Just got back from the Toronto Bike Show this weekend where I uncharacteristically only made two purchases, both being saddles - Fizik Arione and San Marco Azote Tritholon. The Fizik is for the road bike and the Azote for the tri bike.
Just finished a spin on the trainer with the road bike and the Fizik felt no worse than anything else I’ve owned, but sitting on the Azote, well it feels not particularly comfortable. Any one else have this initial experience? Do you have to get used to this saddle as a “breaking in” period.
I realize it’s too early at this point to make a judgement and I’ll have to get outdoors to do some serious riding, but I have noticed that used Azotes are starting to show up on ebay.
Also realize that there is nothing more personal than saddle comfort, but I am curious to hear any opinions from people who have out on any kind of mileage on either of these saddles. Your thoughts are appreciated.
I’ve always ridden the nose so I bought an Azote and love it. But lately I’ve been putting more thinking into why I ride the nose so much - I’m going to look and find the norrowest saddle I can find and see if I stop favoring the nose.
I think you need to ask yourself what you’re looking for from the Azote.
I think that no matter how good the position, you’re going to slide forward onto the nose when you’re trying to power in the flats, and slide back when climbing. Funny thing is that I tried the Azoto and absolutely hated it, but I absolutely love the much narrower Aspide triathgel (and I also love the Arione on my road bike). It’s all personal, I guess. I wouldn’t worry about riding the nose, thoough. It’ll happen so you might as well be comfy there.
Dumped the azoto for the apide. Azoto was too narrow in the rear and didn’t support my sit bones when I sat up to climb. The aspide is a bit wider in back with enough padding in the nose. This change worked for me. BTW, the aspide came off my road bike and I’m waiting for the LBS to bring in some ariones.
I have put over 1,000 miles on my Azoto Triathlon Gel and I have been very comfortable (at least as comfortable as you can be on a seat for 4+ hours at a time). I tried about 10 different saddles when I purchased my bike, and this is the one that felt the best for me. But that is ME, everyone is built differently and everyone rides differently.
The Azote is made for riding on the tip of the saddle, in the aerobars. It’s not made for normal “sitz bone” riding. It’s made for riding on your “taint.”
I’ve spent upwards of 5 hours on the nose of that thing and was comfortable.
I’m coming up on two years on my Azoto and I love it. It is made to ride in the aero position and is not really all that comfortable sitting up. I have the QR seat cover on it and that helps a lot with sitting up but it is still much better aero. Don’t know if you were sitting up or aero on the trainer but if you were up that is probably why you didn’t think much of it. I’ve done 3 IM’s on it and my butt is thankful I plunked down the $100+ for the saddle.
Cerveloguy…dude…tell me you did not spend nearly $200CAN buying an Azoto at that bike show? Just tell me you haggled the hell out of someone and got a better deal. As for me…I bought the last large Louis Garneau TT helmet…red flames on silver…for $59…wooo baby. Visor (slightly scuffed) included. Almost gave in and bought the carbon post for the wifes bike (if you saw the Orbea guy there you might have seen the flamed red/white/yellow/black frame they had hanging up. That is my wifes bike…only her has an Ouzo pro fork. I say almost 'cause I’m looking longingly at the true temper carbon post. That and I’m bidding on a new Thompson one…lighter weight too.
Hi Cerveloguy, I just have a confession to make: I basically did exactly the same thing you did about two months ago.
I went out of my way to purchase a Fizik Arione for my road bike and an Azoto for my tri bike. Now, the regular Selle Italia saddle that came with my Dual was really crap, so I must say that buying the Azoto was a wise thing that I had to do anyway, however I got myself an Arione just because of what Tom D wrote, not because there was something wrong with my SLR. I know it sounds silly, but I thought I HAD TO HAVE them both.
How do I like them? A lot! Especially the Arione. I did a 205km, 7hours+ ride on Saturday and my butt felt as if I had watched TV all day, you cannot describe the feeling.
I also like the Azoto, but you gotta ride it on the nose to fully appreciate it. I’m sure that once I’ll be wet coming out of T1, I’ll appreciate it even more. The bottom line is that I purchased these two saddles due to what I read here and on Tom D’s website, but I couldn’t be happier now.
I’m riding the Azoto on my tri-bike. After about 4 months I think I’ve finally found the sweet spot on that thing. I was almost ready to plunk down the $$ for a new saddle until I decided to change the angle some more last weekend. The bike is a softride so setting the angle of the saddle on an unloaded beam is a pain the rear (more so than some saddles). The trick for me was to get the tip of the saddle level (down slightly with an unloaded beam). I tried to level from the mid point of the saddle to the tip. Made my next ride much comfy. I haven’t done a long ride with it since, but if tomorrow (~50 mi) doesn’t go well, I’m off to buy a new saddle, a Arione probably.
FYI, I ride middle front of the saddle on that bike.