I’m very interested in upgrading my saddle on both my mtb and road bike. I want to make sure I’m on the best saddle for my lower nether’s health.

What does this community know about ISM saddles?

I want to make sure I’m on the best saddle for my lower nether’s health.

If it doesn’t fit your arse it’s a waste of cash. Simple rule with all saddles.

I had similar concerns about 18 months ago (beginnings of numbness) and bought an ISM Adamo peak MTB saddle. I now own 4. Needless to say symptoms disappeared (after a week or two) and I’d never now use anything else.

You do have to stick with em for about half a dozen rides as you will find them uncomfortable at first because all of you weight is on your sit bones,where it should be, not your entertainment supply lines.

All of my bikes are MTBs

I have ISM saddles on all 5 bikes, 2 MTBs with the Peak version, adventure and track bikes with Prologue and good road bike with a Breakaway.

I was heading for Prostate surgery (see news piece on front page) and saw an article in Cycling Weekly about a guy who had switched to ISM to get back riding after surgery down there. I contacted him and got a demo one.

They need to be setup as per the instructions- there is a good guide that comes with them and vids on their website.

I swopped from regular saddles to ISM about 2 months before surgery to get used to them. It takes a few hrs, as you sit on sitbones rather than soft tissue, but after a few rides I was amazed at how comfy they were. When I got back on 2 months post surgery saddle pain was zero.

Great saddles IMO

I’ve recently tried the Alamo peak but I cant get on with it. I kept tweeking but it never felt perfect. It will be for sale when I can get round to advertising it!! 😉

teamslug – i might take that – pics and price ?

Got Adamo Breakaway saddles on both MTB and commuter. About to buy another for a CX project. If you have a reason to need one (down there) then they definitely work (much better than surgery).

Not cheap, but you can offset the risk by hiring demo saddles from Pedal Pedal.

Takes a few rides to get used to the “wide” feeling in new places but don’t notice it at all now.

Never going back to regular saddles.

Feel either like I have to perch on the front for mine or else it feels too wide and I have to pedal knees out. I have only done one ride though.

I’ve got mine further back than a normal saddle as the instructions suggest but feels like I’m slipping off the front continually.

Any thoughts?

mtbtomo – have you had a look at the vids on the ISM website ? I found them a good starting point. I have the nose around 5cm back from where nose of traditional saddle would have been, and overall height from pedal to top of saddle, up seat tube line, about 1cm lower than traditional saddle. Tilt wise, the rails should be horizontal, or at most a couple of degrees up at front, this will have the top of the saddle sloping down at front, which it’s meant to as you sit on it a totally different way.

I have been using the ISM PM saddle for a few months now and quite like it. Initially it felt awful but I spent some time tweaking it and finally got it to where I think is comfortable.

I’d certainly recommend trying one to see what you think of it and use the instructions for set up. It does feel wrong setting it so far back but you need to remember how much shorter the nose is than a traditional saddle.

they do look a little weird 🙂

Got them on all my bikes, wouldn’t go back to a conventional saddle now!

Iainc have emailed you.

cheers, mailed you back, thanks

Thank you for all the replies. I really appreciate the info sharing.

I contacted ISM and have been emailing back and forth with their Operations Commander, David Bunce. He asked me a bunch of questions about my size, weight, typical rides, etc… and ultimately suggested to me the PM 2.0 for my MTB and the PL 1.1 for my road bike. I’m likely to order both and simply commit to learning the proper install and tweaking to achieve the proper fit.

I’ll keep reading the replies here though too.

Never felt uncomfortable on the MTB but when I got a road bike, oh boy! Tried just about every saddle out there, no dice was just about ready to ditch the road bike, tried these as a last resort, miracle! No pain since

As a follow up, I just had a long phone call with Dave Bunce of ISM. He was extremely helpful and informative. He mentioned that they’ve moved to an alphanumeric model number naming system for 2016 so for example, the Peak is now the PM series. They’ve kept the Adamo name for trademark purposes but otherwise are moving to the letter/number system.

For all the benefits mentioned in this thread, I’m definitely ordering these saddles.

Yep the naming system has been changed to make it easier to workout what you are buying.

You’ll also notice numbers on the saddles, 30, 40 etc – that refers to the amount of padding in it.

fivesense – I also had some great email dealings with Dave when getting sorted out with my saddles. He was really interested in my situation after surgery for Prostate removal and a properly genuine guy – I got some stuff on spec to try out. Great outfit and good people.

The setup is everything, feel free to mail me once they arrive as I’ve set up 5 bikes; road, track, MTB(2) and gravel with them

Iain- will do. Thank you for the offer! My PM 2.0 is on the way next week and I look forward to the install!

I run ISM saddles on both my MTB and Road bike. I had the older Attacks on both my bikes, but the one on my MTB broke the other day so I moved to a PN1.1.

I tried others, but find the narrow shape of the Attack/PN suits me, and my thighs. The PN1.1 has more padding than the Attack did, which also suits the MTB.

