Selle SMP discussion

OK thanks. TBH I think a lot of the discrepancy I'm seeing is because I wasn't using the rear third of the Spesh as it was too wide. It's working out much easier as I don't have to have miles and miles of setback.

Has anyone here gone ahead and cut off the little plastic SMP badge at the rear of the saddle?

Haha!! I ended up returning my SMP saddle but if it had been a keeper I would have definitely done that.

No - I took mine off as I was looking at mourning a dynamo rear light in its place, but I got the feeling it was actually serving a purpose adding stiffness to the saddle (it's surprisingly robust) so I'd be cautious

Yep on my Extra, so I could use my tool roll. It's been totally fine for years and many many miles

Edit - my 2nd stripped Extra also has the badge removed

Anybody interested in a composit? I’ve moved to the vulkor which despite being only a little bit wider seems to make quite a difference. Looking for what I paid so £60 including postage

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I have literally this week bought a new one from Wiggle. Arse. What were you thinking of for it?

60 squids posted? It’s not brand new so got a few marks where it’s been leant again a wall etc. Can send over a few more pics if you want

I'd be interested in some pics for sure.

Just switched to an F20.

Only done an hour turbo on it so far but seems pretty good. I think it will work both sitting upright and on aerobars.

I paid the premium subscription to Steve Hogg's site to get him to talk me through the models. Was worth it as it saved me adding to my pile of hardly used saddles.

I found my Smp thanks to his long article about Smps.
Took me a while reading, thinking and measuring, but it's amazing how well the stratos works for me.

Yeah I recently tried something else to see (Bontrager Aeolus) and I was like nope give me my Dynamic/Forma please!

That article is brilliant. Only problem is it's a few years old now and they've come out with some newer models, like the F20, which is flat. But Steve knows about all the new ones as well. He knew which one would be most similar to my previous saddle and what the problem with that saddle was likely to be.

They should have something like that article on their website. So many companies make a range of products but make no attempt to explain why you might want one rather than another.

F20 is interesting. The "locked in" effect the hollow shape of the normal SMPs has is not always ideal.
Some guide as to what and why always helps, but if I remember correctly the SMP website does page turning sounds?

No, they even have a saddle finder app!

I tried that. It's exactly the sort of thing that might work for some people but doesn't if you have a requirement that they hadn't thought of. Mine was a saddle that works both when on aerobars and sitting upright.

It's annoying as what I wanted to know was why it was recommending me a Drakon or whatever

I have a Dynamic on my hardtail and the sandy mud that covers my behind a handful of seconds into a ride has been wearing the pigment off - what can I use to rectify this, standard shoe polish? Something else?

What family is the TRK in? They go cheap on eBay relatively often, I was thinking of stripping one down to the shell. Currently using a Hell and liking it (thanks @miro_o )

Glad that’s working for you.

The TRK (which has two widths) and Well/Hell are all pretty wide. Around 160mm compared to many SMPs that are around 130. I’ve never seen one of the highly padded saddles stripped so I’ve no idea what kind of carcass they have.

Send me a PM if you want to borrow a fake Composit (Compisish?) to test. I have a spare/backup.

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/14961904/
If you excuse the bad mudflap waffling, the saddle on my bike here is a stripped SMP Extra. I couldn't make it work on there but took a punt with it on my pompino and it's going great

It’s profile looks exactly like the narrow saddles.

Found the pic I took after doing it

I had to remove the screws and file down the points that had come through the top shell, otherwise its good to go. There's a small amount of give to the shell too so it's not rock solid.

Well (gel) is 144mm wide vs 137mm for the Dynamic. Length is almost identical.

I'll drop you a line about the Composish, much appreciated.

Also thanks @yoshy
Did you find that you noticed the spot where the screws had protruded, after filing them down?

I found a post from a mystery guest which suggests the Hell and TRK are the same shell (depending on the width of the TRK I guess, I hadn't realised there were 2 widths)

I have a TRK Medium on my Genesis Vagabond that I use for shopping and trails. I don't really rate it and think it's too padded. I usually ride a Dynamic and Forma on track. I'd be keen to try the Well.