A New Approach to Comfort
In their quest to make comfortable bike saddles, much of our competition has focused on blood flow analysis as a measure of success. While this is a good idea, blood flow is only one of the many considerations that need to be taken into account.
About two years ago, Bontrager set out to delve into the issue deeper and truly understand the biomechanics of how riders and saddles interact. We turned to a major university to help us answer the question, "Exactly what makes a saddle comfortable?" The result was the most exhaustive scientific study of saddle comfort ever.
The research we conducted began with questions. What makes a saddle feel good at the bike shop? What makes a saddle still feel good after a century ride? Why do some saddles work well for some people and not others? What features alleviate the medical issues that can arise (pun intended) from too much time on the wrong saddle?
The typical approach to buying a saddle is push on it with your thumb, ask your friends what they ride, create an opinion of a saddle's comfort by looking at it with skepticism, and then buying with the idea that you can get used to anything. By doing scientific research no one else has done, Bontrager set out to understand the Science of Comfort. The result of this research and development is a new, completely redesigned line of Bontrager saddles called InForm. This next generation of saddles was not designed with simply the expertise of an urologist, but rather with the knowledge of academic experts in human body movement. Building on the current knowledge of blood flow and saddle design, Bontrager's saddle research project set out to pressure map various riders on many different saddles, in various riding positions, during a range of power outputs to learn the biomechanics of the pelvis while riding a bicycle. Through this research we learned that different saddle curvatures were necessary to best support rider weight on the pubic rami, the skeletal structure, as opposed to the soft tissue areas that can cause discomfort or restrict blood flow. Therefore one of the cornerstone's of the InForm saddle design are custom curvatures for each of the three different saddle widths in the line.