Selle SMP discussion

Commuter is a drop bar roadie, ridden in the drops haha. Reckon TRK?

Also, I don't think they're that ugly. Damn sight nicer than a Brooks anyhow.

A bike's a tool for cycling. Saddles a tool for sitting. Your a tool troll.

Reckon TRK?

See for yourself.

Depends...how deep do you go?

My tourer is drop bar, stem parallel with saddle but on long riders the TRK is still a bit wide at the front.

The Hybrid may be a better bet perhaps but if a bike shop has models you can judge yourself :)

Chainreaction in Belfast has a few Selle SMP unfortunately few shop stock them (and you're probably not in narn eir)

If the SMP was indeed the answer to problems relating to extensive use of a bicycle saddle would not at least some reasonable percentage of the pro-cycling community not be on them?

They look to me like a solution to a problem that can be solved in a lot of other ways, like better shorts, getting used to a position, HTFU, etc...

If the SMP was indeed the answer to problems relating to extensive use of a bicycle saddle would not at least some reasonable percentage of the pro-cycling community not be on them?

I'd imagine that due to the long nose, it would for a majority of riders fall foul of

Saddle must be a least 5cm behind BB, 1.3.012.

Also this is a misnomer - Pro cyclists (below the top 1/2 riders in a team) ride what they are paid to ride, not what they would chose

Which team do they sponsor?

No saddle is a panacea.

They look to me like a solution to a problem that can be solved in a lot of other ways, like better shorts, getting used to a position, HTFU, etc...

How do you think shorts got 'better' if everyone stuck with what the pro's wore last year?

Unfortunately soft tissue can't HTFU. It's not my sitbones that suffer (they'd happily take a brick) it's the Bits that get it.

And no amount of trying or padded shorts make saddles with no cutout comfortable to me as I've tried. On various bikes with various angles of sitting forwards, but the dreaded numbness strikes.

Specialized has cut outs too, I prefer the more curved shape of the SMP at the rear. But some people make like Spez more, free country, everybody different, mileage varies and all that :)

Indeed, pro sometime get away with a non-sponsor saddle by having it re covered, I doubt it'd be easy to claim that the unbranded SMP is a Fizik.

I have an image now of a mechanic working away feverishly at night with foam hard enough to plug the holes, while wondering what to do with the saddle nose...

On the £££ bit: A Strike Pro is the predecessor of the Pro I got on on e-bay.it and it cost me £50. Unfortunately the Selle SMP are dear even in e-bay.it...

If you guys want to try one out, Cadence in Crystal Palace stock a fair range, and offer 40 minutes on the turbo to try out different saddles for £25.

It seems pretty useful to me, so I might go have a look in and report back to y'all after payday.

40 minutes is nothing, it's like reading one pages of a book and except to understood it.

I'd rather do 10 minutes of riding with a couple of different saddles suggested by a bunch of respected bike fitters and take it from there, than guess what saddle you want based on looks and spend weeks faffing around with buying second hand or knock off models. Obviously it's not the same as putting 100 miles on a Fizik tester model, but it's better than nothing.

also, that sentence is a ubinScoblesquad classic.

^TL:DR wut he said

I'd disagree. It was immediately obvious to me (maybe I'm just sensitive and need to HTFU as dov so kindly suggested), that the SMP was an improvement on the Romin, which was in turn a fairly immediate/obvious improvement on anything else I'd ridden on. Obviously you're not going to know if you'll still get on with it after 100+miles, but nothing (other than riding 100 miles) will ever tell you that

If only you could grow callouses on the soft bits ;)

Looking for a saddle for my Look and really like the look of these. Anyone specifically got the Composit? I have a SLR Superflow on my not so good bike and imagine the channel principal is fairly similar?
Edit: I see Ed has one.

£25 to ride a saddle on a static bike or £25 spent on postage while buying and selling a range of used saddles from ebay/classifieds and getting to use them in the real world for as long as you like.

I must be ill, starting to think the composit almost looks good

the cheaper models do look very differently shaped from the "real" ones. the cut-out is much larger in most of the nicer models

i've had a stratos for 2-3? years now. i like it. it looks like its from space (bonus)

It look skinny and narrow in the flesh, despite it's ugly shape.

ISM Adamo > SMP

They're both butters tho

edit: ISM is uglier

If the SMP was indeed the answer to problems relating to extensive use of a bicycle saddle would not at least some reasonable percentage of the pro-cycling community not be on them?

They look to me like a solution to a problem that can be solved in a lot of other ways, like better shorts, getting used to a position, HTFU, etc...

I can't get fully behind this. When I was messengering I was having a terrible time with my saddle 3/4 hours into the day I had a real numb pain all over my Perineum with another 6/7 hrs ahead. Even the tiniest bump and jolt in the road rocked my grandkids. Once I found the ISM all of my issues disappeared. All pain gone, no pressure on vital parts. I can do 100+ miles sans padding on it.
I wonder if there are any problems with ex pro riders down the line with their johnson's conking out?

Plus ~£100 to spend on the saddles themselves, plus the time bidding and winning on one etc. I don't think it's a poor investment, personally.