Women's bike saddle recommendation

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Babs02

Active Member
Hiya,

I have a folding bike (though I don't know how to fold it and rarely need to) and cycle verryy casually - so I'm looking for a very basic saddle that's just nice and comfortable because the one I currently have is slim and very definitely not designed for the female species!

I'm 20 years old and of regular build, and would rather not fork out more than £30/35 on a new saddle.

I'd really appreciate any recommendations, thank you in advance!
 
The current standard recommendations are Charge Ladle, if you can find one , or the Madison Leia. However, everyone is different in this regard. Don't skimp too much, though. If your length of ride is short, any big comfy "town" saddle might do, but these get surprisingly uncomfortable if you go further. Also, a lot depends on how upright uour riding position is. Both above recommendations will probably be within your budget, just.
 

byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
Specialised Body Geometry Ladies saddle. I used the male version on all my uprights and Lady Byegad tried the female version and loved it.
 
You don't need to spend loads.

Is your seating position very upright, or are you leaning forwards on the handlebars? They are different sorts of saddles.
 
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Babs02

Active Member
Thank you so much for the replies so far! My bike's like a commuter bike, so I think I cycle either fairly upright or slightly leaned towards the handlebars, but never in an aggressive position. I haven't cycled in a while so I'm trying to think back to how I used to - does that help?
 
+1 for the Charge Ladle (if you can get one) or a Madison Leia (essentially the same saddle, just different stitching on the cover. I have two of the former and one of the latter across three very different bikes - road, hybrid & vintage MTB.

They're a good starting point for a womens specific saddle - I personally haven't seen the need to look elsewhere.

Saddles do come in different shapes and widths. Shape is more trial and error, but width, you can do a rough & ready measure of your sitbones to rule out those that are too wide or too narrow. Simply take a decent sheet of tin foil, fold it, slip a couple of sheets of kitchen paper inside, put it on the stairs and then just sit on it, leaning forward slightly. You should end up with two indents in the foil. The measurement you want is from the center of one indent to the center of the other - that will give you your sit bone width. Add an extra 20 mm and that's the ballpark for the minimum saddle width you're looking for.

HTH :okay:
 
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