I find these much better than normal saddles, specially on long rides. I’ve done 15 hour rides on them without any major issues, and find I have absolutely no need for chamois cream.

Interestingly, my local bike shop guy is adamantly against the ISM saddles. He bases his perspective on the fact that all of the local riders who bought ISM saddles a few years ago promptly stopped riding them, saying they were uncomfortable, awkward, etc… One of the prevalent complaints was that the nose of the saddle was “too wide,” causing some “ball-busting.” Has anyone experienced such issues?

It hasn’t dissuaded me and I am happily waiting for my ISM PM 2.0.

@IainC, I’d read the instructions but not looked at any videos. Sounds like I got the further back bit sorted but maybe not the level rails bit. I think the height is fine cos my saddle was too low on the TT bike anyway.

@fivesense – thats the whole point I think – the “nose” isn’t really a nose and shouldn’t be positioned where a traditional saddle would be between your legs. No wonder the nose felt too wide. It felt too wide for me on the first ride depending how I positioned myself – and I know that when it did feel too wide, I was inthe wrong position.

I’ve got a peak and a podium that I’d like to sell. My mail is my profile!

I’ve a peak on my HT which I find a little too firm on long rides, a PR2.0 on my FS which is very comfy on all day epics and an attack on my road bike which is good.

Fivesense – as said by mtbtomo, if it feels too wide at front it needs moved back. The starting point is having the front of it 5cm further back from stem than traditional saddle. This will often require a layback seatpost.

What Iainc said. Takes a bit of time to get the setup right as they’re so different from a normal saddle but the videos are helpful.

Might be worth a punt to see if you like them

I had one of the first ISM saddles in the uk back in 2005 and really rated it. Only for time trail/triathlon though – never got on with them (tried various models) on standard road or mtb. Whilst a numb undercarriage was a cause for significant wriggling and discomfort in 112miles on aero bars I’ve never felt the need for one on other bikes and the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.

Ianc’s look a little oddly set up to me though – in so much as you have them rammed to the front of the rails – never felt the need to do that on an ism any more than on a conventional saddle to take account of the 3-4cm missing off the front as the rail position is setup to account for that.

Ianc’s look a little oddly set up to me though – in so much as you have them rammed to the front of the rails – never felt the need to do that on an ism any more than on a conventional saddle to take account of the 3-4cm missing off the front as the rail position is setup to account for that.

Perhaps since the ISM instructions recommend it, this would explain your bad experience with the saddles?

Convert – mine are set up as per the instructions, starting with a tape measure from stem bolt to saddle nose on traditional saddle and adding an extra 5cm. ISM say that most bikes will need a layback post to achieve this. Tends to only be TT bikes where they are only 2-3cm back from normal.

Perhaps since the ISM instructions recommend it, this would explain your bad experience with the saddles?

No they don’t.

And I didn’t have an entirely bad experience with them – I’ve probably got circa 10,000 miles of riding on them on TT/Tri bikes and another couple of thousand on road/mtb. That’s probably more time in the saddle than most weekend warriors have in a lifetime. It’s still the saddle on my TT bike, and if I ever get to ride the thing again, its the one I’ll use. It was more that the benefits of an ISM on a road or mountain bike didn’t outweigh the disadvantages, to me. On a road or MTB they simply felt like a solution looking for a problem. But we are all different, especially saddle fit so they could be worth it for others.

Convert – mine are set up as per the instructions, starting with a tape measure from stem bolt to saddle nose on traditional saddle and adding an extra 5cm. ISM say that most bikes will need a layback post to achieve this. Tends to only be TT bikes where they are only 2-3cm back from normal.

I can see you have an inline on one of those bikes, but the other two look like layback. Your method varies slightly from mine (shown to me by John Cobb really early on) but comes to about the same thing. I get my forward/aft saddle position by dropping a plumb line from the saddle tip and measuring the horizontal distance of the line from the centre of the bottom bracket. Before tweaking I would add 5cm to the conventional saddle measurement. Actually the 5cm varied a bit depending on the saddle that was coming off and if the ism model was a short or long nose. On any bike I’ve set up, plus all those I’ve seen ridden by friends, team mates or just leaned against the cafe wall I’ve never seen anyone needing to ram them quite so far back on the rails to get that measurement. I suppose if you buy bikes that are a touch small and run a tradition saddle quite far back on their rails anyway it will come out like yours when you switch to an ISM.

I received my ISM PM 2.0 and installed it yesterday. My first short ride was enjoyable, and I’m impressed with the feel of the saddle. I’m definitely more prominently set on my sit bones, but it’s not uncomfortable at all. I’m amazed how “right” it feels even though I haven’t put many miles on it. I hope it only gets better. Even my bike shop buddy, who was adamantly against them, is now giving them a second consideration- he was also amazed at how well the ISM saddle felt.

The adjustments have been nominal thus far but I’ll give the saddle a longer try out this week.