… it just is not padded enough in the rear for really long rides. I have it adjusted to be just about as good as I can ask for when riding in the aero position, but I use it on my multi-purpose/gravel bike with aerobars and a dual-position seatpost and on days with a lot of climbing on dirt, it causes saddle sores and beyond four hours becomes painful. I’ve done six hour rides on the road with climbing because I can periodically get up and ride out of the saddle, but that is not an option on dirt in the same way.
What saddles are out there with a large cutout and a flat top, but have more padding? My bi-saddle is at 144 wide in the rear with the nose not quite touching. It has a 2.5 to 5mm center channel. I searched and found a Prologo Dimension saddle that looks promising, but I have no idea how padded it is.
UPDATE: I bought a Prologo Space something or other off ebay and it was marvelously light, but I can’t see how that called it a well-padded saddle.
So, I called/email bisaddle and they informed me they have a couple of options with more padding and promptly send me out two new saddle tops. I could not tell that much difference in the new Sprint, but the Bonneville was visibly thicker so I had hope…
Fast forward two weeks and I’ve put in a 7 hour 11,000 foot climbing day in and a 8:15/9,300 foot gravel ride today and it has been as padded as I need. I prefer the length of the Sprint, but the Bonneville padding is much thicker and get the job done.
Thank you, Bisaddle.
I’ve been using Cobb Flow Max saddles for a few years on a couple of bikes. Defo like them (Adamo on the TT bike as I find that more comfy when on the nose in an aero position.
But I recently got the SMP T1 saddle as it still had a nice big cut out channel, but also was wider at the rear.
They do a T1 and a T2.
T1 is the widest. T2 a bit narrower at the rear.
The T1 us working great for me - no saddle sores so far ( all the others I tended to get a sore point in exactly the same position every time just where the ‘fold’ is where my leg joins my backside. That had been resolved by going to the wider rear if the T1.
There’s review / article on ST about these saddles from a couple of years back.
So a further question–I’m pretty comfortable with the 145mm width where I have my bisaddle adjusted but it seems the SMP has a different shape so am I going to find the T2 (at 156mm) feels too wide or is the shape different enough I will like it? I’m sort of looking at the T2 vs the T5 (at 141).
I know answering that question would be pure speculation but does the saddle feel different than a traditional saddle of that width?
The SMP Saddle is quite rounded at the back (ie the sides are rounded).
Whereas the Cobb Flow Max are quite flat with a square edge (if you chopped through it to get a cross section looking from the rear of the bike).
I’m on the T1 on my road/ gravel bike which I’m using the most of the bikes I have (and on which I have not saddle sore provlems). Which I think they say I’d 165mm (?? I can be corrected on that). Whereas I’ve come from a 130mm wide Cobb and a 133 (I think) Adamo Prologue (what they now call a PL 1.1).
The T1 doesn’t particularly feel like a fat-arse-riders saddle like come on exercise bikes or commuter shopping bikes! I think it (to my n=1 rear) feels narrower when sat on that the dimension suggests, vs an equivalently wide but flat saddle.
The nose is still quite wide, but I like that with the big cur out that runs fully to the end (the 2 sides only joins up at the dipped ‘beak’ front end of the saddle)
I was really tempted to try an SMP, but at $250 it was a hard pill to swallow and then Bisaddle fixed the problem for me. (Noted above) Thanks for the input.
i had foam density issues with mine and i was intrigued by your post so i just sent them photos. They have been wonderful to date so I hope they can help me out as they did you. I didn’t see any mention of the “bonneville” on their web site, can you post photos and is it in the SRT length?
I had the EXT stealth and the new saddle top is the SRT 2.0 Bonneville with cutout relief. When was initially looking at the saddles, I did not see anything that said one saddle was thicker than the other, but when I queried Bisaddle, they said the Bonneville had the same, but thicker padding. I looked again and it does not state that on the website anywhere that I can find. If more padding is what you are looking for, then the SRT 2.0 Bonneville is the one you want. I would assume the models with more or less cutout relieve are the same padding, but that might be a question you want to ask.
Word of warning to others. There’s a major design flaw with them if you want or need to run the nose narrow. The adjustable sub frame significantly exceeds the width of the padded top when you go nose narrow, which digs into your thigh / groin depending on saddle position. It gets even worse if you run the rear of the saddle in the narrowest position. Probably the only way to resolve it is to file the frame off if using the molded plastic one - probably not the best idea to file the carbon ‘race’ shell.
Yet it’s a thing. Given that it’s the only saddle I’ve ever seen that has a shell that significantly exceeds the width of the top where your thighs pass, it’s probably a no-no.
I’ve ridden EXT Stealth, no issues, ride the SRT2.0 fir 3 years now, also no problem, haven’t heard of this from any of my customers, so might be just you :-‘)
BiSaddle has a narrow frame option that is now available upon request. It works the same as the other frames, and solves this exact issue. Please reach out to hello@bisaddle.com and they can resolve that for you