"Jeff Wills" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:"Gearóid Ó Laoi/Garry Lee" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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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.
