26092012051(1) by cycleofaddiction 1, on Flickr
I would just like some opinions on what people think is fair wear & tear as the wear shown above on a flyte xc saddle is only after 6 months of use and not every day either.
As the saddle is still within the warranty period I think that for a saddle that retails for £100 it isn’t fair wear & tear and possibly there’s an argument that the saddle is faulty as the wear started along the stitched seam. The saddle was purchased from on one who say that due to the length of time its fair wear& tear. I returned there email arguing the points above but they can’t be bothered to reply and this is to a customer who’s last two bike’s I have built have been on one’s so I’m not too pleased with their response and would like to hear what other people think ! Thanks

only after 6 months of use and not every day either.

This implies it’s almost every day. I used to kill SLRs in a winter of occasional riding. Considering you no doubt got it massively discounted I’d say it’s fair game. It is only some minor cosmetic damage after all!

2-3 times a week and some weeks not at all. Yes it was discounted but I still think the warranty applies discounted or not. I know its cosmetic but is a top line saddle meant to wear at that rate . I’ve never had a saddle start falling apart in 6 months before but i’m sure there’s plenty that have . I know this might be nitpicking to some but I’m sure selle italia don’t expect there saddles to start peeling in 6 months of moderate use

impossible one to decide on really.

Against you:
It’s not broken in that it won’t function as a saddle. It could be argued that the damage is cosmetic.
Many external variables – maybe your shorts have a seam that rubs, maybe you sit weird, maybe you rode it when wet….

For you:
It’s a saddle so it should be designed for rubbing and a £100 one should be made of hard wearing materials.
Silly place to put a seam – unfit for purpose?

What does the warranty actually say?

Did you buy on credit card? You could always try that route.

tbh I would just stick my arse on it and go ride and vote with my wallet by not buying that make/model again. Maybe complain directly to the manufacturer/importer. I have often been pleasantly surprised by manufacturers/importers acting above and beyond and meaning I buy from them again.

After the summer we have had the saddle has been wet nearly every ride. I bought the saddle for the Lorica cover because I thought it would stay looking clean and fresh for as long as possible. Some you win some you lose I suppose

Only call after that is the importer.

Duration is not a good measure one man’s 6 months is another’s 3 year’s.

If it’s cosmetic suck it up it’s a contact area of a bike not an arm chair

Just because its expensive doesn’t mean it’s made of harder wearing materials, particularly something like a saddle, resources will be put into exotic materials for base and rails, not the cover. Did you pay extra with the intention you’re getting a harder wearing finish?

The peeling is in a high wear area. What do you expect? Plus it’s only the vinyl finish, the fabric is still good.

It’s a bike, they get used, they pick up marks/wear/scratches, that’s just what bikes do. Get some falls on it, it’ll soon look far worse.

If i was on-one, i wouldn’t have bothered getting back to you.

I’ve had plenty of saddles that have been scratched/damaged due to falls but I’ve never had a £100 saddle have the cover start peeling with only a few hundred mile on it ande if it was normal then surely the peeling would be uniform and in other area’s on the saddle

TBH it could be where you catch it when you get on/off stand up/sit down do a repeated thing doing it. It might be a small nick in it that has lead to it. I have had cheap saddles that last and expensive ones that don’t.

If OnOne don’t agree your only other route is to the distributor/manufacturer.

Despite being pretty disappointing, I wouldn’t have said that falls under warranty. It’s a contact point of a bike which does receive a lot of friction, and there are too many factors to simply say “yes, the saddle failed”

How often do you ride? What kind of conditions do you ride in? What kind of shorts do you wear? etc…

Best thing to do, in my advice, would be to wait til you’ve cooled off about it. Approach the place you bought it from and calmly explain that you’re a bit disappointed with its lifespan. They may be willing to do you a reduced price replacement.
Going in all guns blazing will get you nowhere.

Importer would be On one as they are (probably) grey.
I wouldn’t be happy with that, but its On one, you are getting cheap not paying for customer service, which is a good job.

Doesn’t look great but I wouldn’t be trying to warranty that if it were mine.

The 2010 SDG Bell air had a seam that ran to the front similar to that. The seam stitching failed on mine in a very similar place. I found this saddle to be very comfortable so I replaced it with the 2011 version. They had changed the position of the seam so it didn’t run all the way to the front. It hasn’t failed yet. Based on this I would suggest that it’s a flawed design (why they changed it), having said that I didn’t warranty mine (even though it was still in the warranty period) as I felt I had ridden it quite a lot.

Take from this what you will. 😐

Wore all the way through the leather on the front of my Gobi in 6 months of not too much riding, shame it was quite comfy unlike the Gobi XM i put on for all of 2 rides.

