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)

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

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

"John Everett" wrote in message
...
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

I'll add my voice to the Selle Italia Flite chorus, I split most of my miles
between a Flite and a Novus and they both have a minimum of 20,000 miles.
The cover is worn through in several places on the Novus but it still rides
great.
Bill Brannon

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.

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

jmoryl writes:

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.

400 hours, IIRC, not 400 miles. Depending on the rider, 400 hours
could be 4000 to 9000 miles (6400 to 14400 km).

Tim McNamara Wrote:
jmoryl writes:

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.

400 hours, IIRC, not 400 miles. Depending on the rider, 400 hours
could be 4000 to 9000 miles (6400 to 14400 km).

Sorry, I meant to type hours, not miles. Still, 400 hours is nothing,
as many have rightly noted. I'm sure I have well over 400 hrs. on my
Koobi Silver and it almost looks like new. Maybe we can convice Koobi
to put this statement on their website so potential purchasers will be
informed.


--
jmoryl

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