This doesn’t work for everyone though, and there are many who prefer the extra room to move around that a longer saddle provides. with the pressure on your sit bones) while you ride. Warren Rossiter / Our MediaĪs already mentioned, the current trend is for shorter saddles that aim to fix you in a single position (i.e. Length Traditional, longer saddles still suit some behinds. A comprehensive bike fit would also take this variable into account. Specialized, for example, offers an in-store method of measuring the distance between your sit bones and determining the ‘correct’-width saddle you require. Some brands make a bigger deal about width than others, but no one’s anatomy is the same, so it intuitively makes sense that sit-bone width will vary between riders. Once you’ve found a shape that works for you, the next variable to look at is width. Width Some bike fitters say narrower saddles make riders less prone to slipping around while pedalling. These saddles tend to feature more radical shapes and designs, all with the intention of maximising soft-tissue pressure relief while in an aggressive riding position. If you’re taking part in time trials or triathlons, it’s also worth considering a saddle specifically designed for those disciplines, such as an ISM saddle. You can of course go it alone, but the trial and error process can get expensive very quickly unless you beg, borrow and steal from your riding buddies. Many of the most common types of pain caused by cycling – and not forgetting saddle sores – are linked to ill-fitting saddles.Ī high-quality bike fit from a reputable brand can be helpful here – all good fitters should have a sizeable range of bike seats for you to try. That said, it’s becoming more generally accepted that for optimum comfort and performance you want to put the pressure on your sit bones and off any surrounding soft tissue.įinding a saddle that enables you to do this is often crucial. Personal preference will always play a big role, so ideally you want to be able to try out bike seats of different shapes before you commit to anything. More recently the trend has been for short-nose saddles, such as the Specialized Power. Long, curved shapes such as the Selle San Marco Concor were the hot item through the eighties and nineties, then we had long and flat like the Fizik Arione in the 2000s. The most important difference between road bike seats is shape. Shape The Fizik Arione was a popular perch in the noughties. That’s not to say that a bike seat designed for men can’t work for women too, but biology means fit requirements are likely to differ. It’s an unfortunate fact that most road saddles are designed with male anatomy in mind by default. Gender Saddles made for women often have a central channel to reduce pressure. Keep scrolling to see all the saddles or click on the links below to skip to the different price points:īest road bike saddles for £100 Fabric Line-S Elite Flat With so many road bike saddles on the market and so much choice, we’ve split our pick of the best road bike saddles into different price categories, from performance-oriented saddles that cost around £200 to budget-friendly saddles under £100. Best road bike saddles in 2023, as rated by our expert testers If you want to know more about picking the right bike seat for you, check out the buyer's guide at the end of this article. While this includes options that are suitable for men and women, we also have a dedicated guide to the best women's road bike saddles and women's mountain bike saddles. Based on that wealth of experience, we’ve assembled a list of what we think are the most comfortable bike seats for the best road bikes. Our team of expert testers have ridden a huge range of saddles, in various shapes and sizes. In reality, the best way is to test every option yourself until you find nirvana, but it's more realistic for us to test those options for you. This presents a number of problems, though, because finding the right saddle is one of the most personal choices due to everyone’s anatomy and riding style being different. Finding the best road bike saddle is perhaps one of the important ways of unlocking greater comfort on the bike.
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