Saddle considerations for rough off-road use

In article <[email hidden]>,

Rick Onanian said:

What things should I consider when choosing a saddle for
rough/technical off-road use, compared to what I find
comfortable on-road?

Background: I'm very happy with the saddle on my road bike,
and have tolerated the one on my mountain bike combined
with a suspension seatpost. It seems that I'm too heavy for
suspension seatposts to last long with rough use, so I
think I'll go back to standard seatposts.

In an emergency, wanting to preserve daylight riding time
after breaking the seatpost, I grabbed a solid seatpost
with a saddle I haven't ridden in a long time. The saddle
is very wide and has thick gel padding. Surprisingly, I
liked the gel, but the width was terrible.

This is so personal - you like what you like because you
like it. I use an Avocet O2 on the road and a Selle Italia
Turbo on the MTB. So I like a little more padding off road
but still firm. The only gel saddle I've ridden was a Flite.
My first ride on it was 100 miles so we didn't really get
properly introduced; it was a brief and painful
relationship.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Rick Onanian said:

What things should I consider when choosing a saddle for
rough/technical off-road use, compared to what I find
comfortable on-road?

If you like a short MTB frame w/ lots of stand-over, you
might get some benefit from a longer nosed saddle -- good
for steering no-hands on the street. For off-road, I find a
longer saddle is good for scootching forward while grunting
up steepnesses. More cantle at the rear of the saddle might
provide something to push back against when you want to give
the cranks a good, hard mash. Although for the rest of the
time, it might feel like the saddle is constantly trying to
push you off. For that reason, I really don't like saddles
which have too much cantle.

Personally, I think a MTB should fit well enough so one
almost hovers lightly over the saddle rather than sitting
heavily on it, and can easily lift one's butt off the saddle
by standing on the pedals, with the cranks horizontal.
Suspension seatposts be damned ;-)

So, long nose, not too narrow or too wide in the middle, and
the right taste of cantle. IOW, a MTB saddle.

good ride, Tom

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