carbon bike saddle

Today I rode my first ever carbon bike!
It was/is the Merckx emx-1 with Ultegra
components, rim brakes, and 23-622 tires.

Yes, as expected quite a difference compared to
my steel 80s racer!

But one thing wasn't better, actually it was
terrible, and that is the saddle which is
an "FSR Selle Italia SRA 20mm setback".
The issue with it is that it isn't put flat, it
tilts to the back so you get the front part of
the saddle straight into your carillon!

Is this a defect part or do people actually
want it that way? Surely, "20mm setback" don't
refer to this but to the possibility of moving
the saddle back and forth horizontally?

PS. Anyone knows what FSR and SRA stand
for? DS.

TIA

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

On Tue, 02 Oct 2018 22:44:51 +0200, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

Today I rode my first ever carbon bike!
It was/is the Merckx emx-1 with Ultegra
components, rim brakes, and 23-622 tires.

Yes, as expected quite a difference compared to
my steel 80s racer!

But one thing wasn't better, actually it was
terrible, and that is the saddle which is
an "FSR Selle Italia SRA 20mm setback".
The issue with it is that it isn't put flat, it
tilts to the back so you get the front part of
the saddle straight into your carillon!

Is this a defect part or do people actually
want it that way? Surely, "20mm setback" don't
refer to this but to the possibility of moving
the saddle back and forth horizontally?

PS. Anyone knows what FSR and SRA stand
for? DS.


See https://www.selleitalia.com/en/saddles/
for a list of Selle Italia saddles.

The seat post should be adjustable to allow the saddle to be set in a
comfortable position.
--

Cheers,

John B.

On Tuesday, October 2, 2018 at 1:44:54 PM UTC-7, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Today I rode my first ever carbon bike!
It was/is the Merckx emx-1 with Ultegra
components, rim brakes, and 23-622 tires.

Yes, as expected quite a difference compared to
my steel 80s racer!

But one thing wasn't better, actually it was
terrible, and that is the saddle which is
an "FSR Selle Italia SRA 20mm setback".
The issue with it is that it isn't put flat, it
tilts to the back so you get the front part of
the saddle straight into your carillon!

Is this a defect part or do people actually
want it that way? Surely, "20mm setback" don't
refer to this but to the possibility of moving
the saddle back and forth horizontally?

PS. Anyone knows what FSR and SRA stand
for? DS.

No. It's not in their line-up. https://www.selleitalia.com/en/saddles/ Set back is usually a characteristic of the seat post and not the saddle, AFAIK. With the saddle, you get variations in rail length, width and diameter/shape (with CF rails).

Here is an explanation of the "waviness" of a saddle. https://bike.bikegremlin.com/2017/10...-seat-shape/#1 This is different from "tilt," which is just about saddle/seat post adjustment.

I have acclimated to most, but not all, of my OE saddles -- flat, wavy or otherwise, although I'm not a big fan of giant cut-outs. If I can't get a saddle to work for me, I go back to my 1975-6 Cinelli Unicanitor.

You certainly don't pick a bike based on the saddle, but it is absolutely amazing how a saddle can affect the ride feel. Some plastic shell, cut-out saddles can be like suspension, and not necessarily in a good way.

Before I test ride a bike (or when I rent a bike), I level the saddle and start there. The problem these days is that a lot of the proprietary posts don't use a two-bolt system, and its easy to lose your last adjustment while trying to make your next adjustment. It makes for a long slow test ride.

-- Jay Beattie.

John B. Slocomb wrote:

The seat post should be adjustable to allow
the saddle to be set in a comfortable
position.

Yes, I found it.

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

On Wednesday, October 3, 2018 at 1:30:25 AM UTC-7, Emanuel Berg wrote:
John B. Slocomb wrote:

The seat post should be adjustable to allow
the saddle to be set in a comfortable
position.

Yes, I found it.

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

Carbon fiber saddles without any padding on them are becoming popular among the ultra-light weight crowd. I cannot even sit on them and they do break about once a year.

My favorite is the Prologo Scratch Pro. This doesn't give me blisters anywhere on long rides.

