smashndash

Elvo

WTB Horizon, tubeless, and/or suspension seatpost

79pmooney

I ride steel railed Specialized seats on a couple of bikes. They are quite firm. I'd expect most Selle Italias to be more forgiving, this seat quite a bit more. (I've ridden Selle Italias since the dark ages, both under their name and under other brand names.) If you go with the titanium railed version that would be yet another step more forgiving. I ride ti railed seats on most of my bikes for the comfort. (The carbon railed version might be also. No experience there.)

Ben

redlude97

fabric scoop or brooks cambium saddles is where I'd start. Rails make very little difference in comfort IME

smashndash

smashndash

Dean V

Any normal sort of saddle is not going to make a significant difference in compliance.
I also have an Allez Sprint but I have no issues with the comfort/compliance (25mm tyres).
Maybe you just need to get used to it.

smashndash

seypat

You could try a Selle Turbo. People have been riding that design for many years.

TimothyH

+1

The flexible base on some of the Fabric saddles really smoothes out rough surfaces. I use it for gravel.

The "Line" model has a cutout. I'm not sure if it has a flexible base.


-Tim-

redlude97

I have a normal and line saddle, the line saddles aren't quite as flexible

TiHabanero

I run the Turbo saddle on my daily riders, and they are not soft by any stretch. They fit my sit bones perfectly so I use them. A bike with 30mm tires inflated to 65psi should be fairly soft in rear. A suspension post may help, but is the problem on the sit bones or in the back?

Dean V

Get a Madone!

smashndash

JohnJ80

You might want to take another look at your tire inflation. The numbers you list are what works well for me on the same size tire and I'm considerably heavier than you. Have you tried 5 psi less than what you have there?

J.

jch3n

You could try going tubeless and running even lower pressure....though 50-65 PSI in a 28mm tire seems pretty low already.

smashndash

I have gone as low as 45psi in technical, wet races. By that point, however, hard accelerations start feeling quite draggy despite using P Zero tires (which are very supple). I plan to go tubeless with vittoria corsas next, which should allow me to run that kind of pressure in less demanding circumstances, but if I can have comfort without sacrificing as much RR or responsiveness, I'd like to do that.

I was hoping someone would point to something like an elastomer saddle mount that connects to the seat post, and then has the saddle attached above it. Basically ghetto isospeed. I guess if it hasn't popped up by now I'll have to resort to trying out other saddles (my butt and wallet get nervous around the concept of random trial) or possibly jerry-rigging my own one day...

JohnJ80

Ah, I feel your pain (figuratively, not literally). I went through the same thing with a cross frame I have. I changed the fork out, seat post, seat, handlebars. All of them made small improvements. Then, we decided to do some high speed touring and light gravel riding so I started messing with the tires and wanted something a bit wider.

When I went to 30c tires from 25c that made a big difference - giant in comparison to each of the changes I had made before. When I went from tubes to tubeless that made another big difference (together with lower tire inflation) and my average speed on that bike was the same with the larger tires and plush ride as with the 25c tires and harsh ride. I was able to take my 30c tires down to around 55psi and I weight just over 200. That's why I thought that you could take yours down a bit more given you weigh less and you're tires are coming out around 30c.

In some of the reading I've done on this topic, it seems that the tires are about 10X the effect of the other things you can do to increase compliance. My experience supports that pretty closely, I think. Biggest impact on vertical compliance is tires and inflation. Only caveat to that would be this presumes you have a saddle you like and can do long miles in. Otherwise, an ass hatchet saddle is going to be a problem no matter what.

So, if it were me, I'd go tubeless and try that out. Presuming your rims are tubeless ready (maybe not a good assumption), that is the easiest and cheapest fix. Then ride a loop taking the tire pressure down 5psi at a time and seeing what happens. One source suggested that you keep doing this until you lose the high frequency road "feel" and feels smooth instead. When you do that, you've apparently optimized inflation. I'll try that as soon as the snow melts here (another 2' to go).

FWIW, the tires I used for tubeless rode like truck tires with tubes in them and were night and day different when I mounted them tubeless. Those were the Schwalbe G-1 speeds in 30c. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my average speed was the same, I was riding heavier tires and the ride was plush. Palm hits forehead moment.

J.

63rickert

Tires are 90% of what is being called compliance. Or comfort. Unless you are truly a featherweight 50psi in a 30mm tire should take care of it. If it doesn't, you have a lot more analysis to do.

Most mass market products are made to survive Clydes. They have to be made stout or they get absolutely trashed in fora like this one. And then there is the fear of litigation.

If the problem is the frame then replace the frame. You could try twenty saddles and ten springy seatposts and not get there. Sounds to me like what you want is not a mass market frame and not a niche frame. You want a custom. That or explore antique frames from when racers did weigh 120 and 140 pounds.

fietsbob

Yea, I'd go for a suspension seat post ... Cane Creek eeSilk is their new light ,gravel market, seatpost ..

Ti frame with an elastomer Monostay insert ... ?






....

fietsbob

Reshuffle the anagram ...
Domane.. for the decoupler elastomer, at the seat tube/ toptube junction ...

smashndash

WhyFi

There's no elastomer, it's a pivot point. The new Madone, as recommended by Dean V, also has rear IsoSpeed.

It looks like a nice saddle and it looks like it might do something along the lines of adding compliance. Do you have any dealers nearby that could get one in and be willing to take it back if it doesn't work out? Or find one online? I see that a couple sellers on Amazon offer them.

63rickert

Your current saddle is apparently working 90% of the time. That's pretty good. Saddles are intensely personal. No one else's experience or recommendation means much. It is the case that most who ride much have a collection of saddles going. Some would rather not admit it, they have the saddles. Borrow someone else's and try before you buy.

Here's why tires matter so much and why frame is second. Tires contact the road first. They are furthest away from your body. They have leverage. The distance from contact patch of tire to your butt is the length of the leverage. Next is the frame. Many parts to a frame and the length of lever is variable. Still, the difference in leverage between a frame and a saddle is substantial. Most current frames are just rocks, no compliance worth mentioning. But there are some with substantial compliance. Titanium moves just as much as steel if designed properly and then throw in something like a MootsYBB rear end. Of course there are gizmos like Spec Diverge and Trek Domane. Most of these are love it or hate it. All work to some extent. Try them. You do not know what you are talking about if you don't try.

The other part of leverage. Your 30mm tires have a safe 20mm of suspension travel and a possible 29-1/2mm. Spec Diverge moves 20mm. An old school steel fork built from Reynolds Super Resilient forkblades has 20mm travel. How much does a saddle move? How much could it move? If it were moving how long would it last? My ancient Selle Italia Tubomatics with elastomers between shell and rails might have had 2mm of travel and I loved them. Lasted a couple thousand and done. Still a good saddle but no more travel. More movement than that and the leverage you, the rider, create to control the bike is getting lost.

There are not easy answers. Experiment. Try to think through the problem. Don't buy product at random. The more different stuff you experience the more you know. Doing it at random takes a lifetime and then some.

smashndash