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Home | Product Reviews | Saddle | Bontrager Race Lite | ||||
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Submitted by
Caleb Cole
a Cross Country Rider
from Charlotte, NC, USA
Date Reviewed: 10/11/2007 2:50:00 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $40 |
| Purchased At: | Bike Line |
| Strengths: | I have the Race Lite TI rails, and i love it! it is so supportive were i need it and the shape is comfortable for long riding. |
| Weaknesses: | None |
| Similar Products Tried: | other bontrager saddles |
| Bike Setup: | schwinn hardtail with front suspension, icon 90 degree t-stem, bontrager race lite lux ti seat, upgraded pedals |
| Bottom Line: | Buy it if you don't own it! |
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Submitted by
Steve K
a Cross Country Rider
from Columbia Falls, MT
Date Reviewed: 8/13/2007 7:53:05 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Flathead NF Fire Roads |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $85 |
| Purchased At: | LBS |
| Strengths: | ULTRA LIGHT! Super shock absorption. Looks great. |
| Weaknesses: | Weaknesses? |
| Similar Products Tried: | Vetta Trishock TT (great saddle, despite the reviews), Selle San Marco Blaze Arrowhead Gel (OH the horrible pain!) |
| Bike Setup: | 03' Jamis cro-mo hardtail, Manitou R7 Super, XT drivetrain, Avid SD-7 rim brakes, Bontrager Race Lite CRZ Ti, Eggbeater SL pedals. |
| Bottom Line: | What a huge relief to my pelvic bones! I can't believe a 205 gram saddle could be this comfortable. The shock absorption is amazing! The San Marco Blaze Gel I was riding should be classified as a weapon of a$$ destruction and banned! Lucky for San Marco there is no category to review that medieval torture device. I bought the Titanium rail version of the Bontrager Race Lite CRZ, and it was worth very penny of the $85 price tag. Highly recommended if you want a high comfort ultra light saddle. |
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Submitted by
CJ Parker
a Cross Country Rider
from NY
Date Reviewed: 4/24/2007 10:33:44 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 2 Years |
| Price Paid: | $100 |
| Strengths: | light and well designed for technical manuverability, looks nice also. comfortable. |
| Weaknesses: | none |
| Similar Products Tried: | multiple selle italia models road and off road, WTB SSX |
| Bike Setup: | Fuel 100, mostly stock except CK headset,egg beaters, and whatever tire choice is for the day. |
| Bottom Line: | Saddles are personal preference IMO but I was surpised at the negative reviews here. This is a race saddle on a race bike. The best Mtbike racing saddle I have ever used. I would even buy it as an aftermarket product. Never catches on technical situtations and provides easy manuverability. It's strong with the ti rails (a tad amount of flex) and is reasonably light at 220grams. I ride this on race day and 3-4 hour epic rides. It's comfortbale to me. I can't ask for more in a saddle. For road use, will keep my Flite Trans Am though. |
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Submitted by
loonyOne
a Weekend Warrior
from Waterloo, IA, USA
Date Reviewed: 11/20/2005 7:06:53 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Sugar Bottom |
| Duration Product Used: | Tested or demo'ed only |
| Purchased At: | Came on bike |
| Strengths: | Nice design with definitive accents meant for a reason. Titanium rails. Very light. |
| Weaknesses: | Very 'slippery' and very narrow. |
| Similar Products Tried: | WTB, Coda, and various other cheap ones |
| Bike Setup: | DeKerf Generation...Fox RCL100, XT and XTR bits, flavored with King hubs |
| Bottom Line: | First off, I'm a bonified WTB saddle guy. They fit me well. I have had quite a few of them and have never strayed...til now. Had some bikes stolen and this saddle came on one of the bikes I have replaced. Me no likey! Very slippery! It always felt as though I was in a different spot on the saddle, nothing like the 'grounded' feel a WTB gives. I am willing to give it some more chances, but as winter approaches, time in the saddle must be valued and appreciated, not fought with. Maybe I'll give it another shot next year. I slightly downgraded the rating to reflect my personal opinion of the fit. |
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Submitted by
Ross
from Scotland
Date Reviewed: 10/28/2005 2:53:43 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $50 |
| Purchased At: | alpinebikes |
