon saddle, though. Racing on my PC bike wouldn’t matter as far as the saddle pain bothering me…my hip flexor pain would take my mind off of any saddle pain! Actually, I’ve pretty well adapted to the PC’s after 1.5 years, I could race on them on most courses now, as long as they didn’t have real long flat sections without any break of a hill…or, if my quads could take really low rpms (like 70 or less) on those long flat sections…but, it burns my quads out too much to do that…need the higher rpms for better “diastolic” blood flow through the muscle, if you know what I mean.

I have a three hour ride on the TT bike/Vison Tech Triathlgel/regular crank bike. Only slight discomfort from the saddle…but that is so much improvement…I only had to stand up every 20-30 minutes for a few seconds at a time in order to keep any saddle discomfort away. I do move around on the saddle a little more on the TT bike…and the Vision Tech allows this by virtue of it’s increased padding in the nose and relatively narrow rear…so my thighs aren’t fighting the saddle as I slide back.

If I could just get my neck discomfort fixed…maybe I need to see someone about blocking it? I understand the 5 year comparison between surgical fusion and self fusion are essentially identical in results…with self fusion having fewer complications. Ever blocked a C-6-7 nerve for treatment of pain?

16

Oh, the Arione is definitely as hard as a rock. That’s why I put the Mr. Flitie(5mm neoprene saddle pad) on it. That makes it bearable. But my old saddle had a lot more padding than the Arione, was less comfortable, and caused major numbness issues.

It may well be that there are lots of good saddles out there, but given that I am a cheap SOB and didn’t want to spend several hundred dollars trying out saddle after saddle until I found the right one, I bought the Arione based on the recommendations of the folks on this site, and it seems to work pretty well.

17

Yaqui wrote: Ever blocked a C-6-7 nerve for treatment of pain?

Yes, many a time. It is really quite easy and has an essentially zero complication rate in experienced hands and a great success rate if the lesion is amenable to such treaatments. You sound like a good candidate. The easiest way is to simply do a Cervical Epidural steroid injection. Look around for an anesthesiologist with experience in this and it should go well. Most don’t do many epidurals (and, especially cervical epidurals) so would be freaked out by the thought of such a block but it really is no big deal. Most will use Xray “guidance” but it really isn’t necessary. The block is done by feel. Xrays are nothing more than defensive medicine as none of the structures of importance show up on Xrays.

And, thanks for the feedback on the saddle.

Frank

18

Dr. Day, I’ll take your advice about the block. Thanks! When it starts interfering with daily life (and training), it’s time to do something about it…and to keep the post on topic…you could say the same thing about a painful saddle!