Review of Ergo The Seat Ultimate Lycra Gel, 01000-9, Black

Ergo The Seat Ultimate Lycra Gel, 01000-9, Black
By: Ergo Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 20
More Information

wast of money

On: 2008-05-27

Both my wife and I tried this seat and we did not like it one bit.

Ergo bicycle seat

On: 2008-05-09

I bought 2 of these and used them for about a year. needed to follow the suggestion closely about the (lower)height adjustment. Have gotten used to them and they seem quite comfortable. There is slightly more weight transfered to the hands on the handlebars, but hardly notice that after a while.
And it may turn out to be good in taking weight off the lower back.
Have tried them out on some longer rides, > 50 miles, without any problems.
Theres never any pressure feeling in the crotch area, that sometimes happens with narrow seats. So this is the only kind of seat I would want to buy now, especially if doctors say it might have an advantage.

The Seat

On: 2007-12-02

Meets my expectations - comfortable and functional and no chafing for long distance on my exercise machine. Takes getting used to; at first feels like youre going to slide off. Does not come with SBS Seat Rail Clamp parallel post adapter which annoyed me! Getting the seat rail clamp tight enough to prevent the seat from slipping sideways or from the horizontal is a minor problem. Overall, I like the seat and it is worth the expense. Just check first to make sure Seat Rail Clamp is included!

did solve my problem

On: 2007-10-31

My problem was with my sit bones so this didnt really resolve it. However, if you experience discomfort because of the saddle horn, this could help. It feels a little funny a first, but it is a comfortable seat.

Taint reliever

On: 2007-10-04

I have spent a fortune over the years for modified design seats on both bicycles and motorcycles. This is the ultimate seat for a bicycle. ALL others, no matter how expensive or goofy they look, are taint destroyers. Now if I can just find a motorcycle seat as effective . . . Ergo "The Seat" Ultimate Gel / Lycra Bicycle Saddle

like sitting on granite

On: 2007-10-04

We bought two of the gel seats for our 20 mile rides on hybrids. Were sending both back for a refund. We agree it feels like sitting on a slab of granite or marble. Ive tried a dozen or so seats over the years and have never found one this hard and uncomfortable. It even altered my natural pedal stroke and felt like it caused a drop in cadence and power. Maybe their non-gel seat is better.

Solved my problem

On: 2007-09-28

This seat solved the problem of irritation from bicycle seats that has kept me from riding for years. I am very happy with it.

Fixes the original pain, but brings its own for me

On: 2007-09-17

"The Seat" does completely eliminate the normal discomfort of the "horn" digging into your rear.

However, after two 90-minute rides, I think I need to get something else. After a while it causes a sharp pain on one side where my bottom makes contact with the seat, so that after about half an hour I cant think about much else. And it really pushes me forward so that I am leaning heavily on my handlebars (which are raised to the maximum height). Padded gloves help, but its not enough.

Then again, I do have a variety of nerve problems in my body (but none observed before in the place on my rear where I get the pain with The Seat), so for most people it could be fine.

Im going to try another traditional style seat, with more padding than the skinny/hard one one that came with my bike.

Fixes the original pain, but brings its own for me

On: 2007-09-16

"The Seat" does completely eliminate the normal discomfort of the "horn" digging into your rear.

However, after two 90-minute rides, I think I need to get something else. After a while it causes a sharp pain on one side where my bottom makes contact with the seat, so that after about half an hour I cant think about much else. And it really pushes me forward so that I am leaning heavily on my handlebars (which are raised to the maximum height). Padded gloves help, but its not enough.

Then again, I do have a variety of nerve problems in my body (but none observed before in the place on my rear where I get the pain with The Seat), so for most people it could be fine.

Im going to try another traditional style seat, with more padding than the skinny/hard one one that came with my bike.

EVEN SOFTER THAN THE ORIGINAL

On: 2007-09-04

Before I purchased this seat I was unable to ride more than 45 minutes without pain.
Now I can ride 30 miles and hours of biking with no pain/numbness...etc.
In fact I now ride 7 to 15 miles everyday as part of my cardio training.
This saved me.
Recommend to anyone that wants to ride comfortably regardless of the distance.
I use the standard model on my indoor exercise bike.
I use the gel model on my hybrid.

ERGO Seat

On: 2007-08-23

Easy to install. I ride my bike for a half hour to an hour at a time. Im having trouble getting use to the seat. I have tried different angles to no avail. Im considering switching back to the old seat.

