$40 VS $400 3D-Printed Saddles – TESTED

[00:00:00]One of these is a £30 3D printed saddle and the other is a £300 3D printed saddle. But, which one is which and, more importantly, which one should you buy? Let's find out.

[00:00:16]So, first up, this is the Trek ALX RSL Air Loom saddle and it costs £329.99 at RRP. This one is a Riot 3D printed saddle that I picked up from AliExpress last week for £32. In this video, I'm going to tell you whether it's ever worth spending 10 times more on a 3D printed saddle or whether you can actually just get away with buying a £32 one off AliExpress. All right, first impressions. Let's start with the £32 Riot saddle and I have to say I'm actually really, really impressed by this. It's got a what looks like a forged carbon fiber base and the rails are kind of I mean, they are like almost like look like they're molded on. Now, I assume they are epoxied on, but the way that it's done is very impressive. You can't see the epoxy joining the rails to the base. And then, on top of it, obviously, we have this kind of very traditional 3D printed lattice that we've kind of all become used to. And does it have dual density lattice? Not so sure. It's quite a firm padding. It does seem quite uniform across the kind of whole width of the saddle. Now, whether that'll be a problem or not, you're going to have to stick around till the end of the video to find out, of course. But, at first impressions, you know, it doesn't feel too dissimilar to your standard foam In terms of weight, this one is coming in at Is that all right, Felix? Should I go down to here?

[00:01:39]A scan 152 g. Like, that's surprisingly [laughter] light for a £32 3D printed saddle. And all in all, incredibly impressed. If you would said to me that this, you know, if I saw this in a bike shop and it cost £32, I would think that was an absolute steal. Right, and [music] then we come on to the Trek saddle. Now, this also looks quite premium. It has a nice kind of matte carbon aesthetic, and you can see how nicely they've cut out the kind of like I suppose this is 3K carbon there.

[00:02:08]It definitely has dual density. It's much firmer, in fact, than the the Riot saddle, and you can feel the differences in squishiness, you know, between this area here and then [music] this area at the nose. This is noticeably softer here, and that's obviously just to reduce the kind of soft tissue pressure.

[00:02:24]The rails are very long on this saddle, and that's nice. Although, there is a funny warning here that says I'm only allowed to use Bontrager seat posts, and I don't have one of those. But, we'll be going ahead with the video anyway, otherwise this would be pretty boring.

[00:02:37]The one thing I would say about this saddle is you can very obviously see where the rails are glued onto the carbon base, and it's not that it looks bad, necessarily. It's just that you can see the epoxy, whereas with the Riot saddle, you can't see that. So, that's a kind of interesting feature. Despite this costing £10 more, this one does almost look a little bit more handmade. Now, I guess you could take that as good or bad, you know, is it good that something's handmade? Is it bad that something looks a little bit rough and ready? I guess for £330, maybe you expect a little bit more polish, but of course, you won't see it once it's on your bike. In terms of weight, this one comes in at Oh, it's actually heavier. That's incre- >> [laughter] >> It's actually heavier. So, the other one was a 152?

[00:03:22]>> Yeah.

[00:03:22]>> 152.

[00:03:25]So, I mean, it's not much, is it? What, [music] 16 g? But, still, you know, £30, £329.

[00:03:32]Not bad. All right. So, in terms of shape, I have got a kind of short-nose modern racy design with a cutout on both saddles. Now, I picked this Trek one specifically because I happen to know that I like the Aeolus shape. I've got a number of the cheap ones, the kind of foam ones with alloy rails on my bikes, and I know the shape works well for me.

[00:03:53]And so then I tried to pick this one. It was the closest match I could find. But it is worth noting that with these Riot saddles on AliExpress, >> [music] >> they come in a number of different shapes.

[00:04:03]So you can basically choose whatever you want. Now of course the Trek one, this ALS shape is one of its kind of signature shapes. And if you don't like this, then of course Specialized, Fizik, loads of other saddles make similar 3D printed saddles for similar prices.

