While in the UK we primarily know them as a mountain bike tyre company, when we spoke to Clayton Wangbichler of WTB, he said in the US they’re more known for their saddles. WTB had a new one to show at Eurobike, and rather than branding it as women-specific, they we’re keen to stress it was unisex, but in their words “female-focused”.
They’ve previously done the women-specific Deva, and wanted to expand their lineup for women, so did two years of testing and feedback on prototypes, with riders ranging from recreational mountain bikers to pro racers. The result is the Koda, which will be available in four different models.
The Koda is a bit shorter and wider than WTB’s existing saddle range.WTB conducted research and testing with hundreds of women to make sure they’d design an appropriate saddle for most, and this is the result.
Clayton said they’ve had production samples in the office for six weeks now, and that for that whole time, the men in the office have been squabbling over them. Because it turns out some of the features and measurements that would often be branded as “female-specific” by the bike industry suit some men too.
Gender differences in body shapes aren’t black/white; WTB know this and have seen it in their research and testing. There may be average differences between genders, but none of them are absolute or universal – the boundary in the middle is kind of vague. While women will tend to like wider saddles, they’ve met everyone from rake thin men who nonetheless have wide sit bones best suited to 150mm saddles, to women who only get on with the very narrowest ones they offer. That’s why the Koda isn’t being billed as gender specific, and as well as WTB generally not being keen on it, also one of the reasons they haven’t gone with the pink-it-and-shrink-it aesthetic approach of some companies.
Here’s a comparison of the noses on a standard length saddle (left) and the Koda (right), with the seat rails lined up. The shorter nose has a couple of benefits – for shorter riders, being closer to the seatpost improves the amount of usable standover on most frames. On climbs, for all riders it means the seat does less poking you in the bum when you have to pedal standing up.The Koda will be available in four varieties: The Team (pictured) at 210g with titanium rails; the Pro, with chromoly rails and a weight of 230g, the Race (red logo, pictured at the top of this article) at 276g with chromoly rails, and the Comp, with steel rails and a weight of 326g. All weights are for the narrower versions, wider versions add between 3 and 13 grams to each.The pressure relief channel is wider than on most saddles; that’s not just beneficial for women but for many men too.Left to right: SL8 saddle, 127mm wide; Silverado, 133mm wide; Koda Race, 150mm wide. The Koda will be available in two widths, 150mm and 142mm.
David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly.
Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.
