My San Marco saddle rails snapped!?!

Triathlon Forum
1

I have a Selle San Marco Azoto Triathgel saddle. Yesterday while I was riding, both of the rails, which are supposedly titanium, broke. It was a clean break and scared the hell out of me, but I just stood up quickly to avoid a crash.

Has anybody ever had this happen or heard of it happening to someone else? Does anybody have experience with San Marco’s customer service? It seems that they should replace it since this is obviously a problem with the materials used. Saddle rails should not break. It’s dangerous that they did and it scares me. Any suggestions? It looks like new rails could be inserted somehow, but none of my local shops know anything about how to do it.

Any help would be appreciated.

2

I ride the same saddle and love it. Have never had any problems so I don’t know how the service is, but I would expect that they would replace the saddle for you since it doesn’t sound like you did anything to break it.

3

Based on past threads, you are not alone.

The Azoto ti rails seem to be breaking with alarming regularity. Allegedly you can get them replaced for free, the first time, but after that you are on your own.

I have an Azoto and love it. It hasn’t broken YET. I’m a lazy heavy bastard and I have the saddle set all the way forward on the rails. I hope the cantilever doesn’t cause it to break even faster.

I don’t know why they go for ti rails on such a relativley heavy saddle. Hardly worth the hassle/cost.

4

The same thing happened to me two weeks ago.

You can mail saddle to SSM’s US Distributor - Velimpex Marketing and they can get rails replaced for $30.

They have to send saddle back to Italy to get repaired. 3-4 weeks total turnaround time.

I’ve got the old Specialized Saddle back on my bike whilst I wait.

http://www.velimpex.com/

If you search the ST threads for Selle San Marco broken rails you can find a Phone # or use website to contact them. I have there phone # address in an email at work that I can’t get to right now.

Hope that helps.

Jim

5

Yep, mine broke a little over a month ago in an Intl dis tri around mile 5. Both rails snapped right at the front of my Thomson clamp. Was able to “psuedo” sit on it, but not really for the remaining 20ish miles. Managed to pull a 21mph average, so not all was lost…and actually had my best run of the year. Go figure.

In my case, I returned it to the bike shop where it was purchased (a year ago)…and they swapped it out for a Selle Italia SLR tri (which is cheaper) and I love it. The Azoto was a good purchase at the time (lots of padding), but I think the SLR is a better overall saddle for my riding now…

6

All saddles with the hollow titanium railings have this problem. They are breaking with alarming regularity.

Solution: buy a saddle with steel (or at least titanium with a section) railings. The problem is that they are harder and harder to find.

The pursuit of low weight at all costs is getting ridiculous, and dangerous in certain cases.

Francois in Montreal

7

This is kind of scarey. What do you guys weigh. I hope this is a clydes thing since I own one of these saddles also.

8

When I bought it last year, I weighed 180…I was 170 when the rails broke.

Used a 77ish angle w/flat position (which on the Azoto means the nose is a slightly up). Never really rode the nose too hard. Although, I would consider my set-up to be more of a power position (i.e. Stadler) FWIW - my bike (at the time, I’ve since sold it) had a 78 degree tube…so it wasn’t like I was out of the rail’s sweet spot.

Broke two weeks after IMLP. I don’t even want to think about what could have happend…

9

i am definitely not a clydesdale. my weight fluctuates between 155 and 162 or so. i ride fairly agressively on a cervelo eyre (predecessor to the p2k) with a 78 degree seat tube with the saddle pushed a bit forward on the rails, but not that much. it just happened to me and i think i might ask them to replace the rails with the magnesium ones that they’re putting on some of the newer ones.