In my search for a replacement for my stock saddle, I came across this snippet:
We’re occasionally asked about noseless bike seats, which are presumed to be “safer” because body weight is supported only on the sit bones. There’s no narrow nose than can press into the crotch. Some riders are interested for health reasons, others are seeking more comfort. Noseless seats have been around for more than a decade without much acceptance. We’ve tried noseless seats in our role as product testers. When asked our opinion, we say it feels like pedaling a bike while sitting on a soccer ball. Noseless seats make a bike feel tipsy, particularly when you’re reaching down for any reason, like to grab a water bottle or adjust a shoe strap. There’s nothing between your thighs, nothing to slide forward on. When you turn your hips, the bike doesn’t turn with you. You feel like you’re on a perch, separate from the bike instead of one with the bike.
RBR’s Ed Pavelka knew all that and still went riding last week on a noseless seat. It was a favor for a friend in the industry. The guy is thinking of importing the seat from Europe to market to American men worried about conventional saddles causing perineal problems. Ed was dubious but the first ride went okay. Then the next day, disaster. He lost control while riding at about 16 mph and signaling a left turn. The bike went out from under him as suddenly as if he’d hit a patch of ice. Fortunately, the truck right behind stopped in time. Other people ran up. “Are you okay?” Ed wasn’t so sure. His helmet was cracked, he was bleeding from the usual places – knee, hip and elbow – and it felt as if a linebacker had speared him in the ribs. And he was really mystified. “What happened?” Ed asked the driver that saw the crash. “I don’t know. You must have hit something.” But the street was as clean as Martha Stewart’s kitchen. Ed hadn’t ridden over anything. He had simply angled into the left lane with one hand on the bar and the other signaling – a move he’d made a thousand times without winding up in a heap. This time one thing was different. This time he was on a noseless seat.
Is the handling of a noseless saddle noticeably different? How long did it take for you to adapt?
I noticed zero difference in handling. In fact, not having to squirm around to keep my junk from going numb probably improved my handling.
I’m curious how the lack of a nose would impact handling at all. Are people eliminating the dead weight of handlebars and steering with the nose of the saddle?
Sounds like anecdotal nonsense to me. I switched to a noseless not quite a year ago and have never felt any difference in handling. I’ll never go back to a ‘traditional’ style saddle.
I have noticed I don’t seem to be able to ride as stable as I used to when I take my hands off the bars. I wasn’t sure if this was caused by the wide nose of the noseless saddle, or me losing bike handling skills as I got older.
I actually feel more secure on my noseless saddle (Adamo Prologue). Than I do on any normal saddle I’ve tried. If there was some silicone gripper strips on the top of the saddle I’d practically be locked into it.
That snippet come from an article in Road Bike Rider from around 2003. Years later RBR gave high marks to the Adamo saddles and made the point of saying they really aren’t noseless. My guess is the article your quote from refers to the failed truly noseless saddles that have mostly long since been discontinued . With those you truly had nothing between your legs. Google spiderflex saddle to see a true noseless saddle. I’ve been on an Adamo road on both my road and tri bikes for about 4 years and couldn’t be happier. I find the seat on my Cross bike makes me numb, I’m so unused to a traditional saddle. My next upgrade will be an adamo for it too.
The same page includes this gem: “Aero bars. Don’t stay in the down position for minutes on end. It’s tempting when you are cruising along, but you need to stand every few minutes to restore circulation.”
The same page includes this gem: “Aero bars. Don’t stay in the down position for minutes on end. It’s tempting when you are cruising along, but you need to stand every few minutes to restore circulation.”
I’ve been on a Dash Tri.7 for 2 years on the P5, Adamo Time Trial (weird, I know) on the S2 for the same time.
There is definitely a loss of steering on the noseless Tri.7.
But no way will I change.
That’s a complete load of crap. That’s what roadies say because they don’t like change. I used to think this too. Only the very, mostly useless tip of the saddle is missing, there’s still plenty of saddle for the inside of your thighs to use for control. I’ve found 0 difference in bike handling after I switched. When climbing or out of saddle it’s an advantage as you don’t need to shift as far forward, so handling and stability improves.
