Kuhl Ride Racer Saddle

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The rails on the saddle fit any standard two rail seatpost, so mounting it up is no different than any other saddle. There is a generous amount of fore/aft adjustment available on the prototype I was supplied with. I was able to match my standard set up with ease, but had to play around a little bit with the height as the saddle does allow you to sink in a little bit more than the standard “hard” race saddles that I usually ride.

Over the last couple of weeks, since I wrote the Preview, I have ridden the saddle on two relatively unforgiving aluminum framed bikes: a Kona Jake The Snake cyclocross bike and a GT Avalanche 1.0 hardtail mountain bike. Neither frames have much flex in them.

The Kona is currently sporting 28c tires running at 85psi and the GT has 26”x1.95” tires running at 65psi. Both bikes took on my daily commute with the saddle as well as some longer rides over a mix of conditions that varied from regular asphalt to rough dirt roads and trails. Pressures in the saddle were tested ranging from dead flat to barely deforming when squeezed by hand.

The Kuhl Ride Racer surprised me. Frankly, I’m a tough guy to make happy when it comes to saddles; so much so that if I ever mention needing a new saddle to my wife, her eyes immediately roll back in her head while she simultaneously shakes her head and sighs…

And, while it didn’t feel perfect with the initial guessing of how much pressure I needed, a few pumps of air made it a little better; a few pumps after that put it right where it felt good. It was time to take it out into the world.

Commute

On the roads of my commute, the saddle smoothed things out a bit; there was noticeably less road vibration. Big hits from potholes or lane markers were still felt, but the chattery tarmac that you can feel through the handlebars was not felt at the saddle.

There are also a couple of brick path crossings that I had to do a double-take on. because I was surprised at how little buzz I felt. I did notice that if I let my cadence creep up, it would get bouncy a little sooner than my regular saddles, but I took this as a reminder to mind my pedaling form – with a nice even pedal stroke at reasonable RPMs, there were no bouncy issues – even at low or medium pressures.

Lunch Power Hour Ride

This is bit of a litmus test for circulation. I head out for around 17 miles on a mostly flat and fast lollipop shaped loop around a local airport. The only out of the saddle time comes when I ascend an overpass going out and coming back in. I’m pretty much in the drops 90% of the time or until my legs give out and I have to sit up. Pretty much every single saddle has made me go numb to some degree on this ride. The Kuhl Ride Racer performed flawlessly. I was able to sit, put power to the pedals, and stay in position the majority of the ride. No numbness issues.

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