There is absolutely nothing on the bike that matters as much as the saddle. Not the wheels, not the pedals, the derailleurs, the aerobors. Not even the frame. The saddle is chief among irreplaceable components -- once you find one you can ride, it's status is on a par with a cherished household pet.
Not so in road race. This is relegated to tri. Yes, saddles are important in road race as well, but more saddles will work for more people, because your weight rests on a part of your anatomy built for the purpose. If you're a nose-riding, steep-angled, master blaster you have your perineum (a round thing) meeting the saddle nose (another round thing) much like a baseball meeting a bat. So, imagine your perineum (affectionately dubbed the "taint") being the ball, and your saddle being the bat. That's what we're talking about here.
But not all saddles are round like a bat. The SLR saddle from Selle Italia, pictured at right, is a good example of a saddle that has a perfectly flat aspect, both front to rear, and side to side. It turns out to be a pretty good saddle for triathletes, it's spare profile and light weight notwithstanding. The amount of padding on the saddle is not its most important feature. Rather, a flat aspect and relatively flat nose make a saddle worth riding for a triathlete.
Selle Italia also makes the SLR T1, a tri-specific saddle. This is a very different saddle than the SLR above, so don't think it's just the road version with some padding, as is the case with the Fizik Arione Tri. It's not that the SLR T1 is not good. Many people love it. It's just that the SLR lovers often do not like the tri-specific version, and vice versa.
This doesn't mean that all saddle ought to look like the SLR, or even necessarily appear to have the flat shape described above. Yes, the shell must be flat, and that is the case with the Selle San Marco Azoto, at left. The part that swoops up in front is all spongy gel, and the point of this gel is to achieve our second goal, which is to dissipate the pressure on one's tender parts.
But the Triathgel Azoto is still built over a road shell. One of the few saddles that was built with a triathlete strictly in mind is the Profile Design TriStryke. The saddle is flat front to back, it's got long rails for fore/aft seat angle adjustability, and its flanges are sculpted so as not to impede the steep rider's thighs as they move back in forth in a pendular motion, versus up and down sewing machine style, as they do when road riding. The original TriStryke is the smaller of the two in the pic above. There is a new solid version, that is, the hole in the center of the saddle has been removed. I confess I thought the original would've been a better saddle without the hole, although it's been my everyday rider for a couple of years now. As such, I see the solid version as a move forward, but, I haven't ridden it, so I can't say for sure. Certainly nice is the price, $75, very inexpensive for a top-category, ti-railed, tri-specific saddle.
The two saddles above illustrate the two main style options for triathletes: the minimalist saddle with an acceptable shape, versus the plush, cushy saddle that glides like a passenger train car.
Fizik's Arione is yet again, like the SLR, a popular road saddle that found acceptance among triathletes. It's nose is, like the SLR, flat across the top, making this a reasonably nice saddle. As opposed to Selle Italia's tri version, however, the tri version of this saddle is very modestly different from the road version. Only a small amount of padding has been added to the nose, and the saddles do not ride very differently.
The Arione Tri is gone in favor of the Arione Tri 2. It's flat front to back, and comes in several configurations, differentiated mostly in rails.
The Arione Tri 2 comes with chrome moly rails on the bikes of its OE customers, but only with titanium rails for aftermarket. It's Fizik's best-selling tri saddle and costs $145.
It sells two saddles that leverage the carbon shell available on the road model. One is the the "Arione Tri 2 carbon flexing shell" with ti rails and it sells for $269. The lastest edition, available only since Fall of '06, is the "Arione Tri 2 Braided Carbon" and also has the carbon-flexing shell as well as carbon rails. It retails for $289.
While I've not ridden the carbon-flexing shell versions, I suspect triathletes will find the flexing shells of less utility than will road riders. Most triathletes ride on the front third of the saddle, nearer the front rail insertion... "on the rivet," so to speak. There is less available flex in the nose.
But, these carbon-shell saddles are lighter, and the rails are as well. The extra price may be worth the lighter weight, and they may also be more comfortable. I don't yet know.
PART II
The E3 FORM's designer leveraged the negative stigma of cycling on virility to produce this new saddle. The idea is to provide a platform that supports the rider's weight without impeding blood supply.
Whether the saddle accomplishes this or not is beyond our ability to know, particularly since this reviewer's saddles of choice do not typically produce the effect known in cycling circles as "sleepy pee pee." Our interests are comfort and power in the aero position.
This saddle is fairly typical of other saddles when it's placed on tri bikes, because the platform for housing sit bones, a large part of this saddle's functionality, is irrelevant when the athlete is nose riding and not displacing is weight across his sit bones. Nevertheless, the E3 FORM saddle does have this going for it: the saddle's flanges abruptly transition from the long, slender nose to the wide-set rear. This gives the rider plenty of unimpeded thigh swing, as the femur moves back and forth in the pendular fashion characteristic of steep-angled riding.
The flange design gives this saddle a leg up on its competition. Whether or not this will be a saddle of choice for triathletes rests on, er, what a triathlete rests on. When a triathlete's perineum contacts and rests on the saddle's nose, how will that feel to triathletes? For me, the saddle's nose was fine. Not the best, not bad, certainly in the range of acceptability. But the lack of flanges was delightful. No scraping noise as my cycling short lycra brushed the widening flanges on their trip toward the back of the saddle.
This causes me to think that perhaps a tri-specific version of this saddle design would yield a yet better result. Starting with the saddle's existing shell, a cushier nose -- much like Profile Design's TriStryke -- might vault this saddle toward the front of the pack for triathletes.
So I took the E3 FORM saddle off my tri bike and placed on my everyday road rider, for which it was of course designed. I liked it less so, as my perineum did come in contact with the saddle in a place I'd prefer it not. Also, for some reason I have yet to determine, I felt as if I was riding steeper by about 2cm. While I ride quite steep on my tri bike, that's not the case on my road bike, and only after pushing the saddle all the way back on the rails did I enjoy the same position as I do when riding a typical, oh, Selle Italia, in the rail's middle.
Bottom line, for me, this is a better tri saddle than a road saddle, and it has prognosis for even better utility should a tri specific version be considered. This saddle is not available in stores, as they say, at least not in your typical stores. It's exclusively sold through Performance Bicycle.
The ISM Adamo is one misunderstood saddle. When I first rode it, I had a hard time with it, because it was too wide. I couldn't easily get my legs around it. It turns out I was one of the misunderstanders. This saddle does not have twin noses. It has no nose. This saddle seeks to do the same thing that the E3 FORM saddle does, and that is to get rid of the pressure points that cut off blood flow and cause irritation. This saddle's designers posited that the thing to do is just get rid of the nose altogether.
But what the typical person does aboard this saddle is just sit further back, and treat the forward part of the saddle as the nose. For those who fall into this trap, the saddle is no fun to ride. But if you let your sit bones rest on this saddle's cloven midsection (remember, it has no front section) then your tender elements are untouched.
So that's how you ride the saddle. The question is, can you ride this way, and while doing so have your body weight supported? It depends on the rider. Those who ride with a very flat back, and rotated pelvis, may find that their sit bones don't have enough "grab" on the saddle's forward protrusions. But many have mastered this saddle, and would ride no other.
The one pictured above is the Adamo Road, which has a bit more padding than the racing saddle, and which triathletes may find more to their liking.
