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Rido R2 Saddle Review: Touring with It
Published on May 8, 2011
by Zeng Xuyun in Cycling
Post Comment|'I Liked It'
"I give this saddle real credit for saving
me from the many pains of touring"
Rido claims that the R2 is a milestone in cycling comfort, and especially for men, because men have a very poweful appartus up front that the nose of a saddle can irritate. Some saddle makers have made steps to counter this, such as a cutout in the middle of the saddle, or even a noseless saddle, but the Rido line of saddles seek to avoid numbing that part by having two elevated seat cushions that put the pressure on your sitbones, and a recessed nose that keeps your weight off your jewels.
Innuendo aside, there’s no doubting the R2 is fugly. I can’t even qualify how it looks like. It’s Y-shaped, very distinctly. There are two humps on each side of the “Y”, and then a black erection for the vertical part of the “Y”. And then it has yellow accents in certain areas. There’s no other word that fugly. But I believe in Rido’s thrust of function over form.
Initially, the Rido R2 was truly difficult to get used to. It needs a lot of tuning to get right – you really have to adjust it so that your sitbones are directly on the humps, or else it would just feel funny. I got it right, but it still felt funny, because no other saddle gave me the same sensation of having all my weight placed on two areas on my butt. Usually it’s more evenly spread, over the crotch and butt cheeks. Without doubt, the former area is what Rido tries to avoid putting pressure on, which is why it feels so odd.
I couldn’t get used to it in my test rides while in Singapore. I thought, “man, would this thing really work?” And the biggest part about this doubt is that I still decided to take it to Taiwan, whereby almost everyday is A to B ride is a 10-hour saddle lovefest.
After the first day of long-distance riding, I did get to terms with the quirky ways of the saddle. I got used to its odd ways of putting pressure where it’s supposed to be. Over the next few days, I realised that the best thing is that I didn’t feel any unwanted numbness anywhere, unlike if I used the stock saddle that came with my bike, or the ‘flaming buttocks syndrome’ if I used a racing seat.
Day after day, I was doing 10-hour rides on this saddle, and I really found that it was a true joy to use. It isn’t comfortable per se – it’s not a sofa – but it does put pressure where it’s meant to be. In fact, I’m happy to say that even though I didn’t have prior training before I went to tour, I didn’t have what you’d call saddle sore. My butt didn’t feel like it was burning up. For that, I give this saddle real credit for saving me from the many pains of touring.
There are some downsides of this saddle, though. Obviously, the weight can be a true turn off for many people. It weighs 445g, which is practically double of what most people can accept. So if you’re a weight weenie, you’ll probably not be interested at all. It looks very quirky and unorthodox too, the irony is that, many people do take notice to it because of this.
The Rido R2 is quite an affordable saddle and it will save you from all the unwanted pains that you will encounter during cycling. Every time I got on it, it still feels awkward, but I know that even though it might not feel right, it is right, proven in 550km worth of touring, which I documented here.
It is now on my mountain bike and I’ll keep you informed about how it works as an off-road saddle!
http://sportales.com/cycling/rido-r2-saddle-review-touring-with-it/
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