MTB Buying Guides

Review: PRO Griffon Women’s Saddle

We test and review the PRO Griffon Women's Saddle for MTB

For me, finding the perfect saddle is just as difficult as finding that holy grail of a good fitting sports bra.

Boobs and bums come in all different shapes, sizes and symmetries, so finding that “one” saddle to comfortably see me through a ride has become my sole quest for comfort.

A little bit of sore saddle bum is expected after a long day trail blazing through the mountains, but when I found I was being left sitting on one side of my bum-cheek for a few days, I decided to go in search for a new MTB saddle.

Your hands, feet and bum are the three main contact points between you and your bike. It’s important to make sure these points are taken care of with proper support from you, and your bike components.

Since you’re not likely to be sitting down for long periods, a MTB saddle doesn’t generally need to be that padded. It does need to be fairly narrow so you can quickly get behind it for those downhill sections, but remain wide enough for your sit bones to be supported.

My first test guinea pig was the Griffon Women’s Saddle from PRO. A sister company to Shimano, PRO work with professional racers, such as GT Factory Racing and the Madison Saracen teams, to develop and produce high quality bike components.

The Spec

The Griffon saddle from PRO looks great. Sleek and thin in design with clearly displayed markers to help you fit it to the bike. There’s a hollowed out recess for pressure relief as you would expect to find with most women’s performance saddles.

The saddle has hollow rails, and it’s reinforced with a carbon base which saves a lot of grams on the overall weight. It’s available in two widths, 142mm and 152mm which is great news for those with wider sit bones. It has a more rounded shape than a traditional MTB saddle, which is claimed to better suit a woman’s pelvis.

The Ride

I’ve put a fair few miles into this saddle since fitting it to my mountain bike. I’ve taken it on pedally flat, all mountain and downhill trails to get a proper feel for how it fits in all riding conditions.

Overall, I find this saddle quite comfortable, even on the long gruelling climbs, however this comfort is offset by the rounded shape which is a little too wide for downhill style of riding.

The nose end rubbed on the inner sides of my thighs, although not enough for me to say it was uncomfortable, just noticeable. For those techy downhill sections, I found the saddle jutting a little wide when throwing myself behind it.

However, the lightweight high density padding was a godsend on the more uneven terrains – I felt noticeably less uncomfortable than my previous saddle.

I think this saddle is great for more XC riding, where you’ll be sat down for a fair part of the journey, but it may be too inconvenient for the downhill disciplined. It’s lightweight, well built and it looks great and for that I think the £80 is well worth it for the product you’re getting.

Pros:

Lightweight – Comfortable padding – Good support

Cons:

Little rubbing – A little too rounded for quick downhill

Saddles are difficult to get right. There’s certainly no “one rule” for the perfect saddle, and many of us will go through several before finding the one for them.

Although I found the saddle more comfortable than my previous one, I’m still holding out in case something better suited to my derrière. So watch this space as my quest for comfort continues…

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