Road bike seat selection and opinion of WTB saddles.

[horsefarmer]

See a few of these WTB brand saddles on the EBAY, and wondering if any of these would work for me and my Schwinn Collegiate.

Read about method where I was to use tin foil to find the width of my "seat bones" but did not work for me.
I'm about 5'10'' and 36" waist 200+ lbs. Original seat is 7" wide, flat steel pan and gets uncomfortable after about 1/2 hr.
There are a few WTB seats that look promising...
RECREATIONAL SADDLES

WTB Comfort - The sporty, Comfort saddle suits recreational and leisure riders looking for a deeply cushioned saddle with broad sit bone support. This is the official saddle of the WTB employee grocery-getter cruiser fleet

WTB Speed - model utilizes our shock absorbing, dual compound Soft-Shell base to provide unparalleled comfort at an excellent value. Supportive padding and mid dimensions make for a near fool-proof popular favorite

MTB SADDLES

WTB Rocket 150mm - an incredibly versatile saddle. It's popular from road to mountain, gravity to long distance, as evidenced by it being the saddle of choice for Santa Cruz Syndicate downhill legend Steve Peat and distance champ Jay Petervary. From a two minute hair-raising downhill to a 2700 mile individual time trial

WTB Silverado - long, padded nose and gradual taper provide an excellent shelf for when the going gets steep while the broad lower wale of the outside shell creates a great shape for leaning into corners when the trail gets twisty. A slight rise and an optimized padding to weight ratio make the Silverado a hit across disciplines, including road.


Anyone have any experience with them or road bike seats in general you can share? I prob have to find inexpensive and good used seat to try out this kind of seat as my go to seat is a cruiser type like on my Schwinn Cruiser four.

Also do I have to buy a new seatpost for a road bike seat?

 

[Vipon]

I ride the Speed model above on my daily commuter, love it, I don't know how well it would do on a more up riding position.
My weight is distributed between my arms and butt, more up riding I would think would put a lot of pressure on a thinner saddle.

 

[horsefarmer]

Vipon,
You make a good point, I do like an upright seat so maybe i need a seat with more support. I know the felt cruiser seat works great for me.

 

[Pedal_junky]

See a few of these WTB brand saddles on the EBAY, and wondering if any of these would work for me and my Schwinn Collegiate.

Read about method where I was to use tin foil to find the width of my "seat bones" but did not work for me.
I'm about 5'10'' and 36" waist 200+ lbs. Original seat is 7" wide, flat steel pan and gets uncomfortable after about 1/2 hr.
There are a few WTB seats that look promising...
RECREATIONAL SADDLES

WTB Comfort - The sporty, Comfort saddle suits recreational and leisure riders looking for a deeply cushioned saddle with broad sit bone support. This is the official saddle of the WTB employee grocery-getter cruiser fleet

WTB Speed - model utilizes our shock absorbing, dual compound Soft-Shell base to provide unparalleled comfort at an excellent value. Supportive padding and mid dimensions make for a near fool-proof popular favorite

MTB SADDLES

WTB Rocket 150mm - an incredibly versatile saddle. It's popular from road to mountain, gravity to long distance, as evidenced by it being the saddle of choice for Santa Cruz Syndicate downhill legend Steve Peat and distance champ Jay Petervary. From a two minute hair-raising downhill to a 2700 mile individual time trial

WTB Silverado - long, padded nose and gradual taper provide an excellent shelf for when the going gets steep while the broad lower wale of the outside shell creates a great shape for leaning into corners when the trail gets twisty. A slight rise and an optimized padding to weight ratio make the Silverado a hit across disciplines, including road.


Anyone have any experience with them or road bike seats in general you can share? I prob have to find inexpensive and good used seat to try out this kind of seat as my go to seat is a cruiser type like on my Schwinn Cruiser four.

Also do I have to buy a new seatpost for a road bike seat?

Find a good local bike shop and ask about seat demos. I've walked out of the local Trek story with a hand full to use for a few days. WTB was my go to for mountain bike, Specialized (who also do different widths) on road.

 

[horsefarmer]

I realize I've got a couple of seats in my stash I can try that are not my usual cruiser type.

Both are from 1998 to 2000 vintage Schwinns and neither got ridden much by me before. When the weather warms up a little I will give 'em a try.

 

[mornview]

I cannot comment on the rest of their product line, but the WTB Devo is absolutely the most comfortable seat I have. It pains the aesthetic side of me, because I have gorgeous leather saddles that look so beautiful on my bikes ... but at the end of the day nothing touches the Devo for me. So I can at least vouch for WTB for quality products ... I have their grips on my bikes too and they are the only grips I'll use. Love 'em.

 

[Bicycle808]

I used to rock a lot of WTB saddles on mountain bikes, and i still have a few kickin' around. They make great saddles, in terms of quality. Comfort, however, seems to be subjective; one person's dream saddle may be another person's nightmare.

General rule: the higher your saddle is in relation to the bars, the narrower you'll want it to be. How narrow your "baseline" is will be variable from rider to rider, but if your bars are higher than the saddle, go wide. If they're lower, go skinny. If they're level with the saddle, go "medium."

As for the post, it all depends.... does your current saddle have round rails, or flat rails? If it takes round rails, you're good to go. If not, you'll need "guts" that will take round rails. If your post is the original Schwnn post, which is 13/16" with a 5/8" top, then you might consider getting a 13/16" with a 7/8" top, so virtually any round-rail guts will suit you nicely. Porkchop has some nice chromoly ones available....

 

[mornview]

I used to rock a lot of WTB saddles on mountain bikes, and i still have a few kickin' around. They make great saddles, in terms of quality. Comfort, however, seems to be subjective; one person's dream saddle may be another person's nightmare.

General rule: the higher your saddle is in relation to the bars, the narrower you'll want it to be. How narrow your "baseline" is will be variable from rider to rider, but if your bars are higher than the saddle, go wide. If they're lower, go skinny. If they're level with the saddle, go "medium."

As for the post, it all depends.... does your current saddle have round rails, or flat rails? If it takes round rails, you're good to go. If not, you'll need "guts" that will take round rails. If your post is the original Schwnn post, which is 13/16" with a 5/8" top, then you might consider getting a 13/16" with a 7/8" top, so virtually any round-rail guts will suit you nicely. Porkchop has some nice chromoly ones available....

I've never heard that rule of thumb before, but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing it !

Also thanks for sharing the info on the cro-mo seat tube. I'm running a Wald 13/16 to 7/8 seatpost on my wife's bike, and there honestly is no reason for me to upgrade the seatpost at this time, but I'm glad to know the option is out there .

 

[Bicycle808]

I gotta say, sketchy finish aside, I love the Wald seatposts... There are other Made-in-theUSA options on offer from Genuine Bicycle Products (RRB member @rev106 ), TickOne, and RRB's own @slowriderz , too... of course, they do cost more, but hottness is worth the extra coin, imo.