Best Road Bike Saddles

Three main considerations come into play when selecting a road bike saddle: comfort, performance, and looks. On a ride, especially a long one, you want a comfortable saddle, no doubt. At the same time, you do not want to sacrifice performance for comfort. And let's face it, just like carbon valve caps or a sleek water bottle cage, many roadies want something that looks good.

The road bike saddles in this hub vary in style and utility, but there should be one that meets to the specifications of most cyclists. Often, though, picking a saddle is little more than trial and error. Like taste for food, the "taste" for a saddle is incredibly subjective. People come into the bike shop I work at every day looking for a "more comfortable" saddle. I have to put my opinions on the back burner when this happens. Comfort does not necessarily mean soft or gel or big and cushy. Most people, even some semi-serious roadies, won't hear it any other way though. They trust their intuition. Often a bad choice. I prefer the minimalist approach to the saddle. If you want "comfort," take off the Levi's and buy the proper shorts or pants for riding!

Surely this is one of the more annoying aspects of working in a bike shop.  Alongside this is the concern so many people - even the most casual cyclist - has with weight.  And I am not referring to where the concern out to lie - their own personal body weight.  Everybody wants to know how much a bike weighs.  And worse yet, people want to know how much individual parts weigh.  This is especially laughable when it comes to saddles.  Here's a blindfold, put it on... I doubt you can tell the different between the bike marked 19 pounds and the one marked 18 pounds.  And there is no doubt in my mind that you will not be able to tell the difference between the 185 gram saddle and the 210 gram saddle. 

Saddle weights will not be discussed in this hub!

I just started riding the Specialized Toupe.  I knew immediately that it would be my favorite.  Rumor has it this is what Fabian Cancellara rides, but I have not been able to confirm.  I would not be surprised, though, as it is a top notch saddle. 

This saddle is incredibly light and wafer thin.  It has a cut out as to not put pressure on the perineum.  And at $149.99 retail price this is a sweet deal, relatively speaking.  I have gone out on epic rides with this saddle and felt no pain during or after the ride.  I raced a couple of crits with it - no problems.  I have even gone so far as to put it on my commuter bike - a 2010 Giant Rapid 3.  It is comfortable enough to be an everyday saddle, but high performance enough to go on a racing machine.

Prior to the Toupe, I rode the Selle Italia SLR Gel Flow saddle on my fixed gear for almost five years.  The Gel Flow comes in a variety of colors if that is a concern, but more importantly it is comfortable and can take a beating.  After five years, it was work around the edges and where my butt cheeks most often settled, but it held together perfectly and can be best described as broken in.  I should have taken it off of my bike when I sold it.  Bad oversight.

I have toyed with the idea of riding a Brooks Saddle. I have never ridden one before, but have always been intrigued. I prefer minimalist to cushy and old school to needlessly innovative. Much of the lingo tossed around in the bicycle industry, especially when referring to saddles, amounts to little more than empty marketing gimmicks. People want to hear that a saddle is comfortable. People equate gel and softness with comfort so the bicycle companies put out a product with advertising copy to satisfy those preconceptions, no matter how off-base they might be. I think Specialized's Body Geometry line is an exception, as evidenced by my love of the Toupe saddle.

Sheldon Brown (RIP) on saddles

Want to demo a fancy road bike saddle?!