Selle SMP Strike TRK Lady Saddle

[RoadRaven]

Thats great, Koala
Thanks for the details

The cutouts certainly look excellent which is primarily why I am interested in this type of design

(My partner just asked "how can something that isn't there look excellent?" )

Am looking forward to your next instalment and hoping you and your husband's buts aren't getting too uncomfortable in the "testing" process

[Thorn]

This weekend I found two sellers of SMP that run demo programs. Granted, neither will do you much good, Raven, as they are both based central-US, but perhaps it might be worth contacting Selle SMP and asking if there is someone on your side of the world that does the same thing. I wonder if this is a new marketing strategy for them?

One place is a bike shop out of Chicago (cbike.com). For $20 they will let you test ride the saddle for a week. The other is a tour operator that runs high-end tours in Italy (cycleitalia.com). Their overall price for the saddle is higher, but they'll let you test ride for a longer period.

Just a thought.

[RoadRaven]

Thanks Thorn.
I am doing some measurements as I find them of the various Selle models (5 of this style) and other similar seats with such cut-outs. Then I'm going to go and talk to a couple of the LBSs and see what they can do for me.

You know, I hadn't even thought of contacting Selle themselves - rather obvious but it hadn't occurred to me. Thanks for that prompt, Thorn. I'll do that too.

I really need to do something. I have been puzzling about why this is suddenly an issue as my current saddle (same on both my bikes) has been comfortable til now , and my only conclusion is that along with a slight increase in time in the saddle, I must also be out-putting more power in my specific training and am def outputting more power in my racing. More power must equal more pressure on parts of my body including how I sit on the saddle...

[koala]

It's been a week, and I'm still testing this one. The verdict is: promising, but undecided. I have been stuck indoors riding the trainer in the basement, and so far have had a couple of really good rides, a couple of okay rides, and one really bad ride. The bad ride I cross off to an inadequate chamois for a saddle this firm. You definitely need good padding to ride this saddle. You also need to experiment some with tilt. I've done flat, some nose up, a little less nose up, & a little down. Flat & down are out, just a little nose up seems to be the most comfortable. You need to play with it until you get this cradling feeling. It's hard to explain more precisely, but when you get it right, you will know it.

I need to get outdoors & try it. I'm hoping to get out this weekend for maybe a 40-mile hill ride, which will tell me a lot. I have a couple of concerns. One is that the tapering in towards the nose is a little wide, even on the skinny Stratos model, so I'm concerned about getting rubbed. Second, the rails around the cutout are quite firm. They don't hurt, which is why tilt is so important to get right, but I am always aware of them. This might go away if I'm riding outside & busy thinking about other things. Don't know just yet, will write more when I have more to report. So we'll see....

[Andrea]

Keep us updated! I am still on the fence about buying one

[postiechic]

I wouldn't be surprised if there are a few of us watching this thread with interest. I'm a member of the " quest for a comfy saddle club", as many of you are. I'm very tempted to by a selle smp of some sort but reluctant to shell out big bucks for something that may have a negative result. Again, like many of you I'm slowly building up a collection of unwanted saddles. The last one being a jet 143. I so had hopes for the jett being the right one. wrong!
So, I'll keep reading, watching, researching and thinking. In the meantime I get totally envious/jealous of those who hop on a new roadbike and "love it to bits" from the very first ride. Sigh

[koala]

Decision made -- the Stratos saddle is a keeper! I decided today after my 2nd ride outdoors. Yesterday was only 20 miles, but in a 20 mph wind it was long enough. I don't shift around much in wind, I tend to ride hunkered down & normally come back rubbed & irritated up front -- no rubbing yesterday. Today was a 40-mile ride in hills. I'm pretty active on the seat on a hill ride, I move forwards & back, bend forward & shift around. I had a chance to go through all of that today, and again did not get rubbed up front. Despite the fact that there seems to be a cradle area that supports the sit-bones & the glutes, it still has enough of a platform that I can slide around fore & aft to relieve sitting in one spot. I was worried about a saddle that had only one "sweet spot", but this one has some room to roam around. I had to play with positioning a little again, because the bike on the trainer is not the bike I ride outdoors. And I might still tweak it some more, but overall I think it's good & will continue to work with it.

