• Selle Italia SLK Lady Gel Flow saddle
• £60 approx
• www.selleitalia.com
• Rails: Vanox
• Weight: 215g

Men have been using slimline saddles with independant rear sections for ages now, but it’s taken a while for saddle makers and women riders to catch on to this. Here’s Selle Italia’s female version of the popular SLK Gel Flow saddle, it’s 13mm shorter from rear to tip of nose and 10mm wider. But apart from that the technical spec is almost identical.

Being a slender and performance oriented saddle there doesn’t look to be a great deal of padding as you’d expect, however the padding available is pretty high tech. It’s self modelling and shapes to your anatomy and there are gel flow inserts of silicone gel in differentiating thicknesses to provide padding where it’s needed most.

The independent rear means that both halves of the saddle are not directly attached attached aft of the cut-away section. The relevant rail provides the rigidity required and both halves are connected at the front of the cut-away section. This design allows each side to flex independently for enhanced comfort and shock absorption, coupled with the built in Elastomer suspension o shock absorber system the ride is more comfortable than you’d think from a first glance.

That said, it’s probably not the best choice for a newbie cyclist, whilst expert riders will love the performance with compromising on comfort. The SLK Lady is topped of with breathable full-grain leather cover available in black or white.

We’ve ridden the SLK Lady Flow on our road and mountain bikes and at first found it to be more oriented to the road, but as lovers of slender saddles and a more racey feel under butt, we were quite happy on either terrain. Weight obsessed racers should definitely consider this saddle to save a few ounces without a compromise on comfort.

Ups and downs

Positives: Lightweight comfort for performance riders

Negatives: Not for newbies

Verdict

Great to see a lightweight and performance saddle to suit a female butt – try before you buy.

Ratings

Performance: 4/5
Value: 4/5
Overall: 4/5