This is a bit of an offshoot from the road saddles thread, but I’ve seen that some people might be interested in doing this.

A central supply of saddles is held centrally with one administrator. To ‘buy into’ the saddle swap you need to donate one saddle. You can then try as many saddles (one at a time) which you then give back once you’ve finished with them. The administrator simply keeps track of what saddles are ‘in stock’ and posts out saddles to people.

Its a really effective and cheap way to try lots of saddles without buying loads. The only rules are:

1. The saddle you donate must be an aftermarket saddle (i.e. can be bought – so not a stock saddle).

2. You are responsible for postage to and from (or arrange collection yourself!)

3. Once you’ve figured our what saddle fits you, you make sure all saddles are returned.

4. Obey Rule One – don’t trash them!

I have a few saddles and some people have offered to donate some more, so I’m happy to run this on behalf of STW if people would find this useful!

SDG BelAir.

The saddle you donate must be an aftermarket saddle (i.e. can be bought – so not a stock saddle).

Aaahm oot. I do have however 4 different OEM saddles if anyone’s interested

This was tried a while ago if memory serves. I sent someone a lovely carbon railed Selle Italia SLR and never heard another word from them or the thread again.

However I do still have a few other saddles lying around and would definitely like to try a few different models so I’ll watch with interest.

Still looking for some charge spoons if anyone has them, can’t get them anywhere. I made the mistake of showing the kids and now they want them.

A blue/pink fading spoon and a purple/red fading spoon. Or any other spoons with similar colours. Asked about them on a thread a couple of weeks ago, had one or two possible leads for the different design ones but with what’s happened I haven’t chased them up. Not sure if I have a swap, but thought I’d ask if anyone has anything, hope no one minds.

I think the idea, as a library, is even if you find one you like, you still return it and then go buy your own.

That way, the library can grow rather than just be a way for someone to swap a duff saddle for a good one. I don’t see that being sustainable.

I really like the idea, just not sure I have a saddle to contribute currently. I’ve an old Belair, but I don’t think you can buy then new anymore.

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gnusmas
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Still looking for some charge spoons if anyone has them, can’t get them anywhere.

Charge Spoon is just out of a catalogue so there’s other brands with the same saddle available which opens your options.

@gnusmas I have the purple/red fading spoon on my bike currently. It’s far from new but if you are interested please let me know. (It is a bit faded on the corners)

I like the idea of a saddle library, I’m always of the opinion that an expensive saddle is worth it but only if you know it works for you. This would let you try before you buy as most saddles are too expensive to take a punt on.

I’ve got a handful of saddles I could donate to the cause if somebody wanted to cover postage…? Not after anything myself, I know what saddles fit me and what don’t, I have accumulated a few that don’t for sure over the years…

We did similar at a shop I worked at. Trouble is you have to trust people to bring the saddles back when they’d “tested” them & buy a production model. Which they didn’t despite the “library saddle” being yellow with “demo” written all over it in big black letters

I’ve got no issue if people don’t bring them back in the long run – as long as everyone donates a saddle to buy in, then it’s no biggie if one doesn’t always make it back!

Mboy – if you let me know what the cheapest method of postage is I’ll pay to start it up 🙂