One of the most common question asked on the all-ladies cycle group I’m part of (team glow) is “what saddle do you recommend?”, this is such a difficult thing to help people with, especially new cyclists. But I’ve been there and I’ve certainly shared their pain!
When I started cycling I bought a brilliant ladies Fizik, which I had on my little bike for a couple of years with no problems. But then one day, I sat on it and thought, “nope, I can’t ride with that any more”. I wish I had an explanation as to why this happened so suddenly, but that was it. Back to the drawing board.
As a temporary fix I started cycling with the basic Bontrager saddle my bike had come with. It wasn’t right for me, but I had no other ideas about which other brands to try. So I suffered, and yep, it made me miserable, it was a constant cycle of healing saddle sores and then doing more damage.
Through this period, I did try various other saddles which had been recommend by the good ladies of Glow. No to the Pro Logo. No to other styles of Fiziks. And finally no to the go-to saddle of at least 50% of Glow – the Selle Italia Diva.
Then with the opening of Cycle Fit in Manchester, there was an option of saddle pressure mapping. A few of the other ladies had been and had instant success, I was hopeful again! So off I went, and hour and a half later, still no joy. The lovely guys at Cycle Fit sent me away with a saddle that was at best a marginal improvement, but as soon as I was off the turbo and started going uphill, it was clear the saddle was no good for me. So back to square one.
Then a friend who was having similar issues recommend trying a Fabric saddle. There is no stitching to catch and rub, there was a variety of shapes depending on how you ride, and best of all they cost less that £40 each. I literally ran to the bike shop to try one, and it was love at first ride!
It’s such an important bit to get right, for your health and happiness, but the Fabric has helped my endurance riding so much, don’t get me wrong, it’s not sitting on a sofa, but for a bike saddle it’s bloody brilliant and I would recommend any one to give them a whirl!
