The 3D saddle frontier is advancing rapidly and Selle Italia it couldn't have been any less. The Venetian company had just a few weeks ago at Eurobike showed off her jewels with 3D features, this time we go deeper and do it with Enrico Andreola, product manager of Selle Italia, and Valerio Conti, which have used this type of saddle.
3D Journey
Enrico, how is a Selle Italia 3D saddle created? What's the manufacturing process?
The part that takes the most time is creating the seat, namely the soft part, the padding. Production capacity is still low, we're talking about three fillings per hour. But the market is rewarding us, so we're implementing this production. Then there are other phases.
Which?
A sort of post-process of the padding follows which aims to eliminate excess resins. The next step is to bake the material in the oven to stabilize it. It is a particular cooking, with UV rays, which makes the padding become as we see it, Otherwise, it would remain "mushy." To give you an idea: if you touched it before cooking, you would leave fingerprints.
Then there is the assembly…
And here lies Selle Italia's extensive expertise, our true merit, what sets us apart from all other brands in 3D saddles. Making a 3D saddle can be very easy if it has a flat shell and flat padding, but in the case of the SLR, our flagship, there are several curves on the sides. Well, We also follow those with 3D padding. But we, and it was our dogma dictated by Selle Italia's racing DNA, wanted to reproduce the SLR: The ultimate racing saddle. Once this is done, the rest of the assembly of the frame and chassis is much more traditional, but still respects high production quality standards.
What do the pros ask of you? You support many teams...
A preliminary point is in order. We presented these saddles a year ago at Eurobike. A physiological pause followed before production began. In the meantime, some athletes tested them, especially at the training camps in Livigno. We delivered a few dozen saddles in December, during the retreats. But by then, many of the saddles had already been installed. In short, About two athletes per team had these 3D saddles. However, their feedback was immediately positive. We have very close relationships with Cofidis, Tudor, Alpecin, and even Corratec. Konyshev and Conti are using it now. For next year, however, we will be able to provide much larger supplies to all teams.
At the Tour, at Cofidis, they told us that this saddle is particularly popular with women: is that true?
It's true, and it's not something we did specifically for women, but that's how it is. The Cofidis women's group in particular works well, and we exchange valuable feedback with them. With both SLR and Novus, we've exceeded our expectations in solving typical saddle ailments, for both men and women.
What do athletes ask of you? Maybe lighter weight, stiffer toe box (or less)...
Their feedback is very important for tuning the firmness of the padding: soft-firm where needed, to be clear… They tend to want stiff saddles. Comfort is fine, but ultimately, given the watts they put out and the kilometers they ride, they want a saddle that's stable and racing-like. Just yesterday, a Tudor rider, who was already using a 3D saddle from another brand, told me, "Finally, a 3D saddle designed for racing." These saddles are often soft. But I'm going back to the point I made earlier, about replicating the SLR. It must be said, however, that the stiffness settings of the pros are a bit different from those on the market. The latter are a bit soft.
You're also launching the time trial saddle…
Yes, the Watt. We presented it at Eurobike. It will be delivered in October. To develop this saddle we relied heavily on the great triathlete Patrick Lange, but also on the guys at Corratec, especially since we took over as sponsors. It's a different saddle, much more worked and supported at the tip, given the large rotations of the pelvis that certain positions involve. With Novus we introduced a new padding grid, which I remind you we design in-house: this double soft-hard grid allows us to significantly differentiate the stiffness tuning in the various points of the saddle itself.
A word from the rider
And following Andreola's words, here are those of one of the riders that Andreola himself cited: Valerio Conti, in the team Corratec-Selle Italia, who didn't think twice about fitting it to his bike. They suggested these saddles to the Italian team, and after testing them, the Lazio native never took them off.
"I chose this saddle," Conti explains, "a little before my injury in May. To be honest, I haven't used it much in racing yet, because that's when you really put it through its paces, but the sensations were immediately optimal.
«I was coming from a classic Selle Italia SLR which, I must say, I was already happy with and the 3D one I'm using now has practically the same shape (reflecting what Andreola said, ed.). It is basically softer and fits perfectly to the sit bones. and this tends to spread the pressure better. There are no points where it presses harder."
More stable
Conti then insists a lot on an aspect that we did not expect, namely the antero-posterior movement.
«This superficial “fabric”, if we can call it that, makes you more stable on the saddle and slip less. There's more grip. You can push a little harder uphill, but especially on the flat, when you have to push hard, you don't end up going forward. and therefore a more stable structure is maintained."
Always regarding feedback, both men and women, praise the comfort and the fatigue-free nature of the saddle after so many hours, even in the extreme heat of recent days. This aspect also emerged at Selle Italia in the development of the Watt. While pros only spend the time of a race against the clock (excluding training), the situation is quite different for triathletes.