| Strengths: | Killer looks, titanium rails, amazing price, low weight, comfort |
| Weaknesses: | That bontrager dont advertise there products! wish id found it sooner |
| Similar Products Tried: | Titec armour, specialized body geometry |
| Bike Setup: | Fisher hardtail, sram x9, rockshox reba race with poplock, fsa and bontrager carbon parts. |
| Bottom Line: | Just a well made good saddle, its really cheap so i was weary but its been really good, so comfy and when combined with the titanium rails and a carbon post takes the sting out of my hardtail. |
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Submitted by
Ken
a Cross Country Rider
from Kent, WA USA
Date Reviewed: 3/4/2003 2:19:40 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Purchased At: | Singletrack Bikes |
| Strengths: | The length of the saddle let's you really move around. Comfort, Shape. Styling. |
| Weaknesses: | It took awhile to get it adjusted right for me. |
| Similar Products Tried: | FS2000, San Marco Concur, Sella Italia TurboMatic |
| Bike Setup: | Klein Palomino Race, Stock |
| Bottom Line: | Saddles that feel great to some people don't to others. Obviously they are very personal. But for me this is a great saddle. Note that this is the Race model without the extra padding/gel and all the extra stiching. I would rather not have all the bells and whistles in a saddle. It did take awhile to get the nose angle adjusted properly, once I did the comfort level went up, Big Time. So the lesson is take the time to make minor adjustments to your saddle and it may pay off. Also you need to break in the saddle as well as your body. If you only ride occasionally you may never be comfortable on ANY saddle. |
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Submitted by
Sprocketeer
a Cross Country Rider
from Narashino, Chiba, Japan (native of New York)
Date Reviewed: 1/19/2003 9:38:58 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | I like it rough an' dirty baby! |
| Duration Product Used: | 1 Year |
| Price Paid: | $80 |
| Strengths: | Ti rails--If I knew before now that titanium rails made such a difference, I would have been using them for years and years by now. Gel insert--it's not too mushy. It does the job just right. Fantastic design--lots of stitching, just enough give, shaped just right for to be comfortable but perform better than any other saddle I've used. |
| Weaknesses: | That I didn't find out about it earlier. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Bontrager FS 2000--which the Race Lite was a replacement for. 1995 Selle San Marco--I think that was the model as well as the brand; a real torture trap which came stock on a 1995 TREK. TFI Liberator--made in Italy, extremely comfortable, but I completely wore it out. And a Vetta Gel, back in the day. |
| Bike Setup: | 2002 Trek 8000 with Shimano 959 pedals, Shimano XT bottom bracket and crankset, titanium skewers, Bontrager Race Lite titanium rail saddle, and Panacer Fire XC tires. |
| Bottom Line: | This is one of those saddles that, years later, your going to hang like a trophy on your wall or keep on the mantle just for show. I paid the difference on this saddle as a warranty replacement for a Bontrager FS2000 which ripped on it's own. It was a real shame too, because I thought that was the best saddle ever. But forget the FS2000; THIS is the best saddle EVER! Everything outside of comfort which is great about the FS2000 is far better on the Race Lite. When I first put it on my bike and rode it I thought it was actually longer than any other saddle I rode before. It isn't, but there's certainly more space to play around on with this saddle. I never rode a saddle before which allowed me to adjust my position mid-ride so much. And once you get it set just right for yourself it's very comfortable. Performance wise, it's like it's not even there. It's that easy to move both on it and around it. I like the colors, but I went with black because it fit the overall design of my bike well. I'm going to get a yellow one to go on my other bike. |
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Submitted by
Kevin Woodward
a Cross Country Rider
from Soquel, CA, USA
Date Reviewed: 1/11/2003 1:48:11 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | West Ridge, Forest of Nisene Marks |
| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $90 |
| Purchased At: | online |
| Strengths: | This is for a Race Lite Ti ... much superier to the standard Race Lite. Solid, bombproof. A little expensive retailing for $120, but you can find online for less. Hey, it looks *great* too. |
