Yes It's 4 Bike - Selle SMP Forma

The radical design of Selle SMP saddles tends to elicit a strong response from clients.

There is no question the design approach is a radical departure from the norm and anything but conventional.  After some miles on Selle SMP’s Forma, I feel it is my duty to let the skeptics know that Selle SMP’s saddles are nothing to scoff at. 

Yes, those are zippered crotch bibs.

I have to admit that I was among the skeptics at first, but that maybe had something to do with my introduction to the company, an introduction that came by way of an illustrated catalog that featured bibs with a zippered crotch and illustrations of men and women evacuating their bladders en plein air.  

While Selle SMP is a relative new comer to the US market, it is a company steeped in tradition with over 60 years of saddle making experience to its credit.  To this day Selle SMP saddles are 100% made in Italy. 

Designed On Your Body

There is no shortage of medical research covering cycling and genitourinary disorders and research findings have clearly influenced the approach the design team at SMP took in developing the saddle line-up.

Guided by their slogan, Designed On Your Body, Selle SMP set out to accomplish one fundamental goal in designing their saddles:
 to reduce pressure on the perineum and neuro-vascular structures in order to decrease the incidence of genitourinary problems and disorders in cyclists.


The Forma on Look's E-Post.  A book balanced on top is level. 

As you might guess by the name, the Designed On Your Body concept studied the ergonomics of the rider/saddle interface closely.  As Selle SMP rightly points out, ergonomics is a preventive discipline, with the purpose of studying how to avoid damaging effects and the company by all appearances has designed a series of saddles that will do just that.  

The SMP line-up is characterized by four distinct features: 

1. The nose of the saddle: the characteristic "beak" shape has been designed to provide a flat base when sitting, for example when facing long uphill climbs and as help on descents, offering greater bike control using the thighs.  The design keeps the testicles from being pressed upward.

2. The central channel: its unusually large dimensions keep pressure off the rectum, prostrate, pudendal vein, the dorsal vein and artery of the penis, scrotum and testicles, the vulva and clitoris.

3. Cyclist's sitting position: body weight is divided between the rear and the lower part of the ischial tuberosities. The position is helped by the rear profile of the saddle, shaped in such a way to avoid pressure on the coccyx when riding on rough roads.

4. The length of the bars/frame: it permits any cyclist to find the correct position on the saddle and fore/aft along the rails, making installation and use particularly easy.

On Test: Selle SMP Forma

The Forma is composed of a nylon/carbon blended shell covered by leather and uses tubular steel rails.  The Forma weights 230 grams and is 273mm long and 137mm wide.

Beyond the radical shape, one of the first things you noticed about the Forma when you get it in your hands in that fact it is not padded in the least.  I've never had particularly strong emotions about any one saddle, though I have always been befuddled by those 100% carbon, rock hard saddles.  It seemed to me that it would take a real masochist to use one.  Needless to say I was a little skeptical about the Forma for not only the aforementioned catalog reason, but also because it seemed to me to be one of those saddles the devil himself had helped to create.

While the saddle installed easily, if you're at all like I am and tend to jump in head first without stopping to glance at directions, you might be left scratching your head for a hot minute trying to figure out how to position the saddle.  You should position the saddle so that if you placed a book on top, it would be level.  Leveling requires the nose of the saddle to be higher up than might seem normal, but it is all by design.  In other words, properly positioned there will be a 'valley' in the middle with a 'peak' on either side.   

Now, saddles, clothing, shoes, and helmets are difficult items to objectively review because comfort and fit are entirely subjective, so bear that in mind while reading the following.

Before installing the Forma I had used only 2 other saddles over the course of the last 5 years and I had grown quite accustomed to them. That being said, remarkably enough, from the moment I first sat a top the Forma we saw eye to eye.  I have tried the saddle with my Look Ultra bibs on, which have a very plush chamois, and in jeans just for the hell of it.  I do ride back and forth to work chamoisless a lot.  In both instances, I couldn't have been more comfortable.  The chamois only enhances the saddles inherent comfort.  

The depression in the back end keeps pressure of the coccyx

You can individually identify each of the 4 key design elements when you're on the saddle.  The rear of the saddle with it's slight upswing gives you a great platform to push off with and its 137mm width, while not the widest out there, was more than adequate to properly support my ischial tuberosities. 

Looking at the saddle and its profoundly wide center channel you find yourself wondering what part of the body the saddle is actually going to come in contact with.  You are left wondering if because the usual areas that bear the brunt aren't loaded up, new sore spots would develop in places you never before knew existed.  Turns out it's the superior ramus of the ischium, which isn't particularly wide, but lines up well with the structure of the saddle providing excellent support in the right, non-pressure sensitive places.  The profound nature of the center channel leaves no chance for unwanted pressure, and there is no discernible performance or comfort sacrifice from having such a minimal structure to the saddle.  Selle SMP definitely did their homework. 

Very long rails provide great fore/aft adjustability.

When you're riding you feel very secure, craddled by the saddle in fact.  The lack of padding was never an issue and the nylon/carbon blended shell had just enough forgiveness built in that you stayed firmly planted on the saddle in comfort even over rough terrain.  The length of the saddle itself and its rails combined to offer a  number of different, comfortable,  in the saddle position options as well as a ton of fore aft adjustability.

If you've been struggling with finding the right saddle, I'd definitely give one of SMP's offerings a shot.  The Forma more than exceeded my expectations in terms of comfort and performance coming as close to a glove like feel as I have ever found in a saddle.  The exceptional build quality is just the icing on the cake and exactly what you would expect from a storied Italian saddle maker like SMP.

Brian

brian@racycles.com