The Gel seat which came with my Nimbus muni feels noticeably - and uncomfortably - wider than the one on my cheapy beginners uni. I think I actually prefer the one which came with the uni which cost me as much in total as a KH saddle!
The question is, what are the options for a narrower saddle - how do the various KH saddles compare, and are there other narrowish alternatives? Not sure whether I need to go for a KH slim, or is the KH Street noticeably narrower than a Nimbus Gel? What if any are the disadvantages of going for a KH slim or other narrow saddle (is it compatible with handles etc.)?
all of the saddles you mentioned use the same seat base, and so will be close to the same width. There is usually some foam around the edges of the base, and so there may be some variance, but not much.
Narrower seats like the old Viscount are available, but not many people consider them more comfortable than the current crop of saddles. That’s not to say that they don’t have some followers.
Why not move the saddle from your cheap uni to the shiny new one?
Hmm - coming back to this as I’m still finding my Nimbus saddle uncomfortable over a distance, and it definitely feels like it’s excessive width digging in. Thought I’d try again on here before calling up UDC - surely I can’t be the only person with narrow hips who has this issue? For anybody on here who also rides bikes, I use an SLR saddle on my MTB, which is extremely narrow (the ubiquitous “razor blade” for those over here who remember the old yellow pages advert), yet I find it very comfortable.
So the KH Slim is slim in the height rather than the width sense? There must be some quality narrower saddles though surely? I would swap the saddle from my other uni, but apart from the width I prefer it’s not the best saddle ever (and that would also leave me with something bulky on the smaller wheeled uni I’m trying new stuff on).
Yeah, all the current saddles are way to wide (especially at the back) and way too curved. The KH Freeride kinda makes up for this with padding, but even the KH Street and Nimbus Gel already have too much padding. All the recent seats I’ve tried feel like they were designed for females, all the older ones for 10 year olds.
One partial solution is to play with the angle of the seat. One popular option is to tilt it all the way up and sit all the way at the back. It is still way to wide, but less uncomfortable.
I ordered the QU-AX AIR SADDLE FROM CANADA…i THINK IT WAS ABOUT $47 PLUS SHIP ANOTHER $8 OR SO…THIS THING IS NARROW IN THE RIGHT PLACES AND VERY COMFORTABLE IF YOU GET IT TWEEKED TO THE RIGHT ANGLE. IT HAS RAILS SO YOU WILL NEED TO USE THE BICYCLE RAIL CLAMP THAT COMES WITH IT OR GET A RAIL ADAPTER POST…
I think the kh freeride uses a much more rear friendly foam, as well as a better shape (of foam). I recently have put a bunch of road miles in on what I thought was a comfortable modified nimbus gel saddle and it’s been KILLING my rear. It was fine for muni, but I think road riding you keep much more weight on your rear for longer periods of time.
As nordicnoel mentioned I pulled my nimbus gel apart fairly soon after sitting on it for the first time. My problem was the seat seemed to much like a U shape and put pressure in the wrong places. The KH is a much flatter seat which agrees with me a lot better so I tried to play with the angle. It helped some, but didn’t make it nearly as good as a freeride.
The difference between a nimbus gel and a kh freeride is huge in my opinion, but I’m also 210 lbs, which may be a factor.
The kh slim is thinner in the vertical direction, not the width direction.
Get some foam and a knife, start pulling apart your saddle and messing with the shape of the foam. It is a fairly easy job, improving it is fairly easy. Making it perfect is probably a hard job but if you stick with it you’ll get it right eventually.
If you mess it up beyond help I’m going to have a spare nimbus gel and you can have it for shipping costs.