A female perspective

On: 2007-07-15

Hard to believe, but females have parts that are sensitive to bike seat horns too.... So I bought this seat and I love it! No more pressure, no more UTIs. It took me all of 30 seconds to get used to it and Im having no problems with balance. The only tiny, tiny drawback that I can see is that every so often I have to scootch myself backwards on the seat because Ive slid forward a bit. But I was doing that on my old seat even more frequently to try to relieve the pressure from the horn. All in all, a great choice if you want to do without the horn.

As advertised

On: 2007-07-05

I did a lot of research and tryed "the seat". It worked for me! I am rid of the soreness down there and I can bike as long as I want.

Ergo seat is a perch

On: 2007-06-27

The design is not what I expected. There is little or no lateral stability even though there is a small horn. It does relieve any numbness created by a standard saddle.

Upgrade any ordinary bike to Luxury Edition with "The Seat"

On: 2007-06-14

Recently I started cycling to get some exercise. However, three weeks into my program saw me rushing to the doctor because of "trauma" to my groin area because of the traditional saddle. My doctor advised me to change the saddle and use padded cycle shorts. I read the reviews on "The Seat" and decided to give it a try. This was definately one of my better buying decisions.

After installing on my bike and taking a ride around the block, the comfort I felt was amazing. It was like moving from an old jalopy to a spanking new Mercedes. No pain; no pain medication needed.

That being said, it took me about 30 minutes to get adjusted to the new feel. It was a bit harder to balance and a little tricky when removing a hand from the handle.

Now that Ive taken a few rides around the community, Im definately sold; theres no going back to an ordinary saddle. The build quality of "THE SEAT is exceptional as well and does a good job of cushioning the ill effects of bad road surfaces. Forget padded cycle shorts; any normal shorts will do!

Much, much better

On: 2007-05-12

This seat is a big improvement over my old seat which was oversized with a Gel filled cover. I had no trouble getting used to this new seat. It was an immediately rewarding experience. I did not suffer any discomfort similar to what I did on previous bicycle seats.

One thing of note is that this seat is fairly small, smaller than I imagined. Despite its size it is much more comfortable than a standard seat design twice the size.

Another note is that I am using this seat on a stationary bicycle and that I am about of fairly average build and height - 170/6 2". My wife who is a good bit more petite has also noted how much more comfortable this seat is than a standard seat.

What took the industry so long to improve a bicycle seat?

On: 2007-04-06

The improvements in this seat are just like the all improvements in in our office environments - fundamentally engineered for comfort and health. I had no trouble adjusting to riding as I had read in previous reviews (I am into comfort biking). My only reservations with it is the overall size is a little small and it could be padded more than it is (I have an average build). I cant wait until competitors pick up on the design and give us more custom features to choose from. Buy one now!

Love it!

On: 2007-01-31

I use my bicycle as an indoor training bike and was experiencing a lot of pain with the usual bike seat even with the gel pad over it. This seat though is AMAZING. It is really comfy and there is no pain at all. Now I can bike while watching tv for as long as I want. I did read some other reviews how this seat may be a bit tricky to use if you were actually biking outside though b/c the horn helps you balance and since this seat doesnt have a horn, it just takes some getting use to. Bottomline though - I would highly recommend this seat. Also just an FYI, you need an Allen wrench to put this on so go get one if you dont have one already.

very comfortable

On: 2007-01-23

really like this saddle. took a minute to get over the lack of nose on it but i dont miss it one bit!

very comfortable

On: 2007-01-22

really like this saddle. took a minute to get over the lack of nose on it but i dont miss it one bit!

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH

On: 2006-05-24

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH (NIOSH) has done extensive studies on saddles with noses and saddles with nose and a split. The results is that the saddles with a split are are more dangerous than the ones without. However, NIOSH recommends for your health that you "... you ride a seat without a nose." Ref. HETA 2000-0305-2848 City of Long Beach Police Department Long Beach, California by Dr. Steven Schrader, NIOSH. I am attaching his report. He has a new report that show the pressure on a seat with a split is higher than without due to the reduced surface area.

Try "The SEAT" youll like it.

Ride in Healthy ComfortC

ERGO, LLC

A real solution to a real problem but at a price.

On: 2006-02-16

Having had prior experience with nerve injury and having some familiarity with anatomy I do take the danger of cycling inflicted nerve and vascular injury seriously. Often such damage is just compression nerve injury which reverses itself in a matter of days or weeks, but there is also the real possibility of more serious damage to the nerves or local artherosclerosis which does not normally heal by itself. Possible symptoms are tingling, loss of sensation, erectile dysfunction and even urinary continence problems. The risk is probably more serious for men than for women. There is also very little that medicine can do for you in these cases.

