Since picking up the Fuji Sportif 1.5 almost a month ago, I’ve been having all sorts of trouble with the saddle that came with it. The bike came with an Oval saddle that is very long and narrow. I figured I’d just need to get used to it after not having ridden a bike in several years, but things kept getting worse and worse. 

I spent an evening thinking about where I was hurting, and looking at pictures of different saddles online, and I came to the conclusion that my saddle was probably too narrow. I felt like I couldn’t get my sit bones on it, and that the saddle was riding up in-between my sit bones causing pain and numbness. The numbness was by far the worst part.

I kept finding myself pushing back further and further on the saddle trying to get the wider part of it under me, but the Oval saddle is shaped funny at the back. The rear is cut sort of like this \_/ so moving back was just pushing the widest part of the saddle into my upper thigh, and not really getting my sit bones onto anything.

One of the saddles I was looking at online was the Selle Italia Flow. The trouble is that this is an expensive saddle, and just buying something on a hunch that I think it would work based on looking at pictures of it on the internet wasn’t making me feel comfortable about buying it sight un-seen.

We were in REI one night last week using our 20% off one item coupon on a Camelbak for my wife when I browsed through the bike saddles they had in the store. As luck would have it, they had a Selle Italia Flow in the large size, which was what I was looking for. Still unconvinced, I asked the guy in the bike department what the return policy was.

“One year.”

“Uhhh.. really?”

“Y’all are members right? We’ll basically take anything back in a year.”

So yeah, I bought it. 2 rides and about 36 miles in on it, and I’m impressed. I adjusted the nose up just a tick tonight after noticing it wasn’t quite level, but I’m really happy so far. It’s a little shorter than the Oval saddle that came with the bike, but I like it so far.