Before anyone rushes out to order one, a couple of caveats:

1) This sucker is firm! If you ride a seat with a lot of cush, you will either need shorts with a lot of cush in the padding, or you just might not be able to deal with it. I am used to a firm perch as I've been riding a carbon fiber shell for a couple of years, but it might not be tolerable for some others.

2) Finding the right seating position is finicky & has tremendous impact on comfort. I would not give up right away based on first impressions, make some adjustments & give it a chance.

3) I would not order a single saddle from the SMP line unless I had a 100% certainty of ability to return. I see some vendors, particularly the on-line shops, have a policy of you buy it, you own it. The saddle is too pricey & too finicky to gamble on.

4) If you have an opportunity to try one from someone who has agreed to take it back if it doesn't work, order the skinniest one that will still support your sit-bones properly. The wider ones are not only wider in the back, but wider in the taper towards the nose, which might cause rubbing.

[RoadRaven]

OK... I did it...

I bought the STRIKE and I have my own little concord mounted on my TT bike...

I have ridden it a few times this week, just in short half-hour rides, as I have the East Coast Champs this weekend - a crit on Saturday (my first crit ever) and the 25km time trial on Sunday. (The other two races are in Gisborne in two weeks).

So I get to try it full-on and hard-out on Sunday.

My first impressions are that it is very comfortable.

I was worried after i had read someone (here? or somewhere else?) saying that the cut-out was so wide it felt (after some time) that it was like sitting on two hard ridges.
But I have no sense of this after the short rides. Nothing feels squished or bruised.

On my first ride, after adjusting for height and nose angle and feeling it was ok, I set out to do reps on false flats. After about fifteen minutes my right leg began aching... it took me a further ten minutes of messing about, pedaling with my knees in/out, pedaling fast and slow, before I realised that the seat was pessing into my thigh. So whipped out the allen keys and adjusted the seat 3-4mm to the left and it was fine. No leg discomfort - I guess the slightly wider nose made a tad of difference and showed up my uneven hips, or perhaps a leg longer than the other...

I have had to put tape on one side of the nose as the place where the seat material is welded together is "sharp" - however, this will smooth down with wear...

Anyways, I will check back in after Sunday. I should have ridden 10-20kms in a warm-up and cool-down, as well as the 25km ITT.

[alpinerabbit]

It's been a week, and I'm still testing this one. The verdict is: promising, but undecided. I have been stuck indoors riding the trainer in the basement, and so far have had a couple of really good rides, a couple of okay rides, and one really bad ride. The bad ride I cross off to an inadequate chamois for a saddle this firm. You definitely need good padding to ride this saddle. You also need to experiment some with tilt. I've done flat, some nose up, a little less nose up, & a little down. Flat & down are out, just a little nose up seems to be the most comfortable. You need to play with it until you get this cradling feeling. It's hard to explain more precisely, but when you get it right, you will know it.

I rode the evolution model yesterday for 55k. BTW this was from IXS, who obviously licensed the patent off SMP. Same make, except no stitching on the leather.

my girly bits were very happy - either top bar position or drops. The sit bones hurt, but not bad, they could get used to it.

What worried me a bit was a feeling of numbness around the sitbones and most importantly, could it be too narrow for me - I felt that if I did not ride rather to the back of the saddle I had pressure on the "inside" of my sitbones if you know what I mean. I do hope this does not mean it is "wedging my pelvis apart".

For some reason the composite felt better; although it has exactly the same shell construction. Now the wider models have more padding and I don't think that's the way I want to go. I can test as many as I want four weeks at a time :-)