I don’t know if wide is my constraint, given that the Berthoud Aspin is maybe a little too wide for me (Typically 15cm saddle to bar drop on my machines; I’ve got a 146mm Berthoud, the C15 is 140mm, and the C13 I’ve got is 145mm.) The B17 is definitely too wide for me, and the recent Brooks Pros break too damn fast.
I’ll take a look at the Ergon’s specs, but the ones I’ve seen so far have padding, and that’s a pretty serious strike against them (I haaaaaaate padding, because I sink into it and it reflects my body heat back into my butt, which then converts into a swamp because I don’t use a chamois and the sweat just pools disgustingly around my nethers.)
I totally agree with that view. Like most stuff in recent times, it tended towards road racing fashion, which is narrow saddles. You don’t know your saddle is too narrow until you’ve spent 3 long days on it. At least there is a bit of choice these days.
I’ve got like 4000-odd far guy miles on a C17 and the only problem is that that canvas layer is looking beat up in a couple spots, especially along the line of the nose piece. If it broke I guess I don’t know what I’d try next.
I’ve only got 3 C15s, but my backup plan for this broken one (the primary plan is to find out what kind of rubber Brooks used for this one, cement the crack with the appropriate rubber cement, then rivet a patch around it to keep everything together) is to make a topmold, then lay up a carbon fiber fabric top. It’s kind of annoying that there doesn’t seem to be any structural reinforcement of the rubber except for the textile layer.
Given my druthers (and a lottery win, because fuck they’re expensive these days) I’d just stock up on Berthoud Soulors, but my budget is small enough so the only frivolity I can afford is a stack of 3t Mutants.
If the carbon is on top of the rubber layer, it won’t really reinforce the rubber in that failure zone. It would need to be moulded undernneath the rubber to put the carbon in tension and hold the rubber together.
The carbon fiber would completely replace the existing top. If I can’t successfully patch the rubber it’s a disaster waiting to happen, but I should be able to find the sweet spot between a carbon fiber rock and so flexy that it will disintegrate and turn me into a carbon needle pincushion.
Have you done much work with carbon before
Seems like a waste of time tbh
You’re gonna depend on a hella thin layer of rubber cement to hold what 1/8" of actual rubber couldn’t
Actually the cement would be to check the split; the riveted patch will be on the side where the fabric is torn.
Will it fix it? Probably not; the skirts carry most of the load, but if the cement doesn’t check the split it will cheerfully race across the neck and down the other side. So I’ll start the mold first, because — as any model railroader knows — it’s pretty mindless to drape plaster-soaked fabric over a flexible form.
(Waste of time? Pssft, ain’t no such thing when bike dithering)
I suspect from my repeated attempts to tolerate flat saddles that the scoop flat would fail to fail to suck. The curved (radius?) might fall off fast enough, though, so I’ll have to add it to my list of things to creep on ebay.
If the cracking on the Cambium is near the nose rivet, that’s a know issue and H2 will USUALLY warranty with a new All Weather if initiated by a shop on their good side.
Other firm saddles you probably won’t try but should. Pro Stealth and Specialized Power.
Also the flat Fabric Scoop is far and away the more comfortable one to most people I have worked with. The other two build padding up starting in the middle of the saddle and creates a taint pressure point for a fair amount of people that have taken out our demo saddles.
The cheapo version mimics the curve of the Radius model but is super soft and seems to work better for causal riders.
I have a C17 on my Grando (2+ years) It has some wear on it and no cracking yet.
All the rest of my bikes have Fabric Scoops on them. I think the one on my hardtail is the medium width one and the one on my Jones is the widest.
I’ll toss in the Aliante K:Ium Large as a decent option for a wider, more comfortable saddle. I don’t like it as much as a C17, but my haunches were comfortable on one for at least one century.
Like most saddle manufacturers, Fizik sells a billion confusingly named models, so this is the Aliante that’s about 155mm wide, with some kind of metal rails.
Fizik has a good naming structure. Where each word means the same thing when applied to different saddles. Versus means it has a perenium pressure relief cutout. Which is nice and makes the hammock a bit more supple ime. I went through a heavy fizik saddle phase in my early 20s I’m just now breaking out of. My favorites were the carbon ass hammocks with steel rails. I sold a blue one to Fred for his time.
I mean sure, words meant the same thing across models, but their animal posture system? goofy and for me, not helpful in picking a saddle.
It’s more that they, like most saddle manufacturers, have a billion saddle models, which I get helps them sell saddles, which is good for them, but it’s just sort of a lot for me to keep in my brain when I’m on the third of seven pages of their offerings.