Studies show that some of the ergonomic saddles on the market with cut-outs of various designs cases can in some cases actually make the risk of injury greater, but concentrating pressure on a smaller area than conventional saddles. Only noseless saddles like this one can really eliminate the danger by entirely tranferring the weight from the perineum to the buttocks.

I ride regularly and intensively (80-90 minutes a day) in crazy Manhattan. Here are my observations.

1. This saddle is not only safer than conventional saddles, but also more comfortable. I had not realized that my previous saddle was causing me discomfort until I started using this one and found that it was a more pleasant experience.

2. It takes a few weeks to get used to this saddle. At the beginning it felt like somebody kept trying to push me off the bike. After a while it feels perfectly natural.

3. There is a reason that most saddles have a nose. Correcting the alignment of your bike by pushing on the nose from the side with your thighs has a more important role in controlling a bike than most people realize. Without the nose some of the gracefulness and manouverability is gone. I ride a mountain bike and I am often heavily loaded with bags, etc., so I dont exactly swoop through the streets, anyway. On a road bike or natural terrain this might be a forbidding problem, though.

4. Using a noselss saddle considerable weight is transferred from the saddle to the handlebars. This in turn leads to an increased risk of injury to the hands, wrist and arms. I recommend using cycling gloves, preferably the gel type. My feeling is that this sort of injury i smore likely to be noticed early and has a better chance of being reversed than damage to the perineum.

5. Related to the previous point, unless the road surface is very even and I am going straight and at a moderate pace, it does not feel safe to take either hand off the handlebars, which means that I cannot give hand signals in traffic anymore. This is perhaps the most serious problem I have with this saddle. Have to be very careful when changing lanes.

6. I found that the patches at the back are not truly retroreflective, so I taped them over with reflective tape.

Overall, this is a product well worth considering, but unless you buy one and try it out, you wont know whether it is a viable solution given your particular riding style and anatomy.

A real solution to a real problem but at a price.

On: 2006-02-15

Having had prior experience with nerve injury and having some familiarity with anatomy I do take the danger of cycling inflicted nerve and vascular injury seriously. Often such damage is just compression nerve injury which reverses itself in a matter of days or weeks, but there is also the real possibility of more serious damage to the nerves or local artherosclerosis which does not normally heal by itself. Possible symptoms are tingling, loss of sensation, erectile dysfunction and even urinary continence problems. The risk is probably more serious for men than for women. There is also very little that medicine can do for you in these cases.

Studies show that some of the ergonomic saddles on the market with cut-outs of various designs cases can in some cases actually make the risk of injury greater, but concentrating pressure on a smaller area than conventional saddles. Only noseless saddles like this one can really eliminate the danger by entirely tranferring the weight from the perineum to the buttocks.

I ride regularly and intensively (80-90 minutes a day) in crazy Manhattan. Here are my observations.

1. This saddle is not only safer than conventional saddles, but also more comfortable. I had not realized that my previous saddle was causing me discomfort until I started using this one and found that it was a more pleasant experience.

2. It takes a few weeks to get used to this saddle. At the beginning it felt like somebody kept trying to push me off the bike. After a while it feels perfectly natural.

3. There is a reason that most saddles have a nose. Correcting the alignment of your bike by pushing on the nose from the side with your thighs has a more important role in controlling a bike than most people realize. Without the nose some of the gracefulness and manouverability is gone. I ride a mountain bike and I am often heavily loaded with bags, etc., so I dont exactly swoop through the streets, anyway. On a road bike or natural terrain this might be a forbidding problem, though.

4. Using a noselss saddle considerable weight is transferred from the saddle to the handlebars. This in turn leads to an increased risk of injury to the hands, wrist and arms. I recommend using cycling gloves, preferably the gel type. My feeling is that this sort of injury i smore likely to be noticed early and has a better chance of being reversed than damage to the perineum.

5. Related to the previous point, unless the road surface is very even and I am going straight and at a moderate pace, it does not feel safe to take either hand off the handlebars, which means that I cannot give hand signals in traffic anymore. This is perhaps the most serious problem I have with this saddle. Have to be very careful when changing lanes.

6. I found that the patches at the back are not truly retroreflective, so I taped them over with reflective tape.

Overall, this is a product well worth considering, but unless you buy one and try it out, you wont know whether it is a viable solution given your particular riding style and anatomy.