ISM Remains Preferred Saddle Choice in Kona
Overwhelmingly, men qualifying for the IRONMAN World Championships choose ISM saddles to ride, with the brand ridden by nearly a third of the field. Even when you combine the totals of second and third place Selle Italia and Fizik, it’s still 91 saddles short of the count that ISM puts up.
Saddle choice, as we know, is a critical component of bike fit. And ISM has led the way in split-nose saddles for decades now. They continue to tinker, having multiple lengths, widths, and padding options. It also helps that multiple third-party companies make accessories dedicated to their saddle designs (e.g., XLAB’s hydration systems). And ISM has also become a common stock offering on bikes, including Quintana Roo.
Selle Italia, meanwhile, enjoys part of its growth from a similar OEM arrangement, except you can find some of their saddles on new Canyon bicycles. But the Watt Superflow offers a split-nose design that riders frequently prefer as they move more forward in their respective positioning. It’s also the preferred saddle range of IRONMAN World Champion Patrick Lange.
Fizik in third may not seem like much, but it’s a sizable fall from their second-place finish in the count the last time men raced in Kona. Fizik tends toward slightly more traditional shaping out of their saddles; I, for one, love them as a road saddle but is not my preference for triathlon. Still, there’s also some creative innovations, like their Adaptive 3D printed padding in the Transiro Aeris Long Distance line.
Other interesting factoids: Prologo edged Specialized for fifth place by a single saddle. Smaller saddle companies continue to make in-roads to the counts, as Gebiomized, Cobb / JCOB, and Dash all had somewhat strong showings. And I’m still somewhat shocked that Shimano doesn’t make better in-roads, as their three triathlon-specific saddles (as well as the Stealth road saddle) are all quite comfortable options. I think as Eric has alluded to in some of the other count articles, Shimano seems to be struggling with the market more in the multisport space, which is hurting them despite having solid options available to riders.
The total counts we have are below. As a reminder, professionals are excluded from results, which is why you don’t see a brand like Wove included in these totals. Also some saddles are just missed so the totals may be off a little as well.
| Brand | Count |
|---|---|
| ISM | 633 |
| Selle Italia | 278 |
| Fizik | 264 |
| Bontrager | 175 |
| Prologo | 156 |
| Specialized | 155 |
| Gebiomized | 86 |
| Cobb / JCOB | 81 |
| Dash | 62 |
| Shimano / PRO | 35 |
| SMP | 21 |
| Terry | 1 |
| Totals | 1947 |
Tags:
2024 IMWCBike CountIRONMAN World ChampionshipKonaNotable Replies
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Will never switch from my ISM PS saddle as long as they continue making it. Probably a lot of triathletes feel similarly about their saddle. If it works, don’t bother experimenting with another saddle. It’s just too risky.
Seems hard to believe Wove isn’t on the list.
Yeah, I’m excited to try one over the winter. Have to imagine there was at least one AG’er with that saddle in Kona considering how many pro’s ride it now.
I followed you on the gebio so I tried it and I liked it but tried the V8. I like it but still think I need to tweak it more.
As a side note, I raced IMLP on it and I think my piss discolored the cover. I rinsed it off but I need to attempt to wash it and see if it comes back to black.
I’d recommmend trying.
We are talking AGE Group athletes not Pro’s… So really it’s not that hard. WOVE is my personal favorite saddle… But they have ZERO OEM, Still pretty new and are the most expensive saddle on the market ( Generally speaking) so when you think about it that way… It actually makes sense.
Doesn’t make sense to me.
Terry has 1. Next one has 21. Find hard to believe there wasn’t 1 AG there with a V8.
Just saw this thread. I know we had about a dozen amateurs or more on our saddles, including Kaiden Lieto, Sam Askey, Gavin Ketola, but we did not anticipate being counted this year, so zero qualms with the count. The question is less why we weren’t counted and more so why 1 Terry was counted - I thought it was in good humor, personally.
Have had OEM interest from two bike manufacturers, and we’ll have a lower cost version in 2025 that has the same identical shape and foam and cover material, so that a rider can do a blind test and not be able to tell the difference between the two. The difference will be weight. One step at a time. working really hard.
General reminder that the counts are what the team can recognize in the few seconds they have for spotting. Rough math suggests we either didn’t recognize, or straight missed, about 175 age group bikes.
The Terry saddle isn’t a troll; it’s a brand traditionally included in the counts, so it was a readily accessible choice, and someone was riding one that the team spotted.
Nick, can you give us an idea when the new version may come out? I’m in the market for a new saddle this off-season to replace my ISM PR 2.0. Thanks.
New version of our current V8 comes out this December.
The lower priced version by April 2025, is the goal.
Is there a place to buy it in Europe, as the customs duty are a killer!
We do have EU shops and are will continue to expand to have more. DM me your location so we can see if there are any in your area.
Not a single BiSaddle?
Interestingly, in 2022, Gebiomized was the top saddle among the pros, as far as I recall.
In 2024, no one among the top 10 (I don’t have the info on the whole pro stats) had it — only one Syncros Belcarra that might be considered a stepbrother to Gebiomized.