In January 2018 Sports Garage hosted the U.S. launch of the women’s Ergon saddles – SR and SM for road and mountain respectively – with an evening of education, demos, and networking. Following pelvic reconstruction, Amy had some of the most thoughtful and challenging questions in the crowd. Among her posts from the ROAM festival in Sedona last week was the following review:
Amy: “My Year on a Women’s Ergon Saddle”
Product review update (warning long post)! I’ve now ridden on this Ergon Bike SM Women’s MTB saddle since late January. I also have the SR Women’s saddle on my road bike.
To date, I’ve logged 360 hours and 4,360 miles between the saddles. The majority of the hours have been spent on the MTB saddle and I’ll focus my comments on those since mountain biking is very dynamic with constant movement on/off saddle.
I only had two rides on the saddle before we rode 5 hours on it in very hot conditions in NZ (early Feb). I did not have enough chamois cream so things were more irritated vs bony sore. Since it was early season, everything hurt after that ride. That’s not necessarily a fault of this saddle. Pretty sure I’d have been sore regardless. We continued to ride for several days and while the next two were skin-wise (lady parts) sore, the other bony parts got significantly better as my butt got used to riding long hours again.
My pelvis is super sensitive to changes after my pelvis reconstruction so it did take most of NZ to not feel the saddle anymore. I usually find a saddle and never change it. But I was intrigued to try these and (full disclosure) the Beti Bike Bash is supported by Ergon. Plus the Berry color was a perfect match for the 2018 Yeti Cycles SB5 Beti. With rides as long as 7 hours, I had very little discomfort- lots of other body parts hurt but not my sit bones or surrounding lady parts. Notably I had just one sore late in the season which I’m sure was insufficient chamois cream for a 3 hour ride.
It’s incredible to see so much R&D put into designing these saddles. 20 years ago a women’s saddle or chamois barely existed. I spent a little time with Karen Jarchow this last weekend as they demo’d saddles [at the ROAM festival] and I only heard positive comments immediately post ride. I would like to see them offer titanium rails to lighten the weight a tad for my XC rig, but overall this will be the same saddle I ride next year. The saddle still looks new and the trail bike saddle does have a few scratches after crashes but for all the abuse, they’ve held up well. If you’ve had issues in the past, definitely give these saddles a test ride.
We demo Ergon saddles too, both SR and SM. The women at Sports Garage have been on these saddles since January, and are happy share their experiences. The price point relative to the effectiveness of the technology is mind boggling (SR and SM each $69.95, SR Gel and SM Gel each $89.95). Christmas is coming. Hint, hint. Contact the shop at sales@sportsgarage.net or 303-473-0033 for additional information about Ergon saddle demos.