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TECH NEWS
SLR C59-top-new.jpgIs this the lightest saddle in the world? Selle Italia unveils 63g SRL C59 carbon saddle
Italian saddle specialist Selle Italia has sent us details of its new range for 2017, and jumping immediately out of the press release is the bold claim that its new SRL C59 is one of the lightest saddles in the world.
- Buyer's guide to cycling saddles + 11 of the best
The company tells us it weighs 63g. That’s light. Very light. To give some perspective, it’s about the same weight as a pocketful of pound coins (6.6 of them to be precise). But it costs a lot more than that. Quite a bit more in fact.
We do love a good claim here at road.cc and lightweight saddles seem to get the weight weenies a bit excited. Oddly, some cyclists will happily sacrifice seated comfort if it means they can save a morsel of weight. And 63g is impressively light - most reasonably lightweight racing saddles come in at about the 100g mark, such as the 96g Selle Italia SLR Tekno road.cc tested last year. The fancy Fabric ALM Ultimate? That’s 153g, positively obese compared to the SRL C59.
How does Selle Italia make it so light? It’s entirely made from carbon fibre, naturally, being handmade in Italy with a design and construction that has apparently been inspired by “hi-tech aeronautics”. The low weight is also helped by the massive hole cut out of the middle, which as well as reducing the weight will reduce pressure on your soft bits. And it has eschewed any padding, so you’d better hope the shape suits you.
But is it the lightest money can buy? We’ve racked our brains and spent a couple of minutes diligently searching Google, and it certainly appears to be up there with the lightest. One company well known for its penchant for minimal mass is AX-Lightness. It's Phoenix is a full carbon model, but at 65g it’s not even close.
So it looks like Selle Italia could be right in its bold claim that its new SRL C59 saddle is one of the lightest saddles in the world. Unless you know of a lighter saddle that we’ve missed? Do let us know in the comments section.
The new saddle is part of a collection that has been produced to celebrate the company’s 120th birthday. Selle Italia says that since the creation of its first saddle, it has advanced alongside the development of the bicycle and follows the needs of those who love to ride.
More info at https://www.selleitalia.com/en/saddles/slr-c59/
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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13 comments
If anyone wants to give this saddle a try without forking out the $$$ then aliexpress has countless very similar, and presumably very similarly made carbon saddles for under £20. If you have a moral objection to 'replicas' then they can be avoided as well.
The are various no name ~100g ebay carbon saddles that look like the Toupe or the Smp saddles which seem very good. I would try them first if wasn't that happy about how my Specialized Romin treats my family jewels.
That saddle reminds me of the scene in 'Casino Royale' where Bond is being tortured by Le Chiffre.
Been using a Flite XLR with the padding and cover removed for about 5 years now. Mega-comfy. Because this : there's padding in your shorts and even more padding in your rear
Most certainly this is not the lightest. Every weight weenie knows about the Becker Carbons... At least a few years back about the lightest seating combination you could buy was an AX-Lightness seatpost combined with a Becker saddle. If that was still too heavy, you could to go to your local carbon guru and get a custom handmade integrated seatpost-saddle combo (with no adjustments).
Unless you ride exclusively on the smoothest tarmac roads in the world, then I bet this thing cracks after a year of use.
Yes the Dash @56g
http://www.dashcycles.com/m-4
and Becker @ 47g
http://www.becker-carbon.net/en/bike-components.html
I can beat that - Introducing, The Emperor's New Saddle, literally weighs nothing. Clever technologies allow the hole in the middle to exdend right to the edge, and in place of rails, the stem uses jets of air to balance the saddle in place:
transparent.jpg
I'm laughing so hard that my sides hurt as much as my arse would if I sat on that.
£400 for the privilege too. Wow.
It looks more like my favorite saddle SLR SuperFlow... I want one!
-
absolutely. i've got a saddle with "135g" even printed on it. but it weighs 150g on my (calibrated) scales. that's fully 10%, or the equivalent of >1 stone/8kg for the average guy. more than a bit naughty i'd say.
incidentally i recently bought a 104g bare carbon saddle and rode 260km on it on sunday. it's no sofa, but nor is it uncomfortable. there's padding in your shorts and even more padding in your rear
65 g is pretty close to 63 g though.
The Dash M.4 saddle is 56 g.