It's strange: If you look for bicycle saddles on the relevant online classified adverts, countless private sales pop up with comments such as "only fitted once" or "new". And if you look in the basement shelves of bike enthusiasts, you will often find a saddle vault. Discarded seats, lovingly worn through and saved just in case, or thrown into the corner in frustration after a test ride. It is much rarer to find tyres or handlebars in mint condition - the saddle is a very special part of the bike.
The fact that a top saddle is rarely fitted ex works, even on a complete bike in the upper price range, can only be blamed on the manufacturer to a limited extent: With saddle prices of up to several hundred euros, this would make the bike unnecessarily expensive. And especially with the more upmarket models, which tend to have more experienced buyers, there is a good chance that the saddle will immediately have to make way for the tried and tested favourite model. But even that doesn't secure this title for all time. In recent years, the development of bikes has meant that a saddle model that has been tried and tested for 10 or even 20 years no longer has to be state of the art.
Buying advice for your perfect saddle
1st saddle width
The realisation that the saddle must fit the distance between the ischial tuberosities has finally been accepted. The ischial tuberosities are the area of the pelvic bone on which the saddle supports the body weight. The distance between them varies from person to person, usually between 10 and 14 centimetres. Years ago, companies such as SQlab, Specialized and Ergon started to make this measurable for retailers and consumers and to include it in their product range. The impression of the ischial tuberosities is measured when the back is vertical. You can also measure it yourself: place a piece of corrugated cardboard on a hard surface with the corrugated side facing upwards, sit on it and pull your legs up slightly for clearer impressions. The centre-to-centre distance counts.
2. cushion hardness
At the fast end of the spectrum, things are tough: some cyclists do away with foam completely and sit on pure carbon fibre. The front-heavy weight distribution and the high counter-pressure of the pumping legs make this possible. Added to this is the pressure on the sit bones that has been built up over thousands of kilometres of training.
3. contours
Holes, notches, hollows: Special saddle shapes are designed to increase comfort. Not all of them help everyone - or everyone.
Every year, with the start of the cycling season and the holiday season, daily newspapers in particular warn of the impending potency problems caused by cycling. This regular condemnation of the bicycle saddle has now subsided somewhat - perhaps the relief hole in the saddle covers of many manufacturers has contributed to the fact that the summer slump in the news is increasingly being filled with other topics.
Perforated saddles came into fashion around 20 years ago. Because saddles for sporty cyclists almost always had extremely narrow, upwardly curved shapes until then, they inevitably could only really fit a few. Everyone else suffered in silence. However, the idea of simply cutting away the area that causes pressure between the legs from an otherwise identical saddle shape was only the first step towards more diverse, ergonomically sensible saddle designs...
4. upper material
Material that is too grippy hinders pedalling and puts the trouser leg in potentially abrasive folds, slippery Lycra on full carbon can cause energy-sapping battles for the riding position. The personal truth usually lies somewhere in between. Genuine leather covers are now rather rare and have no really noticeable advantages over synthetic leather: Synthetic leather is also abrasion-resistant, the grip of the surface can be precisely defined during production, and breathability is not a major issue on the saddle.
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