Which saddle is best

Its relatively gentle curvature and medium padding were an instant hit for day-to-day riding. Just as the basic model can be tailored to different ride positions via its profile, so to can each saddle's construction be tailored to the constraints of your wallet. We tried the mid-level titanium-railed Race model. Latest to come to the line is the stubby Power range, of which the Expert, with its hollow titanium rails, is the cheapest.

Shorter and broader than previous offerings, the design is said to concentrate on getting the best possible contact points for the sit bones for long-ride comfort. The Power Expert sees Body Geometry technology taken to the next level — and at a fair price, too. For a general-use saddle, when first sat upon, it can feel a little under-padded. However, its clever shape and mix of orthopaedic comfort foam with OrthoCell pads soon won us over.

Like many saddles, the SR has a central channel to relieve pressure on the perineal area. Despite low overall weight, both the scales and your eyes will tell you this is no Skinny Minnie saddle. Compared to flatter and more austere saddles, the generous padding means instant comfort from the off. All considered its Aliante is likely to prove a crowd-pleasing endurance saddle that will sit well with all but the most aggressive riders.

Supremely light, but offering a great deal of support, this is a throne built for speedy riders, specifically those with greater flexibility and narrower pelvises. Although historically bottoms have remained similar in shape and size, in recent years saddles have been getting shorter.

Its minimal mm length is coupled to a not-too-narrow mm width; the idea being that its lack of length will relieve pressure on sensitive areas when riding aggressively. Further helping keep you comfy is a long central pressure relief cut-out. Ideal for dig-deep efforts, those after a mixed terrain saddle or who like to move around should look elsewhere. This also isn't the lightest saddle in our lineup with its high-end materials. However, it still manages to weigh in at a respectable grams and is certainly worth checking out for riders looking for the ultimate in pressure relief.

The Fizik Aliante Gamma Kium is our go-to saddle for more casual riding and mid-distance slogs. The rounded shape of the midsection is intended to better suit riders with less flexibility who tend to have more pelvic rotation during riding.

It also has a central sweet spot with just the right density padding and a flexible carbon layer along the center of the nylon shell that nicely cushions and dampens the ride. It is not uncommon to find this saddle as the original stock equipment on some highly-regarded road bikes. While our testers certainly appreciated this saddle's comfortable design, some riders looking for a pressure relief channel will likely need to look elsewhere. This model's rounded shape can build up pressure or pain on the soft tissues, especially on longer rides.

Likewise, racers or faster riders looking for a flatter platform for a more aggressive riding position may prefer the Fabric Scoop Pro Flat. For a general workhouse saddle that can meet the full range of road pursuits for most riders at a pretty accessible price, the Aliante Gamma Kium is a solid choice.

Read review: Fizik Aliante Gamma Kium. Our lineup of bike saddles was put through the wringer by the rear ends of our gear testers Nick Bruckbauer , Ryan Baham , and Ryan Baker.

All three are all-around athletes and avid outdoorsmen. Nick likes to spend his evenings and weekends grinding away in the hills above Santa Barbara, CA. Ryan Baham enjoys all manners of road cycling from causal after-work pedals, quad-busting climbs, and the occasional century ride.

Ryan Baker masochistically seeks out the brutal headwinds and arduous climbs of the eastern Sierra. After spending hours researching the top-performing products on the market, our testers put together a solid lineup of saddles and hit the road for some intense head-to-head testing.

From short commutes to fast fitness rides, long cruises to grueling climbs, and blazing fast descents, we put these saddles through the wringer in all sorts of riding conditions. After dusting off the bike tools in our home workshop, we began tinkering with our bikes and the group of saddles to get ready for the miles ahead. Each model was mounted on different bikes, adjusted for optimum setup, and tested by multiple riders with different body types and riding styles to gain multiple opinions and perspectives.

We also analyzed these products' structure and design to better understand their design, materials, and construction. We tested each saddle side by side in similar riding conditions on the same rides to reduce subjectivity. Below, we evaluate each saddle through our five rating metrics, including comfort, performance, and versatility through a range of speeds, terrains, and riding positions, and finally, weight and durability. We realize that cycling can be an expensive sport.

While some riders are looking for the best possible products, no matter the cost, other riders are looking for a reasonable balance of solid performance and a fair price. Options we've presented have a wide range of prices, so there's likely a good choice out there for any budget. The Bontrager Sport stands out with competitive scores against more expensive alternatives. At an astoundingly low price and high marks across every metric, we recommend it for those on a budget that still want to enjoy the quality of Bontrager.

Other solid options are the Fizik Aliante Gamma Kium or the Fabric Scoop Pro , both very high-end models with middle-of-the-road price tags. Let's face it; comfort is perhaps the most important attribute for any rider spending any decent amount of time in the saddle. Without at least a reasonable level of comfort, a saddle's weight, durability, and other attributes almost become irrelevant and can force you back home to the recliner before you know it.

We also must recognize that every rider, their anatomy, and their riding style are all individually unique, and this can give different riders vastly different opinions of the same seat.

We sought out to find a consensus in opinions among our differently shaped testers because of this subjectivity. We looked to identify which saddle shapes, sizes, and design features favor or oppose certain riding styles or rider preferences. One of the most comfortable saddles we tested is the Fabric Scoop Pro Flat. Its simple design with a flat seating platform, nicely rounded corners viewed from the top , and comfortable plush padding make it ideal for racers or faster riders frequently in more aggressive riding positions.

More casual riders with neutral or more upright riding positions who appreciate the sleek design and lightweight comfort of the Scoop Pro may be good candidates for the slightly more rounded Shallow or Radius profiles of this saddle. Likewise, riders with neutral or upright riding positions will likely also appreciate the rounded profile and Twin Flex technology that combines multiple carbon layers in the Fizik Aliante Gamma Kium. Another model that stands out uniquely is the Selle SMP Pro , with its full-length anatomic cut-out, providing tremendous pressure relief to the delicate parts of your undercarriage.

