Andy_K 

The butt wants what the butt wants. I use modern saddles on almost all my vintage bikes.

madpogue 

Installing a period-inappropriate saddle will get you reported to the Association for Right Saddles Everywhere......

randyjawa 

I understand that but the issue to consider is how do they look, not how comfortable are they. I buy into the comfort thing, when saddle choice is the issue, but I did not even put my butt onto this newish Surfas...


Rather, I grabbed a saddle from my limited vintage supply and tried it out. Not bad for comfort and it does look OKish on the bicycle...


So, I went full out and installed a very nice old Brooks Professional on the bike. The comfort factor sucks but, once broken in, that will change dramatically. And, the saddle looks appropriate for the bike, in my opinion...


I also have a NOS black Brooks B5N which just came my way. I am thinking of installing it on One Eye...




All that said, I have my eye open for a black titanium Flyte, the same one I had on my other Cyclops...

RockiesDad

Exactly.

The hunt is on for a setback seat post. Also, I'll just ignore the modern vs vintage look thing I was worried about.

BTW the frame fits is perfect. I'm just trying to dial in my fit...

Salamandrine 

I'm confused by modern saddles. In ye olde days we just put on a Turbo or maybe an Avocet and were done with it. Or one of those 'new' Rolls's if you didn't mind looking disco. Now there's a gazillion choices. Why does every company need to make 50 different models? I looked at the Fizik website and they want me to decide if I'm a bull, a bullfrog, a snake, or a chameleon. WTH? I can't make heads or tails of that. All I've figured out is that "Bull" (I suspect) is a polite euphemism for too fat to bend over. (while I'm not as svelte as I was when young, I can still bend my back flat to the wind if i so choose)

Anyhow, I've tried one modern saddle and it didn't work for me, but I'm still hoping to find one I like. Anyone have suggestions that don't look too ridiculous WRT logos etc? I was looking at Fabric saddles the other day, and they seemed pretty decent. Fizik arione flex wing looks pretty good too, but I don't know what animal I am, and am hesitant to find out that I'm the wrong one.

randyjawa 

I have one and the diameter is 25.8mm and the set back ranges from 10mm to 60mm. I would never use such a post because it will put tremendous strain on the seat tube lug and the seat tube itself. None the less, if wanted, let me know and I will post it in the For Sale forum for twenty bucks plus shipping.

Andy_K 

I don't know about Fizik's naming system, but I think modern saddle fit isn't really a function of how fat you are so much as how wide your sit bones are and, yes, how much you like to bend over while riding. When I was looking for a modern saddle I went to a Specialized dealer and sat on their Ass-O-Meter, and told the guy in the shop how I ride, and he looked at a chart and told me which size I needed. That has worked so well for me that I've got Specialized saddles on almost every bike, modern or vintage. Specialized gives you a number (130, 143, or 155) that is supposed to have some correspondence to the width of the saddle. Fizik doesn't seem to think width matters for some reason. I think their saddles are so ugly and expensive that they are irrelevant to me.

What it really comes down to, IMO, is that you just keep trying different saddles until you find one that's comfortable and then you stop trying different saddles. If an old Turbo works for you, you're done. I like the Specialized Phenom and Toupé (although I can't for the life of me figure out why someone would name a product Toupé for a market dominated by middle-aged men).

fleslider 

I say go for it, when i picked up my 87 Ironman Master it had a white Prologo saddle on and i was considering changing it to something era correct, after a few rides, i decided to keep it and wait til the bar tape wears out and then retape with white to keep it matching

Giacomo 1 

There are vintage saddles that are comfortable and will look more period correct. And being that we are vintage riders and period correct is normally important to us and our bikes, why go all period correct throughout your bike and then spoil the look with a modern saddle?

And I agree with the poster that mentioned back in the day, there were only a few saddles available and you picked one and rode. No big choice and your butt just dealt with it.

I ride a Cinelli Unicanitor on my Colnago and it looks perfect and is seriously comfortable for me.

All IMHO of course!☺

JohnDThompson 

Use the saddle that works for you. Nobody can see it when you're riding.

RiddleOfSteel

To answer the OP's question: I don't think modern saddles look weird on a vintage bike.......provided it is thematically in line with the intent of the frame, the color scheme, and the components on the bike. I like race bikes, and I hot rod vintage examples. So they get modern saddles. Newer Prologo Scratch Pro's are a favorite (looks and comfort), IIRC a bit of an evolved Turbo in shape, just much better.

