The Selle San Marco Concor Racing Team saddle is narrow, firm and lightweight – a saddle with a focus firmly on performance.
We’ve tested it since May, and after the inevitable period of adjustment that comes with replacing a familiar perch, grown to appreciate it.
Its most notable aspect in use is a curved profile, both at the nose and the tail, and so significantly different from our usual perches: the Fizik Arione and PRO Falcon.
Riders who prefer a saddle to sit ‘in’ rather than ‘on’, those which curve upwards at the rear of the shell and provide a surface to push against, such as the Fizik Aliante or Charge Spoon, may find much to like here.
The most immediately obvious factor of the Concor is the lateral curve in the nose. On long, seated climbs, and during efforts on the flat, when we moved forward on to the nose, this was especially notable and took a little getting used to.
The tail is slim even by the standards of racing saddles. It proved a decent match for our sit bones, but this is unlikely to be the case for all. Any saddle should be tested before purchased (most manufacturers now supply local bike shops with clearly marked test models) and we’d certainly advise doing so with the Concor.
If you’re a fan of saddles with a flat profile beneath the sit bones, such as the Fizik Arione or PRO Falcon, the Concor is worth investigating
We were impressed by the effectiveness of the BioFoam padding, which provided a decent amount of absorption from road shock. It’s extremely firm, but surprisingly deep, given the San Marco Concor’s slender silhouette. The carbon elements of the base are likely to have played a part here, too. Padding, however, should always be secondary consideration. The shape of the Concor suited us and so the padding was a bonus.
Selle San Marco trumpet the “anti skid” properties of the cover, and its fair to say it the mildly textured surface provided more adherence than others we’ve tested, proving consistently grippy in a range of shorts (Etxeondo’s Bira, De Marchi’s Contour Plus and Nalini’s Rusco).
The XSilite rails, a mixture of titanium, silicon and carbon, offered a stable mooring, and their conventional round profile made sliding the Concor in to an Easton EC70 seatpost a simple enough task. They looked great, too, bringing us to our final point: the Concor’s appearance.
The look of a bike can made or broken by the saddle, and the Concor added a further dash of elegance to RCUK’s Kinesis Racelight TK3. Our limited edition sample was released to commemorate the Concor’s appearance in an eleventh Giro d’Italia, and is finished with a lightning bolt design in the celeste green of the Bianchi Oltres ridden by Vacansoleil-DCM, which, surprisingly, provided an attractive contrast with the TK3’s baby blue. Of greater importance, however, given the numerous colourways available, the Concor’s silhouette is likely to make it an attractive addition to any machine.
We’ve been very pleased with the Selle San Marco Concor Racing Team saddle: an opinion shared by an illustrious line of riders only slightly more accomplished than your correspondent (Bettini and Hinault to name just two). The “Racing Team” of the moniker are key words. It’s a light and slender saddle intended for performance. If this matches your requirements, and a test confirms that matches your physique, then at £99.99 we’d say it represents good value for money.
Price: £99.99
Website: Selle San Marco
Distributor: Madison
