I’ve done several fits for women. They want different saddles. Amy (my wife) used to ride either the Cobb Max or the Cobb Vflow. She never really liked the ISM.
I have an athlete on an ISM, and she wants to zip tie the prongs together. That’s not a real solution to me, more of a band aid.
She didn’t like the Cobb 55.
What are some other suggestions that you all have had good/decent luck with?
If you have a Dash saddle for her to try, then put her on that.
Oddly enough, both Jordan Rapp (tall thin male) and myself (short, round, female) have found comfort in that saddle.
The Specialized Sitero works well for me, a short female with wide sit bones. I have the Sitero on all my road and tri bikes. I think it is the short, and not too wide, nose that quickly sweeps back into a wide (145mm?) saddle that does it for me.
It is a hard saddle, though. I put a neoprene cover on it for training. Racing I don’t notice. Has a nice rear hook for transition that can be swapped out for a two bottle carrier.
Before the Sitero was released, I suffered for years on the ISM as the least worst of the available saddles–with the prongs zip tied together.
Agree that the zip tie option is not ideal, but which model exactly is she on?
The narrowest ISM at the nose area is the PL 1.0.
Also, have you checked her stance width?
For a road bike my wife found happiness on a SMP Avant.
For a tri bike maybe a wide SMP tri saddle? (T1 ?)
Thanks all.
The drawback to specialized I think is being connected to a dealer.
Current saddle. ISM Adamo, stock on the couple of year old P3. Does not like the Cobb 55 either, but it might be a padding issue since it seems like a harder saddle. I think that the Max might be workable, but she is not really looking at a nosed saddle.
Based on the ISM chart, it does look like the PN series would be the most likely candidate.
I have not done the stance width yet. No motion capture, etc. to speak of, but I’m getting more folks interested in trying out different saddles. She’s thin, light, and and fast.
Noseless saddles didn’t really work that well for me or Amy (spouse), but they were all wider 3+ years ago, and I think that they are narrower now or that’s an option.
I’ve been on many saddles, 15 I can name, and am tonight supposed to receive a box with 3 more to test. After that I will complete my 2nd blog post about my issues finding saddles. If you want 1 woman’s opinion, I can refer you to that when I’m done…
I’m 5’3", currently 130 lbs, legs built like a hockey player, have never had children, and out of all the saddles I’ve tried, have been happiest on an SMP evolution. It’s been on my road bike for 3 years and I’ve just done a 75 min and a 2.5 h rides with it moved to my TT bike. I love the thing. It’s 129 mm wide as per the on-line stats and really the only narrow saddle i’ve found that also has: suitable cutout, rate of change from widest to narrowest that matches my anatomy, sloped surface as viewed from the side of the bike that serves to offset some of my pubic pressure by supporting some of my butt, and thin enough with no weird protruding wings coming down (statement based on my experience with cobb v flow). It is a long saddle for my TT bike though (whose standover height is already impacted by my aero bento box), so I’m looking forward to trying SMP’s T3 model. And just to round it out, added 2 others to the trial box to increase my odds of ending the search in the next couple weeks.
By the way, thank you for coming here to ask for some other input. By and large when I mention saddle discomfort to the male fitters I’ve faced, they assume I’m sitting on the bike wrong or just need to HTFU. None mentioned a saddle they didn’t already sell as a possible alternative for me.
I would be interested to hear/read about your saddle testing.
Tsunami, Would you point me in the direction of your saddle test? I’d be very interested in reading it. Thx
Wow, I’m both flattered and a little frightened by interest to read what I wrote. So now I feel like I need to bring expectations down.
My earlier blog posting is a bit out of date (2015), since I mention research into saddle comfort and there’s newer stuff available now, referenced in post 2. That’s kinda why I’d like to finish post 2 before linking post 1. I need about 2 weeks since a snowboarding trip will interrupt my saddle testing.
Also, I feel I should warn, these aren’t a succint listing of saddles and pressure points, though the 2nd one aims to be more direct in this way. The 1st post is kinda “my first 30 years on a bike” and includes my discovery of good and bad attributes of my various setups.
Hmm, maybe I should pen a 3rd, very succint listing. That could be hard, I tend to be wordy…
I hated the Cobb as well. I love my Selle Italia Diva Gel Flow.
+2 for the SMP Avant for my wife on her road bike (with clip-on aerobars)
.
For better or worse, here it is.
http://shitsuesays.blogspot.com/...3/saddle-post-3.html
(Edited to update the link pointer)
Now linked.
Awesome, thanks! (I am settling in with a cup of tea.)
I know people say stock saddles aren’t all that great, but I LOVE the saddle that came with my Trek Lexa. Go figure.
Kinda late to the party here, but more data is better than less if you haven’t resolved it yet. I didn’t like the ISM either, but I do like the Cobb Randee on my tri bike. For me, it was a question of not so much the width but the shape. The Randee is more spoon-shaped (think straight handle, rounder end) than the ISM or 55, which I think of as being more triangle-shaped. I also like the Selle Italia Diva on my roadie and cx bikes.
Sally, did you opt for the Standard or Narrow version? And how did you choose between the two?
When I bought my Dash, there was only the original size.
This is more of a roadie vs. a time-trialist perspective, but I have been riding the Specialized Oura for~6 years now. Every time I get a bike, I buy a new one to put on the bike! I’ve also test ridden the Specialized Power saddle and think that one is comfortable and possibly geared more towards getting into an aero position.
Also - a related tip - sometimes you can buy a saddle and ride it for a few days with the option of returning it. Not all shops will do this, and sometimes they might ask you to tape the rails so you avoid cosmetic scuffs. It never hurts to ask and the answer to finding the right saddle really is about riding many miles and then seeing how you feel. Best of luck!