I know Fizik and lots of people on this forum claim the extra length of the saddle make it more comfortable. But isn’t most of the length behind lateral most edges of the saddle? What good does the extra length behind the widest point do? Does anyone sit behind the widest point? They claim 12% more surface area, but if you can’ sit on that 12% what good does it do? To compare lengths look at Tom’s review here:
If you look at the distance between the widest part and the front nose, they seat look pretty similar to me.
That’s a fair point, but I find the saddle comfy anyway. I tend to sneak out onto the nose and I’ve been pretty pleased with the comfort.
I guess comfort is all that matters, whether its for the reasons they claim or not.
yeah, that extra length is mainly behind the widest portion of the saddle, but it is still a little longer in front and as the other guy said, “who cares, it’s comfy”
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Dude, it all depends on you. I find the Arione rather uncomfy and a great generator of saddle sores (the worst I’ve had). The Alliante, on the other hand, is what I have on both bikes. It’s as close as anything I’ve found to actual… comfort (but not THAT close after 30 mins on the trainer, or 3 hours on the road).
I agree, the giant paddle area in the aft area of the arione saddle is a total waste and just serves as extra centimeters to add to their marketing hype. You could take a hacksaw to it and cut the damn end off and your rear would never notice any difference.
You’re absolutely right ezrahallam. Or at least I though you were until I got to the top of the Col de Vence in the Nice Triathlon this summer. I am so glad I did that race- I learned a LOT about a LOT!
First off, I though the rearward protrusion of the Arione was a waste. It was only for looks and provided no function. Who would sit back there? I thought the design of the MTB version, the Gobi, made more sense with its rounded, truncated rear end.
I was wrong.
I found out I was wrong 200 meters over the top of the Col de Vence. The rearward, nearly triangular protrucion of the rear of the Fizik Arione did actually help me descend off the Col de Vence, especially in sketchy, high speed, downward spiralling switchbacks where I wanted my weight waaayyyyy back on my back wheel one moment, in the middle of the saddle the next moment, and then back to the nose on the straight section in between. The rearward protrusion enabled a rotten and scared-stiff descender lie me a lot of latitude for holding my rear tire on the pavement. It really helped.
I never use that rearward extension here in Michigan. We have no hills and no mountains. But in Europe, the Rockies, California and other places with less mundane topography this is a nice feature on the saddle. It is alike a “shoe horn” for your ass.
And the Arione Tri is the single best triathlon saddle I had tried to date, significantly better than the previous models such as the Selle San Marco Azoto (still good for big riders) and the Selle San Marco Aspide.
“what good does it do?”
Dunno. Don’t care. All I’ll say is that the Arione is the most comfortable saddle I’ve ever owned and I’ve tried a lot of different ones. That’s all that matters to me.
what cerveloguy said too…
The length of this saddle interested me as it seemed it might help enable a wider range of positions on my P2K than what I can achieve now. A long-time roadie that always used a standard road position until this year for TTs, I’ve managed to push my seat forward to about a 76 effective seat angle, and consequently get lower and faster in TTs, without losing any power. But whenever I try to go further forward in order to get lower I start feeling like I can’t climb well when seated. And unfortunately I never get to ride any truly flat courses.
I was hoping that if I set the rear of this saddle to where my current saddle is, I would still be able to scootch back for my current climbing position at the back of the saddle, while enabling an effectively more forward and lower position when riding on the nose and the middle. I’d lower my bars a bit, and my standard position would be on the sweet spot of the saddle, but a bit more choked up on the bars than I am now which effectively raise my torso almost back up to where it is now. For spinning on flats and easy downhills, I would scootch up to the nose and out on the end of the bars, putting me lower than I am now. But the rear of the saddle has a triangular look to it, and doesn’t seem like it would support the butt when riding way back. The other problem with this approach is that the effective saddle position might be too low if I’m scootching really far forward for spinning on flats and easy downhills.
I am in the market for a new saddle, the old flite I am using now is pretty well shot and not so comfy when I push forward a bit to spin on the downhills.
Has anyone else used this saddle to do the same thing?
It is alike a “shoe horn” for your ass. LOL!!
greg
what he (cerveloguy) said
I like it, my butt likes it, and my gf likes to follow me.