Despite putting the saddle straight and pulling
the screws with everyday force, the saddle
reverted to the same position in a couple of
rides! Maybe I'll just do it again and pull
harder...

But what I wanted to tell you was another
thing, namely, despite this bike having only
two chainrings, it seems to have THREE
positions for the front derailleur!

I suppose this is

position 1 - biggest 5 sprockets
position 2 - smallest 5 (or 4) sprockets
position 3 - the big chainring; all ten (or 9) sprockets

to keep the chain a straight as possible for
the small chainring, right?

But how do you keep track of this when riding?
Except for practice, I mean

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

On Fri, 05 Oct 2018 21:00:09 +0200, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

Despite putting the saddle straight and pulling
the screws with everyday force, the saddle
reverted to the same position in a couple of
rides! Maybe I'll just do it again and pull
harder...

But what I wanted to tell you was another
thing, namely, despite this bike having only
two chainrings, it seems to have THREE
positions for the front derailleur!

I suppose this is

position 1 - biggest 5 sprockets
position 2 - smallest 5 (or 4) sprockets
position 3 - the big chainring; all ten (or 9) sprockets

to keep the chain a straight as possible for
the small chainring, right?

But how do you keep track of this when riding?
Except for practice, I mean

You need to use the Internet more diligently :-)
See https://bit.ly/2BWPSTc for a discussion of the "trim" positions on
the front deraileur.


--

Cheers,

John B.

Despite putting the saddle straight and pulling
the screws with everyday force, the saddle
reverted to the same position in a couple of
rides! Maybe I'll just do it again and pull
harder...

I didn't see it at first, but now I do: there
is a small specification below the saddle,
right next to the bolts - 8.8Nm.

So I put my torque wrench to work. The torque
wrench shaft is 22.5cm.

While this didn't involve any heavy pulling, it
ws still a couple of ratcheting back and for
before I got to 8.8. So how you guys do, not
8.8 but 40! - with but a small allen/hex wrench
is beyond me.

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573

On 10/6/2018 9:10 AM, Emanuel Berg wrote:
Despite putting the saddle straight and pulling
the screws with everyday force, the saddle
reverted to the same position in a couple of
rides! Maybe I'll just do it again and pull
harder...

I didn't see it at first, but now I do: there
is a small specification below the saddle,
right next to the bolts - 8.8Nm.

So I put my torque wrench to work. The torque
wrench shaft is 22.5cm.

While this didn't involve any heavy pulling, it
ws still a couple of ratcheting back and for
before I got to 8.8. So how you guys do, not
8.8 but 40! - with but a small allen/hex wrench
is beyond me.


I don't know but a DIN Grade 8.8 bolt is not necessarily
torqued to 8.8nm:
http://cdn.engelbert-strauss.de/asse...4044811994.jpg

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

AMuzi wrote:

On 10/6/2018 9:10 AM, Emanuel Berg wrote:

Despite putting the saddle straight and
pulling the screws with everyday force, the
saddle reverted to the same position in
a couple of rides! Maybe I'll just do it
again and pull harder...
I didn't see it at first, but now I do: there
is a small specification below the saddle,
right next to the bolts - 8.8Nm.
So I put my torque wrench to work. The torque
wrench shaft is 22.5cm.
While this didn't involve any heavy pulling,
it ws still a couple of ratcheting back and
for before I got to 8.8. So how you guys do,
not 8.8 but 40! - with but a small allen/hex
wrench is beyond me.


I don't know but a DIN Grade 8.8 bolt is not
necessarily torqued to 8.8nm:
http://cdn.engelbert-strauss.de/asse...4044811994.jpg

True, but it says literally 8.8Nm! Just as it
says 6Nm at the two seat clamp bolts. Also it
says 12-14Nm at the left side of the crank. (I
put it to 13Nm.)

Besides, it makes sense, as th saddle got loose
when I just pulled with an allen/hex wrench.
This, 8.8Nm, was more than that, so I estimate
what I achieved was about 5~6Nm. And my
allen/hex wrenches are actually quite long! It
is not those tiny you get from IKEA when one
(not me) buys furniture...

So 40Nm, one, I'd like to see that; and two,
I'd like to be that strong myself...

--
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573