Kontact Anatomical (update of old E3): Has anyone tried it?

[KathiCville]

Hi......I thought I'd check in with a brief review of the Kontact saddle, now that I've had it for a couple of weeks.

Thanks to Ma Nature, I haven't been able to log more than about 60 miles total on the new saddle, but that's been enough to give me at least a good feel (so to speak!) for its features.

First, FYI, this is the first new saddle I've bought since I got back into riding a few years ago. So my experience with saddles is very limited. Up till now I've had a nice-but-aging Terry Butterfly (Titanium) on my Fuji Silhouette. Swapping out the saddles was a great learning experience. A friend coached me via phone and text, but doing it myself gave me a much better appreciation of the "art" and "science" of positioning a saddle. Wow, aMAZing what a difference even a tiny shift in height, reach, nose angle makes! I "knew" that from reading loads of TE threads, but experiencing it first-hand while trying to get the saddle jus' right was a worthwhile education. :-)

The overall profile of the Kontact is T-shaped, narrower than the Butterfly, and has a lower profile when viewed from the side. In order to get it in the ballpark position-wise for my knees/pedal stroke, I had to raise my seat post a good 1/2"+ to make up for the lower profile. (But not so high that I'm rocking my hips.) The result surprised me! I now feel like I'm on a perch, rather than a seat. And that's a "good thing"! I didn't realize how much freedom a T-shape saddle would give my legs. On the Kontact, I feel like I'm getting a bit more out of my pedaling. (That could also mean that my seat post was a bit too low before?)

On the first "big" ride (about 20 miles), I felt like I was leaning too heavily on the handlebars so I stopped and tipped the nose up. Mistake! Ow! There's no cut-out on the Kontact and my lady bits were yelping for mercy by the time I reached the end. So I focused then on making small tweaks to other aspects of the set-up that would allow me to set the saddle at dead-level. The most important tweak (for me) was raising my handlebars by one thin spacer. I probably needed to do that anyway because I have rotator cuff issues that kick in big-time when I get tired during a ride and begin slouching. On the next ride (14 miles), I immediately felt MUCH better. In fact, at points in the ride I forgot about both the new saddle and my shoulder---a good sign!

In terms of comfort, I definitely feel my sit bones in a way that I haven't in ages. Not hurting, just aware of the contact points. I worried that the saddle surface might be too slim for my posterior (5'3", 115 pounds, pear-shaped) but the designer seems to be right on when he says that the flat surface of the Kontact is wide enough to accommodate many sit bones widths. (That being said, I confess I have no idea what my sit bones measurement is!) Because the saddle is still pretty new to the market, I hadn't been able to find any reviews by women--which was why I posted this in the first place on TE. It had me wondering if women didn't like it or simply hadn't tried it yet.

If Ma Nature lets up her campaign of cold, wet, windy weather on schedule, I'm planning to do a 30-mile ride tomorrow. If anything differs markedly from what I've written above, I'll check back in with an update. But overall, I'd say that if you're curious about the Kontact, it might be worth a whirl during the 30-day return period. YMMV from mine, of course, but so far, so good.