[00:04:15]Obviously what you're paying at the top end is for carbon rails and the lightweight and all of that good stuff.

[00:04:20]Now where we see a big difference between these saddles is in terms of padding. Now this one, [music] it's much much squishier. You can see I can poke it with my little finger here. It really gives a lot of give. Whereas in contrast, the sit zone of this is much firmer.

[00:04:34]Now you might think, well, obviously you [music] want a softer comfier saddle, right? But in my experience, actually a firmer saddle can be quite good because if it's too soft, you can end up basically you're putting all your pressure on that solid carbon base below and it's not actually being supported enough.

[00:04:49]Whereas a firmer foam, you got to you know, realize I'm not pressing down on that with very much weight. But once I've got my full caboose on the saddle, it will be much more compressed. So I think that'll be really interesting to see in the next section where we ride these saddles, which one is actually more comfortable and whether it does actually make any sense to spend a bit more on one of these saddles.

[00:05:11]>> [music] >> All right. So we are out here. We have our first 3D printed saddle which I'm about to swap over onto my bike replacing the standard Trek ALS saddle that I have on here, which is a normal one with normal padding. This one's about four, five times the price. We'll see if it's any better. And whilst I'm getting it set up, let me run you through why you might want a 3D printed saddle in the first place. So the basic idea with 3D printed saddles is that because they are 3D printed rather than just a kind of uniform foam, is that basically the brands can vary the density or the kind of firmness or the softness of the foam or the kind of padding across the saddle. And obviously the idea of that is that it's basically more comfortable. So, on this Trek one, the padding's firmer at the back here where you're sitting, you're putting all your weight, and then it's softer at the front. Obviously to reduce soft tissue pressure. And that's kind of basically it. There are other advantages to the manufacturers like, you know, 3D printing means they can iterate a bit more quickly, test out a few more prototypes. I'm really mucking this up here, Carl. I can't quite get this over.

[00:06:13]There you go.

[00:06:14]Can't get it in. Can't get it in. That's what she said.

[00:06:17]And there are also some brands that offer custom models. If you've watched any of our recent Tour de France videos, you might have noticed that Tadej Pogačar has a custom 3D printed Fizik saddle, for example. And that is obviously in theory shaped exactly to his rear end and therefore maybe perfectly comfortable. Obviously it's worth remembering that he is sponsored by Fizik, so that obviously helps, too.

[00:06:37]But yeah, and that's the basic idea.

[00:06:42]All right, first up, we are on the Trek Aeolus RSL 3D printed saddle. And first impressions?

[00:06:53]Uh it's uh it's very similar, to be honest. It's like definitely a bit firmer under my sit bones. Not necessarily a bad thing.

[00:07:03]Um not getting any noticeable pressure on the front, which is good on the soft tissue, but you know, to be fair, didn't really get any on the standard one, either. I mean, you know, all in all, I'd be very happy with this. It's a comfy comfy feeling saddle. But then I like the other one as well.

[00:07:26]You know, the standard padded one was also good. I think if anything, the standard padded one is a little bit has definitely got a little bit more give.

[00:07:34]So, if you don't like a really firm saddle, this might this one might not be for you. Is it worth huge increase in price?

[00:07:43]To be honest, I'm not I'm not convinced.

[00:07:46]Definitely lighter.

[00:07:50]But, would you pay a lot for that?

[00:07:54]£330 versus, you know, roughly 50.

[00:07:59]That's a lot of money to save a couple of hundred grams. It's the same with saddles, really.

[00:08:06]I think the shape in general is far more important than the padding and what material the rails are or the base is.

[00:08:16]Obviously, I know that I like this Trek Arvada shape. I've done so a long time. It's a nice kind of short saddle.

[00:08:23]Nice big cut out, not too wide, especially at the front. Nice scoop at the back.

[00:08:29]So, it works for me.

[00:08:30]So, yeah, no surprises this is comfy.