I only have my own anectodal experience; but I ride an ISM Road on my tri bike and love it, no problem with handling.
Last year I switched from the stock saddle to the ISM Peak on my full-suspension mountain bike. It makes absolutely no difference for handling; I can grip it easily with my thighs no matter the dropper post position.
I have noticed I don’t seem to be able to ride as stable as I used to when I take my hands off the bars. I wasn’t sure if this was caused by the wide nose of the noseless saddle, or me losing bike handling skills as I got older.
Typically the “nose-less” saddles that people are referring to in this thread are Adamo’s, Sitero’s etc. (most likely different from the actual original story). These are often designed to be ridden in a forward rotated position, weighting toward the rami of the pelvis. This is a narrow region and the saddle geometry reflects that.
When you side up, your hips rotate backward and you are supporting yourself on a wider portion of your pelvis. In this instance, the saddle does not make appropriate contact with both sides of the pelvis. Often support is only provided under one side, causing the other side to drop and rotate. This makes handling in a no-handed position difficult because of the associated weight imbalance. You’ll probably find that you really need to lean to one side, as if you were trying to turn, to go straight. This is countering the unsupported pelvic structure / weight distribution.
I’ve used both Adamo Road and Cobb JOF saddles on road bikes for years with no issue whatsoever.
I recall originally wondering if the lack of 2-2.5" inches of the nose of the saddle would be noticeable in a bike handling sense…and I quickly realized that it was NOT within the first few kilometers.
Yeah…RBR used to have some real doozies of some head scratchers at times…
Not sure if your response was directed to me, but I can assure you that in my case there is definitely a loss of control. This is mostly because the Tri.7 is not even half the length of the Adamo Time Trial - so when cornering out of the saddle, there is a lot less to grip between your legs.
I noticed no loss of control when I went from Fizik Arione traditional saddle to Adamo Time Trial on the road bike - though the lengths of these two are not nearly so different as the Time Trial vs. the Tri.7.
Oh, well yes, if’s it’s a very short saddle, I could see a real issue. I guess the term “nose-less” is too broad. I personally would never use anything that short, just because of handling issues. Lucky for me that my Cobb works great for me and solved all my problems.
gonna go against the tide a little here. i threw my adamo on my road bike at one point and really didn’t like it for two reasons: 1) i couldn’t get my actual position far enough back on my zero-setback seatpost, and 2) it was harder for me to control the bike when i sat up and took my hands off the bars, which i like to do periodically to stretch or eat something.
i don’t think the problem was really lack of a nose; i think it was more that the seating position on the adamo is ON the nose. if i had slid back and sat on the fat part, it’d probably have felt like a normal saddle, but it is a bit harder to control the bike with your legs when you’re actually perched on the end and don’t really have the saddle between your legs.
that was really only trying to ride no-handed, though. i noticed basically no difference with regular riding aside from the seat setback problem.
gonna go against the tide a little here. i threw my adamo on my road bike at one point and really didn’t like it for two reasons: 1) i couldn’t get my actual position far enough back on my zero-setback seatpost, and 2) it was harder for me to control the bike when i sat up and took my hands off the bars, which i like to do periodically to stretch or eat something.
i don’t think the problem was really lack of a nose; i think it was more that the seating position on the adamo is ON the nose. if i had slid back and sat on the fat part, it’d probably have felt like a normal saddle, but it is a bit harder to control the bike with your legs when you’re actually perched on the end and don’t really have the saddle between your legs.
that was really only trying to ride no-handed, though. i noticed basically no difference with regular riding aside from the seat setback problem.
That’s a really good point - my original intention was to get an adamo for my road bike, but I’ve been hesitant because there is no easy way for me to test it overseas.
Since I’ve only been riding on the turbo trainer lately, I paid attention to how I handle a scooter today (a scooter saddle is not a saddle - it’s a seat with a tiny bump where the nose should be, so it’s essentially noseless, fwiw). When doing gradual turns, I just use my right or left buttock to lean the scooter. Only during sharper turns to do push with my handlebars for more dramatic leans.
Maybe something like a Selle SMP might work better on a road bike? (eg due to non-TT saddle positioning/less loss of handling) What did you end up using on your road bike?
