Review | Syncros XR 1.0 SL: A lightweight, carbon railed racing saddle

Looking for a lightweight saddle to give you the edge in a race? Jason tried out this carbon railed offering from Syncros.

The Syncros XR 1.0 saddle sits at the top of the Syncros XR range of saddles and sports a carbon base, carbon rails and not a great deal of padding to keep the weight down. Other saddles in the range (the XR 1.5 and the XR 2.0) have titanium rails (a bit heavier) and cromo rails (heavier still). There are a couple of women-specific models as well in 1.5 and 2.0 flavours. All are available in narrow and wide versions, depending on the width of your sit bones. This one is the narrow version.

“Lightweight, carbon railed racing saddle” doesn’t shout “hours and hours of pain-free happiness”, does it? I rode this saddle for hours and hours to find out.

The SL in XR 1.0 SL presumably means “superlight” and my god, this thing is very light indeed. At just 167 grams on my kitchen scales (Syncros claims 170g but my scales are from Aldi so we’ll call it 168.5g) it’s about the same weight as 5 packets of crisps and about 60g less than an average 29er inner tube.

There isn’t a lot of padding, but padding alone isn’t the key to a comfortable saddle. It’s also got a super-stiff carbon base, which means that there isn’t any give. You’re probably expecting me to say that it feels like sitting on a lump of hardwood, aren’t you?

On The Bum

You’d be wrong. It’s very agreeable and I can’t fault it at all. And I’m saying that after a five hour ride on it.

Aside from the lack of weight, the shape of the XR is very versatile and offers a surprising amount of comfort. There’s a nice pressure-relief channel that runs from the tail to around an inch from the nose and the sides (wings?) are curved and then vertical to minimise chafing. From the side the XR appears to be completely flat with only a very slight upwards curve at the tail.

The best bit, so my backside tells me, is the nose. If, like me, you shuffle your bum forwards onto the nose of the saddle while riding up steep climbs, you will know how that feels. It’s not pleasant but I reckon I climb faster as a result. Probably because I don’t want to be violated for any longer than I have to.

The nose of the XR saddle is much wider and flatter than a regular saddle, which means that there’s an actual viable platform to sit on. You’d not want to do it all day, but it makes a difference and the near-absence of excruciating rectal pain means you’re free to concentrate on excruciating lactate thigh agony instead.

It’s durable too – the microfibre cover (I’m not sure what that is but it feels sort of rubbery) seems tough and I’ve not noticed any worrying or annoying creaks either.

Overall

A saddle that on paper sounds uncompromising and something to be used for an hour of pain at a time, but is in actual fact very comfortable, practical and useable. You need to be careful with your seatpost bolts and you need rather deep pockets but this is genuinely a great saddle. My new favourite in fact. Heavier, less-fabulously-expensive versions are well worth looking at if £200 for a saddle seems really stupid.

Review Info