Thanks for your answers guys, I can see that it’s a difficult one to call as the response seems to be 50/50 but I still think that it’s not meant to wear like that in a few months, there’s a few comments about conditions and type of shorts but it being labelled an XC saddle it’s surly designed to be ridden in all types of conditions. It’s a trivial matter but still p*^%es me off !

If you had bought it from Superstar and not On One then the advice would have been considerably more supportive.

Looks like a badly designed saddle with that seam IMO. Probably not a lot that can be done though, except not buy that type again. I’ve done over 5k miles since getting back into biking last year, spread over 3 different saddles (2x Fizik Gobi and a Brooks). They all basically still look like new except the writing has rubbed off the Gobis and the Brooks has a bit of discolouration.

as a lightweight xc saddle in order to keep the weight down they would have made it from lighter and thinner materials hence the premature wear tip of the saddle…probably not as robust as cheaper models made of thicker and heavier stuff.
you seem to be quite fixated on the price that you paid for them…i once paid £130 for a pair of Nike Shox running shoes only to have them completely fall apart after about 4 months (a really poor design for a running shoe) only to be told by Nike that it was more likely down to wear and tear!!
sometimes you have to put it down to experience and not buy that type or brand of saddle. i’d recommend either Fizik or SDG saddles as they seem to be pretty hard wearing.

I’ve asked the question to see if anybody would agree with me that i don’t think that this is down to wear and is a warranty issue as the lorica cover has peeled from the stitching and not just worn away due to use and thus is a fault with the saddle but it seems that maybe this is a mute point. I might email selle italia and see what they think.

If it’s down to “wear and tear”, that doesn’t mean it should wear out in 6 months of use.

If its a crap design or inadequate materials, then that is a case for warranty.

If it’s down to “wear and tear”, that doesn’t mean it should wear out in 6 months of use.

I’d say wear and tear can be any time period, most parts look used after just one or two rides. I’d say it’s not a warrenty claim unless the damage affects the items use. Would you make a warrenty claim on a frame if some heel rub took the paint of the chainstay?

On the other hand I was pissed off with debernhams when a suit lost it’s shape in one patch of the chest due to the lining going slightly funny during dry-cleaning(as in the structural bit, bit the poncey brightly coloured bit). The cleaners said it was the suits fault as they’d all do that eventualy, but not usualy for 5-1 years, debernhams refused to look at it as it was wear and tear on a suit 6 months old! Worst bit is I now have 2x £70 trousers as I usualy wear the trousers out 2x quicker than the suit and meant I could get away with a monthly “3 items for £10” clean!

this is a mute point

I do wish people wouldn’t keep typing that, when they mean a “moot point”, unless by it you meant that are now going to shut up about it, which, as it happens, would be my advice.

And your problem is? You’ve used your saddle buy riding. MTFU

In 30 odd years I can’t remember ever buying a saddle that looks new after 6 months use.

out of interest you don’t turn the bike upside down and rest it on the saddle do you?

Depends if it was used off road also, the abrasive mixture of mud plus baggy shorts can be pretty destructive on saddle finishes.

Fat/Buff thighs may accelerate wear further.

FWIW I think its fair wear and tear, had a road saddle that did that in a short time despite being ‘dear’.

Oh please bring a not fit for purpose legal action against on-one and selle italia, it would amuse me greatly.

Looks like fair wear & tear to me.

Looks crap to me for six months old.I have saddles 5 years old that look way better than that and have been in plenty of crap weather.
I would try and get something back for that.

Does sir dress to the right?
Perhaps your, um, anatomy is outside their normal design parameters?
🙂

I think you’ll be hard pushed to get a saddle replaced under warranty thats worn. I had some Ritchey WCS stream ones on my cross bikes once, first time out the leather lost all of it’s finish and went patchy, by 3 months old the leather had worn completely through to the padding. not a warranty issue I was told as I’d used them too much!

£100 for a saddle!!!!!!
😯

Maybe just buy 4 saddles for £25 next time? You can keep one for ‘good’, one for wet and muddy, one in reserve and one in some sort of shrine.

As with almost evrything cycling, the more you pay the less it wears well.

And since so many folk seem prepared to accept shoddy workmanship why should it ever change?

To be fair, unless you’ve caned it that is a bit poor for 6 months wear. But if you’ve caned it or had an off then you do incur some degree of scuffage

The Specialized saddle that came on my Stumpy years ago had cloth sections on the rear that just disintegrated after about ten short dry rides. It looked awful. Took it back to Evans to complain but they weren’t interested. To be fair, the saddle’s still in daily use on my station bike nearly 8 years later 😀

Double post