Saddles... before and after

As part of the continued bargain bike challenge, I picked up a new saddle on ebay for a third of RRP. So here's a gratuitous before and after.

Before: Giant Performance Road saddle (OEM)

After: Selle Italia SLR Kit Carbonio Flow saddle with carbon rails

As you can see, according to the Kitchen Scales of Inaccuracy^TM, swapping out my saddle has saved me 209g - a weight reduction equal to very nearly five KitKats. And okay, I've yet to complete a long ride on the new saddle, but a very unscientific test (poking with my thumbs) suggests it is better padded than the saddle I did LEJOG on, so fingers crossed.

Saddled

Yes, that's a picture of my nice, new saddle, the Prime Primavera, on The Scales Of Inaccuracy™ (formerly The Scales Of Truth, but GCN called dibs on that), registering a scarcely credible 137-138g. For comparison, the saddle it's replacing tips those same scales at 345g. How is this kind of weight-saving possible, you might ask, and the answer is ... carbon. Lots of carbon. The body of the saddle is carbon. The rails are carbon. Everything that can be carbon, is, basically.

Also pictured, the little packet of Haribo those nice folks at Wiggle sent with the saddle. No, they didn't pay me to say that (though I'm open to offers, Wiggle et al.), they just seem nice. Plus they had a 43% reduction on this, bringing a saddle that weighs the same as three and a quarter KitKats into the realms of affordability. Still not cheap, but it's so light it's hardly there, for goodness sake...

Inevitable flip side? It appears to have less padding than the stock Giant saddle it's replacing, so it remains to be seen how comfy I find it on a long ride. As soon as I actually get my lazy, locked-down arse into gear and have a long ride, I'll report back here and let you know.