There we were a dozen or so years ago, a young wetsuit company without very much money, wondering what we ought to be doing with our little factory when we'd already built more wetsuits than we could sell? The answer was—we thought—to build something out of neoprene we could sell to our existing customers. Enter cycling shoe covers and saddle covers.
In particular our saddle covers were a hit because, as we knew then and still know now, saddle comfort continues to be a priority issue for triathletes more than for any other segment of the riding population.
We were lucky, we built what was pretty-much the right product right away. Features changed once or twice over the years but the premise remains 5mm of neoprene—smoothskin inside, lycra laminated on the outside surface—tightly fitting over the popular narrow profile saddles.
This type of cover makes just about any saddle a better saddle for triathletes. Quintana Roo has made these for over a dozen years, and once we counted saddle covers at our Kona Bike Survey and of the bikes that had saddle covers (almost half) QR's were on four out of every five.
De Soto has entered the market with more or less the same product. Its cover fits slightly tighter than QR's. Otherwise it's identical. Both these sell for under $20.
The trick with these saddle covers is in getting them on the saddle. If you try to put them on like putting a sock on a foot you'll have a very hard time. It seemed like the best thing we could do is point out the existence of these covers for those who never knew about them before, and to demonstrate how to put them on easily.
The secret is to turn the cover entirely inside out. Then, have the saddle meet its cover nose to nose. Commence rolling it on, in a manner not unlike peeling a banana in reverse. Finally, pull the back of the cover over the back of the saddle.
If you employ this method you can easily get your saddle cover over any saddle. We even put a De Soto saddle cover over a Selle San Marco TriathGel Azoto, and this saddle already has more or less its own saddle cover built into the saddle.
Saddle covers like these are really the best single thing you can do to get over the saddle blues, regardless of the saddle you choose. These specific neoprene models are the best covers because they have just as much padding in the nose—where you need it—as in the rear (where you really don't much need it). Make sure you get a high quality one, like those made by De Soto and QR, because you want lycra on the outside (not just nylon, it's too abrasive to your shorts) and you want a good quality rubber.
Saddle covers like this make training much more comfortable, and they're almost a must in racing, when you're probably wearing a much thinner pad than those sewn into cycling shorts.