[00:08:33]But, like I said, whether it's worth that extra money, well, I wouldn't be buying one with my money, let's put it that way.

[00:08:42]If I tuck down, you know, I'm not I'm not feeling that nose when I'm tucked down a bit more aggressively, and that's good.

[00:08:49]You can Is that because of the kind of special density? Maybe, but like I said, I don't really feel the nose in the other one either, really. I think if you really do, maybe your saddle's too high or your reach is too long.

[00:09:04]I would sort those things first before I pay loads of money for a super expensive saddle, I think.

[00:09:15]All right, there we go. So, that's the first saddle. Now, like I said, it didn't really feel all that different to the uh one that I had on there before, which is a basic foam one, but probably not going to expect it to be that different cuz the shape is absolutely identical, and that's really the thing that makes the most difference. But, the moment you've all been waiting for, let's get the £30 AliExpress 3D printed saddle on the bike and see if it's any good.

[00:09:42]All right.

[00:09:43]Now, we are on the Riot 3D printed saddle, the first of the kind one.

[00:09:50]So, first impressions, well, it is definitely softer under my sit bones.

[00:09:59]Is that a good thing?

[00:10:00]Yeah, not sure to be honest. I don't think it is. I actually think a firmer saddle under your sit bones is good.

[00:10:08]Definitely not uncomfortable though, actually.

[00:10:11]You know, I'm pretty happy here.

[00:10:14]One thing is I noticed is it's definitely grippier.

[00:10:18]I can feel myself sinking into it a little bit more maybe.

[00:10:22]Like hitting the base.

[00:10:27]It's definitely not as supportive.

[00:10:29]You can say that.

[00:10:31]More comfortable, but not as supportive.

[00:10:33]Now, one area there is a great difference is when you get down into the drops.

[00:10:40]And the thinner padding on the nose is obvious there's a lot more pressure on that soft tissue compared to the Trek 3D printed saddle.

[00:10:53]And it's funny really, I think the Trek is where this is where the Trek does it better.

[00:10:59]The Trek is firmer under your sit bones where you want it and then softer at the nose.

[00:11:05]Whereas this is the opposite, firmer on the nose and softer at the rear.

[00:11:12]At first impressions though, is it 10 times worse than the Trek saddle? No, of course not. And for 30 pounds, you can't really complain. Any kind of saddle for 30 pounds is not too bad and the shape is good.

[00:11:22]Getting over that. One thing I also think with this saddle is the surface is definitely grippier.

[00:11:30]So, if you like to kind of shift around on your saddle, that's slightly more difficult. It seems to grab my shorts a little bit more than the Trek one.

[00:11:38]Perhaps because of that more open lattice.

[00:11:42]Um Yeah, not a big deal.

[00:11:47]All right, let's wrap this one up. Is a £30 3D printed saddle as good as a £300 3D printed saddle? No.

[00:11:56]Probably guessed that anyway. I mean, the main problem with this is not the shape. The shape is actually really good. It is obviously light. It looks really well made.

[00:12:03]Uh it's just kind of too padded in the wrong areas and they're not padded enough at the front. So, this is quite soft even for me. I'm 65 kilos. You kind of feel the hard base of it quite quickly. And then here at the front, the padding's very thin. And so, when you're down in the drops, it's a little bit more uncomfortable, especially this part here. Like, it's really firm here. That said, for £30 it is still like an amazingly good saddle because I don't think you could walk into a bike shop and get a saddle that was this shape and this light, made out of carbon fiber with a 3D, you know, for £30. That's that's kind of outrageous. Would I keep this on my bike long-term? I don't know.

[00:12:39]We'll see. Because the only thing we didn't test today is durability, but that matters just as much for the £300 one as it does for the £30 one. So, stay tuned for another video on a longer-term test. We'll see how that holds up. Other than that, don't forget to like, subscribe, all of that good stuff. And if you want to see more AliExpress cycling stuff, check out this video on some of the best things I bought from AliExpress over the last few years.