CliffordK

I consider seats as consumables like tires and chains. I've worn out a couple of seats on my old bike, and I'd rather just get a comfortable seat than try to recreate some historical icon.

branko_76 

It's kind of awkward to comment on someone else's seat. It reminds me of the Larry Sanders Show, whenever he was feeling insecure, he would ask whoever was in earshot "does my ass look fat?"

Road Fan

I'm coming to believe that a too-steep seat tube is an aspect of a frame that doesn't fit. If two frames for me have the same stack and reach, but one has a different seat tube angle, I will get the saddle located in the same place on both frames, because I know that total saddle setback is affected by seat tube angle, saddle rail length and location, and seatpost setback. So with equal stack and reach and by using all three parameters, I will have the same butt to pedal and butt to handlebar relationship on both frames. But on the one with shallower seat tube angle (numerically lower), the frame provides more of the total setback I need, and I wouldn't have to have marginal saddle-rail attachments (as shown on your first picture and flagged in Randy Jawa's first post). Even steel-rail saddle manufacturers (Selle Anatomica and Rivet, at least) have cautions about installing with the clamp edge right at the saddle rail bend. I've been lucky.

For me a frame that fits enables me to achieve my contact point locations without marginal installations or extreme components (the 60 mm setback seatpost Randy said he has). I actually have very few frames that fit me.

verktyg 

In the early 70's I tried just about every kind of saddle that was commonly available until I got a well worn Brooks Pro with about 20k miles on it.

From 1975 until 2010 I rode Brooks Pros on almost all of my road bikes. Then I started having old man problems (BPH) any time I rode more that 25-30 miles. I'd have to see my urologist and bingo, another UTI. My U-guy said stop riding... You don't want to know what I told him!

During the next year or so between 2010-2011, I spent ~$675 on saddles to try to fix the problem. I was able to exchange some of them so it wasn't a total loss.

Out of DESPERATION! On my first and only ride around the block, I couldn't keep from sliding off!



On a whim, I tried a WTB Silverado test saddle. It looked like it could be a killer but turned out to be the answer for me. The thin padding in the sits area across the flat rear gave me the support of a Brooks Pro plus the shallow "love channel" provided adequate clearance in the center pressure zone.




I've been changing all of my bikes over to these WTB Silverado saddles. They come in a variety of models from a stupid crazy priced carbon rail versions and an equally overpriced titanium railed one plus some with chrome moly steel rails. They also have some cheap ones listed on eBay out of China that I avoid.

The last 2 bikes that I've put together or upgraded: 1971 Motobecane Grand Record and a 1971 Raleigh Competition. These saddles are so small that they don't distract.




Some later bikes: 1985 Raleigh 753 Team Pro in 1992 Raleigh USA Team kit, 1981 Bianchi Campione Del Mondo.




I'm not suggesting that this is the saddle for everybody. Everyone's anatomy is different!

One thing that doesn't get mentioned enough in discussions of saddles is positioning and adjustment. Seat height, front to rear position and nose angle are easy to do adjustments. A minor adjustment can frequently mean the difference between comfort and pain!

Back in the bike boom era the mythology was: "just ride the bike, you'll adjust to it"! That fallacy probably discouraged untold numbers of would be cyclists. Poorly fitted and adjusted bikes along with frequent flats with sewups is one reason there are still lots of classic bikes popping out of the woodwork that have spent their entire lives hanging in a garage or basements!


verktyg

cycleheimer

I intalled Brooks Professionals and B17s on most of my road bikes. On my DX5000 I used an Ergon, which works great for me.



The saddle bag takes up tbe empty "air space". I prefer a forward tilt with my saddles. A backward tilt is what seems strange to me, but "different strokes for different folks".

Road Fan

BTW, it's "stress," not "strain."

Internal stress is the result inside a bike or other part that is the result of external loading, such as having a 200# rider perched at the long end of a 6 cm beam. Strain is the change in shape or worse (i.e. fracture) of the 6 cm aluminum beam. External stress would be the 200# rider (i.e. me). Large external stress usually causes large internal stress, but it is relative.

Generally if the part (i.e. saddle rail) didn't change shape permanently there was not significant strain. Whether or not the stress should be called "large" is relative to the strength (i.e. design) of the part.

SJX426 

The Brooks Swallow has been around since 1937 and the Swift more than 100 years. Both are not that far afield of modern saddles. So I really don't think it matters much when you look at the shape of them. Colors are a different matter.

Lemonbike