I was told many people narrow the front of their ISM saddles by using tie wraps to narrow the front part of the saddle rails or other types of ‘‘hacks’’.
I would like to see your ‘‘job’’ . Any pictures you can share ? Thanks !
Louis 
When I was forced to ride them due to team sponsorship obligations, I would pull the staples out of the bottom, trim the plastic base, trim the foam and glue it back together. Word of caution though. The “plastic†cover does not play well with some adhesives, it took some playing around to find one that did work. Once the adhesive had dried, then you can trim the extra bits of the cover.
I didn’t mind the saddle with the narrower modifications but couldn’t stand the stock “nose†width. ISM got super offended when someone from the team let them know what I was doing. They didn’t try to understand why or look at the geobiomized pressure mapping that I had done with it. I was pretty unimpressed on how they stuck to their guns and wouldn’t think about anything else.
Ha, yes, I also got attitude from an ISM guy when I mentioned how terribly wide the thing was. He just discounted me as using it incorrectly. It is fair to point out however, way back then I didn’t know the widths were variable across their line and I was on what may have been their widest and softest model.
To the OP, I don’t have photos but what we did was hold the padded prongs closer together and put a couple of zip ties around the rails (underneath the prongs) to hold it there. This a) voids the warranty (if you care) and b) doesn’t last forever as eventually the zip ties broke. I next bought a hose clamp, which was pretty tough to get into the small space and was also unsightly. That’s about when I moved on to Koobie which is already narrower.
These are two “Road” model saddles with different degrees of squeeze. Never had a zip tie this size break but if concerned it would be easy to use an even heavier one.
Just buy a SMP saddle.
I have ridden a few ISM saddles and needed to use zip ties. But once I found the PN3.0, there was no need for zip ties.
I started with a ziptie on mine, but replaced the ziptie with a metal hose clamp.
this
I have ridden a few ISM saddles and needed to use zip ties. But once I found the PN3.0, there was no need for zip ties.
The new saddles are the reason I had those pictured in the “stuff I don’t need anymore but paid too much for to throw out” box. BTW - that is a LARGE box.
The new saddles are the reason I had those pictured in the “stuff I don’t need anymore but paid too much for to throw out” box. BTW - that is a LARGE box.
And its funny how the customer support back in the day told my I sit wrong on the saddle when there is a need to zip tie it and to later produce narrower ones. WTF
BTW…I‘m in the hose clamp camp.
Thanks for the replies. I’ll stick with my « Road » for now and use stainless steel tie wraps for a solid hold. PN 3.0 is on the wanted list but it can wait.
Louis
Interesting. I did not know this could be done. Doesn’t the seat clamp limit this?
I used to use an ISM (came with the P2), but I felt it was too wide in the middle (lots of tightness to my inner thighs):
ISM Adamo Prologue
13.5cm widest
6 cm narrowest
10.5 cm mid
27cm long
So I’ve recently switched to this, but don’t like it much either:
Cobb Tenace
15.5 widest
4 narrowest
26.5 long
Any advice?
Interesting. I did not know this could be done. Doesn’t the seat clamp limit this?
I used to use an ISM (came with the P2), but I felt it was too wide in the middle (lots of tightness to my inner thighs):
ISM Adamo Prologue
13.5cm widest
6 cm narrowest
10.5 cm mid
27cm long
So I’ve recently switched to this, but don’t like it much either:
Cobb Tenace
15.5 widest
4 narrowest
26.5 long
Any advice?
The prologue is the PL1.1 (performance long).
Consider the PL1.0 as it’s more narrow. See dimensions here.
https://ismseat.com/help/saddle-dimensions/
Great information. Thanks Steve…
I was going to chime in and say just get a Bi-saddle like I did. Then I went to their website and saw they were promoting thier saddle with this…
“The Iron Cowboy” is the world record holder for completing 50 Ironman races in 50 consecutive days…â€
On second thought, you might want to stick with ISM. LOL
Interesting. I did not know this could be done. Doesn’t the seat clamp limit this?
I used to use an ISM (came with the P2), but I felt it was too wide in the middle (lots of tightness to my inner thighs):
ISM Adamo Prologue
13.5cm widest
6 cm narrowest
10.5 cm mid
27cm long
So I’ve recently switched to this, but don’t like it much either:
Cobb Tenace
15.5 widest
4 narrowest
26.5 long
Any advice?
The seat clamp does limit how narrow you can make it. And even at it’s most narrow, the taper was still too wide for me. Stupid thing always gave me saddle sores. So after recognizing the problem and how to solve it (and after spending >$500 on used ebay saddles), I purchased a super cheap Chinese saddle for $15 and I LOVE it. I’ll post a link if I can find it again.
I just had a “Cleat to Saddle” fit with a great local fitter and I’m now on the Cobb V Flow, which I really like. My next try is an SMP though, which is really nice.
I got this PM and they found my reply helpful. Maybe you all will too, which is why I’m sharing this. Sorry for the TMI but maybe it’ll help someone else.
Hello!
Sorry to bug you but I figured I’d PM instead of asking publicly. I’ve got the stock ISM Prologue on my P2 and I’ve been noticing some serious discomfort during my recent trainer rides. I’m considering zip-tying but I’m wondering if you’d be willing to share where the discomfort was for you that made you start modifying the saddle? I have a feeling that the zip tie will help but I don’t know if it’s smart for me to just start playing around. I haven’t had issues before but recently it’s been pretty miserable (this is starting my third season on the bike with the same saddle).
Thanks in advance
Hi, with the ISM saddles a large part of what people miss is the interface between the shorts/bibs and the saddle. If that combo is off, you will never be comfortable on any saddle, let alone an ISM. The area that I had issues with on the ISM saddles, were basically the ischial tuberosity, where the butt cheek comes into the space between the sack and my anus (Excuse the TMI). It got to the point that saddle sores where a minor worry and skin was being ripped off. We ended up using a creme provided by the race doctors, covered in tegaderm to make it through that week. In the 2015 ATOC half of the team was visiting the race doctors nearly daily to seek help. Not good when trying to ride against world tour guys! Epson salt baths also helped!
I wasn’t able to get the saddle narrow enough with zip ties because 1: the ties would keep snapping or (I’ve seen some folks use hose clamps) 2: the seatpost clamp wouldn’t allow the rails to move any further. I prefer the long narrow nose the of Fizik Arione, so I shaved the plastic base down, making it narrow enough that I could sit further back on the saddle, giving a greater surface area thus reducing the pressure points. The geBiomized pressure mapping confirmed this. I went from small red hot spots to larger green contact points.
Hope this helps!