Selle SMP Strike TRK Lady Saddle

[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]

Well, I went into one of the LBSs yesterday who said there was no way they could get the Selle’s in through their importer and suggested I buy over the net. I’ll go into a couple more of the local LBSs first though, and see what they say. I would much sooner “try before I buy”.

Koala, your comments confirm this for me. Thank you for such a detailed review… I am more encouraged than not by your posting as you have gone into very useful detail.

It certatinly gives me more insight when I go to chat with LBSs about what I want – not just from the saddle, but from the shop themselves…
Thank you

[crazycanuck]

Hey RoadRaven,

There's a Selle saddle for sale on the Tri WA site. No idea if you'd save yourself $$$ though?

www.triwa.org.au

c

[RoadRaven]

Thanks CC
Saw your post just after you posted it, but this is the first time I have logged in and am able to reply...
Where on that site do i look
I went to it, but there doesn't seem to be a "for sale" tab... and I didn't have time to look about when I was there, and today, from home, the page will not load

[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 :-)

[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.

[cycotourer]

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.

PLease let us know how you go with the Selle SMP saddle. My husband and I both trialled a couple of SMP saddles that we got on approval from the Australian distributor .... if we didn't like them we could send them back. My husband kept the Strike Plus and we returned the Glider. They were both too narrow for me (wide sit bones), but the cut-out and Concord nose were outstanding, its like there was no saddle there at all.

I was disappointed that the lady's TRK was not leather like all the men's models.

As I require the saddle for touring I am going to try the Selle SMP Martin Touring Saddle, but from the images on the US distibutor's web site it looks much wider in the nose than the other models (due to extra padding) and this may be a concern.

BTW so many people think it looks goofy, but i think the SMP Strike saddles look racy, and it rides "fast".

[RoadRaven]

ok...
A dream to ride on. The nose looks really wide, and at first glance I thought too wide... but my tape measure tells me its not, and so does my fanny

The TT went well as far as soft tissue comfort went. I didn't move for 37 minutes, no standing, no 'scooching' - nothing... and I was not at all numb in my soft tissue, no pain or discomfort at all.

Unfortunately, the horizontal/directional angle was STILL a bit wrong, and for the entire 37 minutes the right side of the nose pressed into my right inner thigh which meant my leg was in extreme pain (but being the stubborn person I am I didn't stop race mode). You can read about this aspect of the seat in the racing forum - ECNI Champs 2008.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=23375

But I am going to persevere as there was no bruising or swelling like I would normally have after the all-out effort I try to apply in an ITT.

I'll update again when I have had a chance to ride again on it... maybe this coming Sunday.

Like you, cyco, I like the concord racey look of the seat. Thanks for your reviews too.

[kadoozie]

Hey guys, any updates on the results of the Allay women's seat? Has anyone tried both the Selle SMP TRK ladies and the Allay?

[Thorn]

I have ridden them both. The SMP Lady Strike and the Allay Sport 175mm. I tossed the Allay in the trash. That is after drooling over the Allay website for months before it was in production and nagging my LBS for 2 months to order it. I really thought the Allay was going to be the answer to saddle needs. Nope.

First, I like the SMP concept. It is a very friendly saddle with respect to the girlie bits. It is very comfortable when riding in the drops with that nose for support. My issue is that the Lady Strike is just a teensy bit too narrow and/or too cushy for me at the sit bones when I'm riding comfy (e.g., hands on the hoods). As such, I get numbness in the left hip. So, my goal was to find a saddle that is a little wider, a little less cushy and still kept the naughty bits happy.

Enter the Allay. It looked right. Everything about it should have been right. But what I found was that the rear was so soft that I couldn't sit on the saddle. The foam would compress and I kept rolling off the rear platform and into the sling. If I put the air support pillow back in, then it wasn't comfortable since now I rolled forward onto the harder pillow I tried nosing it up and down, but to no avail.

For me, the Allay just didn't work. I was disappointed and surprised. Everything I read on the Allay site seemed to indicate that they really understood saddles (because, of course, they agreed with my anecdotal research ), but Allay over stuffed the wider saddle. I'd love to hear someone else's opinion on one of the other versions.

[kadoozie]

thanks Thorn, I actually just read a post you'd made in another thread which has kept me from leaning towards it (I think Ive been researching saddles for a solid week now :S)

Ive only actually started riding regularly, I have wide sitbones (half-assed self measurement of 160cm, Im not a slight girl) and I know I definitely need the cut-out! (found out the hard way on a borrowed mens seat for two hours ...eeeeee)

So my first seat purchase two days ago was a Selle Italia Lady Gel Flow. It was awesome for about the first half-hour (hadnt ridden for 48 hours prior), then I had to do a little adjustment. Seemed better yet! Things were going really really well! For another 45 minutes, but by the time the two-hour mark hit I was whining, and still had another hour to go...

Now I want to put my MTN bike saddle back on.

My problem, after success with cutouts, is that I know I can handle sitbone soreness after a long ride, but I cannot handle bruising and extreme tenderness in the pubic bone region, where the bones and tendons connect your legs and groin.

Problem is in the middle, not the front or rear.

I know it's a long-winded post, but if anyone has found a similar problem, please help

Like I say, I've done alot of research, the majority on this forum, you guys have been helpful so far!

ps Thorn: which Allay model did you try?

[Thorn]

The Allay model was the Sport--the "highest end" model that came in a 175mm width.

There was a thread on saddles for wide sitbones (search "sitbone" not "sit bone" if you haven't seen it). One of the things AlpineRabbit asked me was the longest ride I've done on the SMP. It made me think--I have done 3 imperial centuries on that saddle, so the saddle isn't *that* uncomfortable. Also, in that thread someone pointed out one of the Specialized that comes in a 175mm width. I haven't tried that one....I have such a fear that it will be too plush (DH has a recreational Specialized and [shudder]it is too soft for me [shudder]. I'm still waiting on my Terry Rosie.

My mutilated Brooks (B68 with a Selle Anatomica cutout) just doesn't have the soft tissue relief of the SMP. I'm afraid the SMP is the standard I hold all cutout saddles to. Also, because of the width of the B68, I'm constantly tightening up the laces I installed to keep the slot from folding inward when I ride. It isn't bad, but, like the SMP, just not perfect.

I know, I know...picky, picky, picky, but when I ride I want the only body parts to be taking punishment to be my legs, my heart and my lungs; the rest are just along for the ride.

[Andrea]

My problem, after success with cutouts, is that I know I can handle sitbone soreness after a long ride, but I cannot handle bruising and extreme tenderness in the pubic bone region, where the bones and tendons connect your legs and groin.

Problem is in the middle, not the front or rear.

I know it's a long-winded post, but if anyone has found a similar problem, please help

Any bone soreness will eventually lessen- I found this out when I tried the SMP Glider. The curved shape of the saddle follows the curve of your pelvis- the result is that there's pressure/soreness on bones that aren't accustomed to it. I was worried at first, but then I realized that it's a lot like the sitbone pain I felt when I first started riding. It's not nearly as bad now, but I'm still getting some chafing (which is a whole 'nother issue )

[kadoozie]

thanks you guys!

[teawoman]

Another vote for this saddle. I just finished a century on it, and it did not aggravate the saddle sores I had from trying other saddles , nor did it create any new problems. For me, it has a lot of comfortable positions to shift around to. I have the men's version. SO GLAD to have found it!