Every bike fit I’ve ever done has involved a discussion about saddles. Being happy with what you’re sitting on is key to enjoying the hours on the bike and many riders have failed to enjoy their expensive machines purely for the sake of the saddle.

So being able to supply good saddles is important for me to be able to do my job well. Which is why I was quite pleased to find out that Sam Warriner and her husband Steve had decided to bring in Cobb saddles.

One of the reasons for my pleasure at this discovery was that I’ve noticed the saddles gaining a solid following among triathletes in markets where they are available. The other reason is that I’d already hunted out an HC170 for my own road bike so personal experience had given me faith in the brand.

The HC170 and SHC (which I use on my Tri bike) are very much the saddles I’d make for myself if I had the resources (hence the hunting of the HC170), so it’s rather handy that someone else has done that for me. The V-Flow variants are more widely popular thanks to the extra padding they offer (the HC170 is leather on plastic with a small patch of foam under the sit bones)

Pictured are the test saddles that I have (apart from the SHC which is out being tested at the time of writing) which anyone can try without obligation (though I must warn that I won’t put one on your bike if I think that your position is so bad that no saddle can feel good).

The factors that I like about these saddles are:

The thigh glides (sides extended down past the rails to avoid chafing)
Smooth shaping with no nasty sharp points on the plastic base
Sensible cutout placement
Nice gentle flare out from nose to tail so you don’t impinge the pedal action
And the thing I like the most – the models I’m using are the most comfortable saddles I’ve ever had for Road and Tri bikes.

For more details on the saddles you can visit either the official site or the importers.