The process of picking a new saddle
Phase one of three - A saddle experience questionnaire.
Saddles. A crucial part of the bike itself and the bike riding experience as a whole. It is also one of the most common pain points I see in my studio, from men and women alike.
But first, I just want to bring up Olympics withdrawal… Anyone else dealing with this right now?! Thank goodness Tour de France femme is happening right now! Rouleur has great coverage, as well as Daniel Benson’s Substack and as always, Women’s Cycling Weekly.
I have been in my head a fair bit trying to cover this topic. Do I want to cover the science around saddle issues while riding? Do I want to get straight into the practical stuff of how to pick a saddle? Should I get into the technical things like saddle design, shapes, materials, tech, etc? 🤔
The answer is yes. To all of these. The problem? It's currently summer time (at least here in Canada. I know some of you are in the Southern hemisphere), so it's peak cycling season and I work 60+ hours a week, meaning saying yes to everything can be a bit of a slippery slope to my general well-being.
As a result, I decided to tackle the saddle selection topic in three phases.
Phase one includes a saddle experience questionnaire. It will only take a few minutes of your time and will help me immensely as I put the finishing touches on phase two, which is an overview of the process of selecting a new saddle, including all the technical saddle design things. This directly ties into phase three, which is an online saddle selection tool (I am pretty excited about phase three and I think you should be too)! To help me deliver phase two and three in the best way possible, you will have my eternal gratitude if you could fill in a quick questionnaire (you can fill it in anonymously if you would like).
Bike of the Week - Scott Addict
And to close things off… Bike of the week! This one is kind of related to both the Olympics and women’s cycling.
I posted this one on Instagram on the day the Canadian cycling team travelled to Paris. This is Fiona. Only 4 years after she started riding bikes, she was a part of the women's Olympic pursuit team (as the alternate) - Speedy on the bike and speedy progressing in the sport. Fiona is also known as Gallium Pro, Argon18 in my bike fitting database... I started working with her at the end of July 2020. She came in with her first bike, an Argon18, and I somehow entered her bike brand and model as her first and last name 😂. 4 years, 30+ appointments, 10 bikes, rides / coffee hangs when we have the time (which is not often enough) and endless chats about bikes, training, life and everything in between later and she is still named Gallium Pro, Argon18 in the database... I am keeping it that way because it makes us both giggle when I pull up her records.
Anyways, this is her current team road bike - Scott Addict, size xxs with Shimano 105 di2, Zipp 303 wheels, SMP carbon saddle and a bit of a mishmash of parts. You can't see that in the photos of course, but I once let her try my Nimbl shoes because we are the same size and she didn't give them back (jokes, she got a pair of her own a few weeks later). I can’t wait to follow her Journey to LA 2028!
Happy riding and please don’t forget to fill in the cycling experience questionnaire here 🤗. If you want to share saddle related things that I have not included in the questionnaire, feel free to send me a DM or if you are reading this via email, hit the reply button.
Noa.
