New road saddles from Ergon
The SR saddle series is available in men's and women's specific fits.
The latest road saddle range focuses on providing rider relief from pressure discomfort via relief inlays and channels as well as a ramped rear to help evenly distribute weight.
>>>Seven best bike saddles 2018: a buyer's guide
Ergon says its SR saddles have specific male and female designs to ensure that pelvic differences are accounted for and supported in the right way, but both are constructed with the professional peloton in mind.
SR Pro Women's Carbon
With the SR Gel Women and SR Pro Women saddles already on the market, it was able time for Ergon to release its top end carbon version.
Designed in partnership with the Canyon//SRAM Racing team, the Ergon SR Pro Women's Carbon saddle has, until now, been ridden exclusively by the professionals.
Ergon believes the shape and relief of the SR Pro Women's Carbon saddle exactly fits the female anatomy in the typical racing related sitting position. Using Ergon's own OrthoCell ® branded relief inlays in the genital and sitting area, it's claimed to provide riders with optimum pressure distribution while ensuring maximum reset force, in other words preventing saddle distortion under load after a long period of time, as well as being more durable and lighter than gel. The side flanks are also designed to help reduce friction when pedaling.
Available in two sizes, sit bone widths of 9-12cm for a small/medium, and a 12-16cm for a medium/large.
The lightweight SR Pro Women's Carbon has carbon rails and uses a carbon composite saddle shell and claims to weigh an impressively light 170g for a size small/medium.
UK RRP's for all the saddles are are yet to be released, but the SR Pro Women's Carbon is currently priced at 189,95 euros.
SR Men's series
The men's Ergon SR range is increased to a range of three saddles, all of which carry the same features, and the same two saddle sizes, but use different construction materials. Still keeping the same OrthoCell relief inlays and other key SR saddle features as the women's, the men's saddle uses a 'falling relief channel' with cut-out, which Ergon says results in pressure being evenly distributed onto the bone structures (sit bone and parts of the pubic blades).
At the top of the line-up sits the Ergon SR Pro Carbon Men saddle, which keeps the same construction as the SR Pro Women's Carbon saddle, also claiming a very lightweight 195g for a small/medium size and is priced the same as the women's version.
Below this sits the Ergon SR Pro Men. It keeps the carbon saddle shell, but the carbon rails are swapped out for TiNox, a stainless steel alloy with a small amount of Titanium. It creeps up the claimed weight to 235g for a small/medium saddle, although it is cheaper at 129,95 euros.
Finally the Ergon SR Comp Men. It keeps many of the same features as the rest of the SR range, but doesn't gain the benefit of the friction reducing side flanks and also has some foam padding as well as the lighter weight OrthoCell ® . With a TiNox saddle shell and rails, the SR Comp claimed weight goes up to 270g, but the cost comes down by almost 100 euros to 99.95 euros.
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Hannah is Cycling Weekly’s longest-serving tech writer, having started with the magazine back in 2011. She has covered all things technical for both print and digital over multiple seasons representing CW at spring Classics, and Grand Tours and all races in between.
Hannah was a successful road and track racer herself, competing in UCI races all over Europe as well as in China, Pakistan and New Zealand.
For fun, she's ridden LEJOG unaided, a lap of Majorca in a day, won a 24-hour mountain bike race and tackled famous mountain passes in the French Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites and Himalayas.
She lives just outside the Peak District National Park near Manchester UK with her partner, daughter and a small but beautifully formed bike collection.
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