Opinions please - saddle lifespan
 

I just had the saddle rails on a Koobi PRS saddle fail. The saddle is just
shy of 2 years old. Mileage is probably in the 8,000 range.

I divide my mileage between this bike and another I have. I've had various
saddles. Before the Koobi I used Selle Italia Flite saddles. I'd ride them
for 20,000 or more miles before I'd trade them out just 'cuz all the
covering on the nose would be gone.

I was unpleasantly surprised by the saddle rail failure on the Koobi. I
contacted the company by e-mail. They told me the lifespan of the saddle
was "roughly 400 hours." Were I to use one saddle on one bike, that would
be only about 7 months of riding for me. That seems ridiculous!

Sheldon ... Jobst ... anyone have any knowledge of saddle life expectancy
and whether or not this 400 hour thing is at all reasonable? I sure wasn't
aware of that life expectancy when I bought the thing. It's been the most
comfortable saddle I've ever owned, but dang ... I can't afford to change it
out every 400 hours (though they'll send out new saddle rails for $20)!

Thanks for any thoughts/feedback.
--
Bob C.

"Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding that it hurts."
T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia)

begin quoting psycholist :
Sheldon ... Jobst ... anyone have any knowledge of saddle life expectancy
and whether or not this 400 hour thing is at all reasonable?

Goodness me, no. I don't expect steel saddle rails to have a limited life
at all, and ones made of other material should still be good for years.
--
David Damerell Distortion Field!
Today is Second Mania, January.

psycholist wrote:
I just had the saddle rails on a Koobi PRS saddle fail. The saddle
is just
shy of 2 years old. Mileage is probably in the 8,000 range.
....anyone have any knowledge of saddle life expectancy
and whether or not this 400 hour thing is at all reasonable? ...

I have ridden my Brooks B17N saddle on average every other day since I
bought it new in 1979. Mileage on that saddle is conservatively 75,000
miles. I weigh 155 pounds. The rails are steel and the saddle is
relatively heavy, but I find it comfortable and durable.

With saddles, there's a trade off between weight and durability.
Bill Putnam

psycholist wrote:
I just had the saddle rails on a Koobi PRS saddle fail. The saddle
is just shy of 2 years old. Mileage is probably in the 8,000 range.

I divide my mileage between this bike and another I have. I've had
various saddles. Before the Koobi I used Selle Italia Flite saddles.
I'd ride them for 20,000 or more miles before I'd trade them out just
'cuz all the covering on the nose would be gone.

I was unpleasantly surprised by the saddle rail failure on the Koobi.
I contacted the company by e-mail. They told me the lifespan of the
saddle was "roughly 400 hours." Were I to use one saddle on one
bike, that would be only about 7 months of riding for me. That seems
ridiculous!

Sheldon ... Jobst ... anyone have any knowledge of saddle life
expectancy and whether or not this 400 hour thing is at all
reasonable? I sure wasn't aware of that life expectancy when I
bought the thing. It's been the most comfortable saddle I've ever
owned, but dang ... I can't afford to change it out every 400 hours
(though they'll send out new saddle rails for $20)!

Thanks for any thoughts/feedback.

My thought is you should give THEM some feedback! 400 hours is totally
absurd. Period.

I broke a rail on my Flite Genuine Gel saddle, but that was a) on a mountain
bike and b) possibly due to my having it set WAY back on the post. (I also
tend to over-tighten bolts as a matter of course.)

I think their "fix offer" was similar to yours $-wise (although I think it
included THEM replacing the rail), but I ended up giving the saddle to a
friend, who managed to wrestle another Flite rail in it. Creaks a bit, bit
otherwise works fine. (I used some weather-stripping glue around the loose
bit, so maybe the creak will be gone if I ever use the saddle again. It's
in the vast "seat pile" currently.)

My guess is it's an anomoly, and if you DO get a new rail for it it should
last indefinitely. (They're hard to install, though, without a bit of
slop?)

Shutting up now, Bill

On 13 Jan 2005 08:15:58 -0800, "dynohubbill"
wrote:

With saddles, there's a trade off between weight and durability.

Even so, I've gotten years of use out of Selle Italia Flites. Except
for my 1966 PX-10 (Brooks Pro) every one of my bikes has a Flite
installed. Because of the miles I ride I'm pretty sure at least one of
them has to have 40,000 to 50,000 miles on it.


jeverett3ATearthlinkDOTnet http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

psycholist wrote:

I just had the saddle rails on a Koobi PRS saddle fail. The saddle is
just
shy of 2 years old. Mileage is probably in the 8,000 range.

In 25+ years of riding, I've only had one saddle rail break. That was
on a Concor saddle with hollow magnesium alloy rails. And it happened
at almost exactly 8,000 miles.

Obviously, the material used and whether the rail is solid or hollow
will make a difference. Other factors would include rider weight,
length of the seat post clamp, and position of the rails in the post.

I'd rather take the weight penalty of a few grams for solid steel
rails, but many top end saddles don't give you an option.

Art Harris

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 10:35:48 -0500, "psycholist"
wrote:

I was unpleasantly surprised by the saddle rail failure on the Koobi. I
contacted the company by e-mail. They told me the lifespan of the saddle
was "roughly 400 hours."

That seems *awfully* short.

Were I to use one saddle on one bike, that would
be only about 7 months of riding for me. That seems ridiculous!

I agree.

Sheldon ... Jobst ... anyone have any knowledge of saddle life expectancy
and whether or not this 400 hour thing is at all reasonable? I sure wasn't
aware of that life expectancy when I bought the thing. It's been the most
comfortable saddle I've ever owned, but dang ... I can't afford to change it
out every 400 hours (though they'll send out new saddle rails for $20)!

I'd swap back to the brand that hasn't failed in the past. Frankly,
seat rails that can fail at 400 hours are just too fragile to use for
a daily rider, in my opinion.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

David Damerell writes:

begin quoting psycholist :
Sheldon ... Jobst ... anyone have any knowledge of saddle life expectancy
and whether or not this 400 hour thing is at all reasonable?

Goodness me, no. I don't expect steel saddle rails to have a limited life
at all, and ones made of other material should still be good for years.

I have a Lepper saddle on my Moulton (leather saddle, similar to a
Brooks). It uses hollow steel rails. The first model failed after a
couple of years, the failure was that the tubes had been partially
crushed by the seat clamp. This was due to a manufacture defect, I
had it replaced under warranty. The replacement, alas, also failed
after a few more years. This time the failure was a crack in both
tubes. The cracks were located in the middle of the rails, between
the two clamp locations. I only noticed it when I attempted to move
the bike by the saddle and felt it move up. I repaired this by
removing the saddle top and epoxying a steel rod that just fit the ID
of the rails into the hollow tubes. It has held up so far but I haven't
ridden a lot on it.

I've also broken the rails of Flite saddles with both steel and titanium
rails. The current Flite on my road bike has carbon fibre rails and
has held up for several years.

In case you're wondering, I don't weigh much (128 lbs).

Joe

I'm a big fan of Koobi saddles and am currently using a Silver on one
bike and an Au Chrono on the other. The 400 mile answer is rather
shocking and not what I would expect from Koobi. FWIW, their saddles
are supposed to be made by Selle Italia.


--
jmoryl

Imagine an after market where customers will pay extra money for a
product that uses less material and therefore has a shorter lifespan.
Moreover, in this market 90% of OEM products cause injury or pain to
the customer and require replacement. To top it off customers are
heavily swayed by marketing and gimmicks and demand "this year's fad."

Can there be any sweeter market in the universe than this one? Oh,
i'm talking about bicycle saddles (and many types of bicycle
componentry), of course ...

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA