A gravel specific saddle? No sniggering at the back! When Wilderness Trail Bikes started showing
their new range of saddles the one labelled “Gravelier” obviously stood out to me. I messaged the
guys at WTB UK and asked if I could test one of the new seats to see if there was such a thing as a
gravel specific saddle and they very kindly sent one out to me to try out.
Saddles, and it seems silly to write this as it’s blindingly obvious, are a very personal thing. We all
have the same bones in our body but that is where the similarity ends. Because we are all different
the fact that a particular saddle might be very comfortable or uncomfortable to me doesn’t mean
it’ll be the same for you. So take any saddle review you read with a pinch of salt. I can tell you how
the saddle interacts with the seat post, the quality of the construction and how it performs in
different conditions and how hard wearing it is but really at the end of the day the only way for you
to know if a saddle works for you is to try it and do so over many miles. Yes, I know, that is difficult
to achieve without forking out some cash on something you might hate. So what I’ll do in this review
is tell you how this saddle compares to my regular saddle and to the many I’ve ridden in the last 53
years. Don’t forget though that your bum might see things differently!
My regular saddle is a Charge spoon, they don’t even still make them so I’ve been looking for an
alternative for a while for the time when the back stock o those models dries up. I’ve always liked
the look of the shorter fit saddles, again this is silly because you should be looking for comfort first
not looks but hey, I’m a bit of a tart when it comes to shiny bike parts. The WTB Gravelier is around a
third shorter (246mm) than my charge and has a cut out in the middle, said to ease perineal pressure. If
you’ve ever been on a ride and felt numbness down there then that could be caused by that
pressure. WTB say gravel riders tend to sit more forward and so the saddle accommodates this with a narrow front and a curved shape that widens towards the back. personally it think i sit the same on all my bikes .
The material is generally smooth with little dimples and is just the right balance of
grippy/slippery. There is nothing worse than a saddle that grips onto your shorts when you move
around on it or slide your bum off the back to counter balance the bike on a steep descent or one
that you slide off forwards on when you brake hard as the saddle has such a frictionless surface. On
this the WTB is perfect. The rails on this model are titanium, it weighs a hair under 210g on my kitchen scale, there is a lighter carbon railed version.
Fitting the saddle was as easy as your seat post makes it (some seat posts are a right pain to swap
saddles on) as the rails are standard size and there’s plenty of room for fore-aft adjustments. I set
this one so the rear would have been in line with the saddle I swapped out as I felt that would be a
good place to start. This made the front look very short in comparison to my old saddle but as
written above, comfort before looks.
A new saddle always feels weird to start with and so the first decent length ride was spent adjusting
the saddle angle, it ended up pretty flat in relation to the ground and i moved it forward slightly on
the rails. I also raised the seat post a few mm as the distance from the rails to the top of the saddle
was less that my old saddle, bear all this in mind when you try any new saddle.
The Ride I received this saddle back in May when the UK was having a very wet late spring/early
summer so I got to try it in a variety of conditions, wet and muddy, dry and dusty and rides with all
that going on at the same time. The saddle has a little padding, just enough to support you without
feeling like an over stuffed sofa but with a bit of give for cushioning over the rough stuff. The
titanium rails help here as they have a springiness that you wouldn’t notice riding along side
watching the saddle but are glad of over longer distances. I’ll admit the first few rides I wasn’t
convinced but more position adjustment trial and error and I came to like the saddle more and
more. Lots of short 50k rides and the longest so far being 120k proved that the saddle was
supportive in the right places and the hole in the middle did seem to work. When swapping to my other bike with my regular saddle I could definitely feel pressure down below that I didn’t feel on the
WTB. I’m still not sure if this is gravel specific though as I’ve tried it on my MTB too and it was equally as comfy and easy to move yourself back over it for steep descents.
I can honestly say this is the best “short fit” saddle I’ve tried so far (fizik, selle Italia, san marco, specialized and prologo to name a few). I think WTB should change the name though as it’s good enough for a lot more bikes than just the gravel models
more details on this saddle can be found on the WTB Website
UK GRAVEL COLLECTIVE 