Riders looking for relief from numbness, tingling, or painful pressure in their vital areas will appreciate this design. The potential drawback with the aggressive cut-out is that it leaves a smaller, very firmly padded surface area for your sit bones to rest on, potentially leading to uncomfortable pressure points. We recommend this saddle for those who have been riding for some time and have grown accustomed to hours in a high-performance saddle.

On their website, Selle recommends this saddle for riders with pants sizes L to XXL USA sizes , and our testers found that smaller riders can experience discomfort if their anatomy doesn't correctly align with the smaller seating platforms. While some of our comfort-oriented bike saddles with thicker padding were certainly quite comfortable on shorter cruises, we began to notice the lack of stiffness and support on longer or faster rides, which ultimately made the ride feel imbalanced and a little uncomfortable.

A thickly padded seat like the Serfas Dorado would make be an excellent option for your beach or neighborhood cruiser, but most likely isn't going to go on your road bike for faster training or racing. Striking a nice balance of comfortable plush padding and an anatomic relief cut-out without feeling too squishy or being too heavy, both the Specialized Power Expert and the Prologo Dimension would be good options for all-around riding.

The Brooks England B surprised us with its high level of comfort , achieved using tensioned leather and no padding - it's no wonder Brooks has been in the bike saddle business since The Brooks surprise goes to show that the answer to a sore bottom isn't always more padding - sometimes the answer is just more time in the saddle, particularly if you're new to riding or it's early in the season.

Our testers found that the rubbery shell material found on the Brooks Cambium C15 and the Cambium C15 Carved All-Weather don't quite stack up to the comfort of the more traditional B Despite the Brooks models' classic style and historic success, we found that our testers preferred the modern shapes and high-performance materials used in most newer styles.

The level of performance offered by a bike saddle is largely dependent on its shape, padding, and shell stiffness. A road bike saddle must provide a stable platform from which the rider can achieve and maintain an optimal body position to transfer power to the pedals.

The right balance of padding and stiffness is necessary to optimize power transfer without wasting energy or compromising efficiency. Having too much padding and too little stiffness means that energy can be absorbed and wasted with each pedal stroke.

Having too little padding and too much stiffness can compromise comfort and accelerate the onset of fatigue. The shape of the saddle also impacts performance. Traditional thinking is such that a relatively flat saddle with a long nose, such as the Fabric Scoop Pro Flat , offers the best power transfer. However, some newer saddles, such as the Specialized Power Expert and Prologo Dimension diverge from that trend with a short chopped nose, wider tail, and deep cut-out, and still manage to perform quite well.

The PRO Stealth provided excellent performance in a short-nosed design with a unique large cutaway to provide pressure relief. A more traditionally shaped saddle like the Fizik Aliante Gamma Kium with its rounded shape also manages to rank well in this category thanks to its Twin Flex technology that optimizes stiffness. One of the biggest surprises in this category was the Selle SMP Pro , with its unique shape and downturned nose that helped power transfer in various riding positions.

Its rigid carbon shell and curved front-to-back profile allow for versatile body positioning and provide a solid anchor to direct power into the pedals with minimal energy loss. Its wide rear platform also provides a steady base for those long grinding efforts, while the narrow nose is ideal for more aggressive pushes. The intimidating design turned out to be very comfortable and provide excellent support without interfering with leg extension.

While many high-level cyclists own multiple bikes and participate in several cycling disciplines, most amateur riders likely have one bike they use across any road riding pursuits.

In our versatility testing, we focused on the major road pursuits: cruising the seasonal century ride and long, slow training miles , sprinting crits and single-day road races , climbing grinding out categorized climbs , and touring we're talking panniers, sabbaticals, Gofundme campaigns.

The more versatile a saddle is, the more likely you will be happy using it for multiple disciplines. Both offer excellent power transfer and comfort while tearing it up out on the flats, making grinding hilly ascents, or blazing down some hair-raising descents.

Their narrow noses allow you to aggressively kick from down in the drops, and they have just enough padding not to overwhelm you while sitting in a group in cruise mode.

The Aliante R1 Evo differs from the Open version by having a more flexible carbon hull and more generous padding. There, the generous padding and channel help relieve pressure on your soft tissue, but still offer a stable platform to put the power down.

Being more race focused it could be too firm for some, but our tester found it very comfortable even on long rides. At Like the Specialized Power saddle, it has a large pressure-relief channel, with high density padding and a stepped nose that makes riding in an aggressive position very comfortable. The Prologo Dimension NDR Tirox CPC uses carbon fibre for its hull construction, with varying degrees of thickness for targeted stiffness and flexibility across the saddle.

This, combined with the generously sized P. The CPC cover is a real advantage. The tiny volcano-shaped rubberised tubes offer phenomenal grip in both wet and dry conditions, and keep you firmly planted in the right place. The reason for this is the relatively narrow mm width. Our only complaint was the underside is a touch sloppily finished, with a few creases and some exposed staples. The central channel is also very shallow, but it works much better than its appearance suggests, making for a supportive, comfortable saddle, even when tucked down in an aero position.

It features the same dimensions as a standard Power saddle, but uses a more curved shape. Our tester found it to be a very comfortable racing saddle, with the large, central cut-out providing excellent pressure relief. As expected for a saddle of this price, the base and rails are both carbon, and there are hidden mounting bolts for a range of accessories.

The most important differentiator between road saddles is shape. 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 s, and more recently the trend has been for short and wide, such as the Specialized Power.

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.

A high quality bike fit from a reputable brand can be helpful here — all good fitters should have a sizeable range of saddles for you to try. 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.

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.