Hi,

My wife is a very occasional cyclist (few times a year) and needs a new saddle for her mountain bike, which as I built it from a frame and spare parts currently has a WTB men’s saddle and apparently causes pain after about 20 minutes. I think a lot of this is position/angle we need to tune but a wider more comfy saddle would help a lot. Any tips for a women’s saddle that emphasises comfort and padding over weight and similarity to a knife?

Cheers
Ross

In my experience, saddle padding does not necessarily equal comfort. Is she wearing padded shorts?

No, jeans, we’re talking about 6km rides on fireroads with the kids so padded shorts shouldn’t really be needed…

For blokes everyone recommends the charge spoon. So I’d try a charge ladle as a starting point. Wife had one on her bike but all arses are different so YMMV.

Agree with wallop. You don’t need nappies, there are some good liners around that are minimalist. I won’t post the pic but these are a great introduction and more aesthetically pleasing. Not tried them myself although I wear something similar:

Underwear

Hugely padded saddles can be more uncomfortable, been there done that and now go minimalist. I find the ones that flex or with cut outs to be good.

I wouldn’t ride to the local shop in jeans, personally. There are denim seams in all the wrong places! 😯

In all seriousness, for MTB I’ve never bothered with women’s specific saddles. A Charge Spoon is as good as anything and is cheap as chips.

I used to find MTB so painful that I wore 2 pairs of padded shorts at once, til I got a Specialized BG Ariel women’s saddle. It’s brilliant and worth every penny and can go on all-day rides with it. I also make sure that the saddle is flat, or even with the nose almost imperceptibly pointing down. A saddle pointing up, even a tiny bit is really uncomfortable for me.

Please please please remember to tell though if she wears padded shorts/liner NO pants!

It will be a combination of decent saddle .. ie NOT a man’s AND shorts. As already mentioned jeans normal trousers, have seams in all the wrong places! I have a Selle Italia Diva but it’s a lot of money for 6k rides. Try a WTB saddle although most bike shops and saddle companies have 28 days cash back guarantees now.