Reform Saddles – The World’s First fully Customisable Bicycle Saddle!
- David Wadsworth
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
The worlds first fully customisable bicycle saddle available for retail purchase is here. Reform Saddles is a Canadian company whose engineers have created a unique product that will be of interest to all cyclists, especially those who have had persistent saddle issues. What is unique about this saddle is that the base of the saddle contains an electrical circuit that permits heating and molding the base to match the riders anatomy.
How easy is this technology to use? Really simple! Check out my YouTube video on XLR8 Performance Coaching at:
In this short video Jacob, from Reform Saddles Australia, Col, a masters cyclist, and myself will show you just how quick and easy this saddle is to mold to a rider. Col is currently testing this saddle over a 4 to 6 week period and we’ll report back in a second YouTube video how successful it is at resolving a very tricky saddle problem – dealing with asymmetries following a pelvic fracture.
What options are currently available from Reform?
They offer two saddles, each a short nose modern design that are both 142mm wide:
Seymour – 7*10mm carbon rails, 197gm.
Tantalus – 7mm titanium rails, 235gm.
The Seymour saddle is targeted towards road riders and the slightly more robust Tantalus is targeted towards off-road cyclists.
Reform, according to their website, offer a 90day money back fit guarantee.
How Easy is the Saddle to Customise?
Molding the saddle to the rider is done via a special adapter that connects to the base of the saddle. Reform provides guidelines for the pre-heating stage based on ambient temperature (about 5min), and then the rider simply rides the bike on a stationary trainer
for 6min alternating every 30sec between riding on the drops and hoods.
The saddle can be re-molded if required, and for best results consider performing the heat mold riding in shorts without a chamois to obtain a stronger impression.
In the video link you will see how the saddle changes shape after molding to adapt to the riders anatomy, and hear the immediate feedback from Col as to how this changes comfort. Bear in mind that a great saddle won’t solve a terrible bike fit, nor will it solve terrible musculoskeletal issues a rider might have, so molding this saddle is definitely recommended AFTER a bike fit.
Now to really test any saddle, you’ll need to ride it during your regular training and racing for a number of weeks. Stay tuned for the follow-up video to see how this technology performs over the longer term.