San Marco's new addition to their women's saddle family is the Aspide Glamour, a really lightweight and performance oriented perch designed for racers.
At first, and indeed 2nd and 3rd, glance the Aspide Glamour looks nothing like a women specific saddle, it's racey styling and subtle graphics give away none of the female attributes. The light weight is a new benchmark for women's saddle too, meaning that racers don't have to sacrifice weight for comfort. At only 194g, the Aspide Glamour is one of the lightest women's saddles around, it has titanium rails and a carbon fiber reinforced shell and costs only £49.99.
The base is 150mm wide and has CFRP carbon reinforcement with a split at the rear, the Core Zone runs the length of the saddle and forms a shallow channel on the top. This all sounds great on paper but is it actually comfortable for a female bottom?
Our first test ride (on the road) proved interesting, for 20 miles I was supremely pleased with my new perch and enjoyed it's slim and sporty shaping, however the next 20 miles took a bit of persevering. The next day I tried again, after an hour I found my sit bones became uncomfortable and were wishing for a bit more padding. I swapped my usual shorts with minimal padding to a better padded Sugoi short, a top end lycra short with varying density padding and headed off once more. This time I my sit bones were fine and I found I could relax on the saddle finding that the cut-away channel offered good relief from pressure on soft tissue areas.
Obviously trying a new saddle takes some time to get used to and break in, it requires some fiddling to get the height and fore-aft position correct but just as importantly it's the fine tuning that can make all the difference. By tilting the nose slightly and putting more weight on the sit bones a saddle can go from being a right pain in the butt to a comfortable seat for years to come. Sometimes it's the shorts or padding that just doesn't work with a saddle. Some saddles have more padding so a thinner chamois may suffice but in this case until my sit bones and bum got used to the sporty shape of the saddle I needed a touch more comfort in the padding area. By persevering for a few rides the saddle gradually moulds to your shape and your muscles become accustomed to the new saddle too.
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The true test of the saddle came on a recent road riding trip to the Alps, hours in the saddle up gruelling climbs like Col d'Izoard and Alp D'Huez really did test the limits of the Aspide Glamour in terms of comfort and performance. There's enough padding to prevent numbness and discomfort and the shape of the saddle profile works well for narrow to medium spaced sit bones. The firm padding allows a direct feeling with the bike, it feels like all leg effort and power goes straight to the pedals and you can really push against the saddle for big efforts pedalling. Experienced riders and racers should try this saddle, it allows amazing freedom for pedalling and it's light weight nature and shock absorbing titanium rails work well on a lightweight race bike.
Let's be clear on the Aspide Glamour saddle though, a novice rider or a bottom unused to 100's of miles in the saddle is not going to like this performance seat. A racer focussed on performance and weight may well adore the Aspide Galmour and it's high end aspirations. However as with all saddles it's a very personal choice as to whether a saddle is comfortable or not, all we can say is that we've grown to like the Aspide Glamour and it'll be hard to switch it for another.
- Price: £49.99
- Colours: black
- Performance: 9
- Value: 8
- A race saddle worthy of being in the peleton
- Contact: www.sellesanmarco.com
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