"Jeff Wills" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:"Gearóid Ó Laoi/Garry Lee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Quoted message said:Would be interested to hear of any bike shops in the
UK (SE particularly) that offer a truly professional
fitting service for saddles.
There could be no such thing. Trial and error is the
only way as people's asses differ. I cannot ride
anything but leather, nor can my wife or a couple of my
friends. The others use other saddles.
I agree (about trial and error). I have tried Brooks and
Ideale leather saddles and many Italian covered-plastic
types. Nothing worked. I finally found the saddles from
WTB fit me- so much so that I'm installing them on all my
uprights. (Current collection: 4 uprights, two
recumbents.)
Yes, trial and error is one of the best ways to find the
right saddle. But sometimes a professional opinion can help
when you've lost your way.
For example:
A while ago I used to swear by the "Rolls" saddle, but
then I moved to a very humid climate. In the high
humidity the long skirt caused a lot of chafing on my
inner thighs. I moved to the "Gel Flite" model and was
happy for several years.
Then I was developing a lot of hand pressure problems and
couldn't work out why. A visit to a professional cycle
fitter helped me out... The nose of my saddle was about 1
deg down. He pointed this out straight away, and raised it
to level (or even a little nose up) which (proven over time)
fixed my hand problems. But the "Gel Flite" was not
comfortable in this position.
My professional pointed out that the saddle should fit you
in THREE places, centrally and on each sit bone, with equal
weight on each point. His theory is that this locks you in
one place allowing perfect leg length fitting, and best
power transfer.
The "Gel Flite" is raised in the middle, so I had auto-
compensated by lowering the nose (which raised the tail) to
put more weight on the sit bones. But lowering the nose
caused me to slip forward, needing my hands to brace against
this, causing hand problems.
In a fitting session, we tried the "Rolls", "Gel Flite",
"Nitrox", "Prolink" and many many others he had in his
kit bag. I also brought a "Flite SLR" that I'd recently
bought too.
The best fit for me (fit on all three points with equal
weight) was the "Prolink". On the day of the fitting
session, quite a number of my friends (who'd also shelled
out significant cash for an appointment) also found that the
"Prolink" was the best fit for them. Surprisingly for me,
this included both a female and males of quite different
builds. I should point out that our professional didn't sell
any saddles during our sessions, so he wasn't benefiting
from any particular brand.
Later I went to my LBS and bought a "Gel Prolink" and I've
been very happy with it since then.
As a secondary fit the "Flite SLR" worked better for me than
the standard "Flite". The deck of the "Flite SLR" is much
flatter, and weights my sit bones much more, though I still
squirm a little compared to the "Prolink".
So that's my 2 cents. Trial and error works best, but if you
have serious issues and are feeling lost don't be afraid to
pay for professional help. I'm not paid to advertise, but
let me know by email if you'd like a referral.
