I have a 20year old Arione, that I wouldn’t say is particularly comfortable, but we get along until about the 50k point, and put up with each other after that.
I’ve tried to replace it with 3 saddles: a Prologo Dimension NDR, a Fizik Argo Vento, and now the Selle Italia Model X Superflow that came on the new bike. For each of them, the sitting part is fairly comfortable, but after the 20-30k mark, my upper hamstrings are in a great deal of pain, to the point where I have to coast home.
Has anyone else had this problem with modern saddles? Anthing else worth trying before I just bolt the old arione back on and grit my teeth at 50k?
All three of the saddles I bought are sitting in the “slow taper” zone, which explains the discomfort.
I measured my old arione, and the widest part is actually 140mm, matching the prologo dimension. And yet the dimension causes hamstring pain - so makes sense that the taper is far more relevant that the actual back width.
All three of the saddles I bought are sitting in the “slow taper” zone, which explains the discomfort.
I measured my old arione, and the widest part is actually 140mm, matching the prologo dimension. And yet the dimension causes hamstring pain - so makes sense that the taper is far more relevant that the actual back width.
Glad it was helpful - that “taper†area really is a factor in comfort. Another that’s not spelled out in that visual comparison is the width of the “arms†between the taper and the nose. That area really provides support to the pelvic bone. Saddles too narrow in that area sit between the bones and then it’s all soft tissue pressure. The PN3.0 stays wide in that area, but really wide
The new Prologo Nago R4 PAS shows potential promise, though the nose looks to be 27-28mm (narrow = soft tissue pressure) and it is very minimally padded - looks like 4mm foam on the nose (the Wove Mags has 8mm foam throughout the nose and rear) https://www.bicidastrada.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Nago-R4-PAS-top.jpeg