| Weaknesses: | It's hard as a rock if you're in it for longer than an hour, but my butt is way out of shape and all skin & bones. It's pretty comfortable overall, tho. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Lower end Bontrager. |
| Bike Setup: | 2000 Sugar 2, Thomson post and stem, Monkeylite bars, XT crank and bottom bracket, Panaracer FireXCPros, Eggbeaters, sucky stock wheelset (next and final upgrade) |
| Bottom Line: | Far better than I deserve. Pretty much a high-end product. Oh, don't buy the non-Ti version. It's a completely different saddle and basically, it sucks. |
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Submitted by
rave
a Weekend Warrior
from zurich
Date Reviewed: 10/16/2002 6:12:00 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $100 |
| Bottom Line: | "read" not "wrote". |
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Submitted by
rave
a Weekend Warrior
from zurich
Date Reviewed: 10/16/2002 6:06:45 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $100 |
| Bottom Line: | To the rider below my post. i wrote the reviews here and bought it for a try, yes this saddle are great as it is rated. to da dukester, No, u have to get the ti version with the gel padding and kevlar sides as it's more comfortable . and not the crappy cheap chromoly version with no extra gel padding and kevlar. Or you might be a heavy rider because i have a nephew too who are quite heavy. light racing saddles like many ranges of selle italia and many more does not suit him and it seems he have to go on for a downhill kind of saddle or pretty heavy SGD saddle. |
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Submitted by
DG
a Cross Country Rider
from Lake Zurich
Date Reviewed: 10/6/2002 8:27:32 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $50 |
| Purchased At: | performance |
| Strengths: | Lite |
| Weaknesses: | comfort |
| Bike Setup: | Gary Fisher full xtr |
| Bottom Line: | This saddle sucks! The people that have given this product a thumbs up must have purchased the buns of steel video! I have been ridding for over 10 years and have never had such a terrible experience in my life! If its so important for you to take a small amount of weight off your bike then get this saddle. If you would like to have a lite seat with some comfort then get something else. After reading the reviews from the other riders on this web site I went out and got this seat. What a mistake and waste of money!!!!! |
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Submitted by
sebastian
a Racer
from canada
Date Reviewed: 9/19/2002 10:30:45 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $120 |
| Strengths: | designs,comfort,light,colour sceheme. |
| Weaknesses: | so far, NO! |
| Similar Products Tried: | ranges of san marco and selle italia. |
| Bike Setup: | seven custom ti,full xtr,crossmax,sid ti etc. |
| Bottom Line: | Get the ti version, the padding is different from the cromo version ,enabling more comfort. |
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Submitted by
boski
a Weekend Warrior
from utah
Date Reviewed: 9/17/2002 10:32:55 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | sleek,cool design, everyhing u asked for in a saddle |
| Weaknesses: | sleek,cool design, everyhing u asked for in a saddle |
| Bottom Line: | sleek,cool design, everyhing u asked for in a saddle |
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Submitted by
PREACHER
a Weekend Warrior
from utah
Date Reviewed: 9/15/2002 11:56:56 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Bottom Line: | Have been testing many kinds of saddles over the years, although this is not the best of the saddles i have ridden but i reckon to give it 5 hot chilies in terms of design,price and comfort. |
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Submitted by
orton
a Racer
from mexico
Date Reviewed: 9/15/2002 1:02:32 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | Tested or demo'ed only |
| Bottom Line: | LOOKING FOR L337 DESIGNS? THIS HAD IT! LOOKING FOR COMFORT? IT GEL PAD HAVE IT! WILL BE BUYING 1 AFTER HAVING A GOOD TEST WITH MY FRIEND'S SADDLE. WILL BE BACK TO GIVE REVIEWS, STAY TUNED. |
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Submitted by
dave
a Cross Country Rider
from canada
Date Reviewed: 9/13/2002 7:59:43 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Purchased At: | 0 |
| Strengths: | pretty little thing, nice gel pad. |
| Weaknesses: | hate the B logo |
| Bottom Line: | weight 160 and riding a sc superlight. tried many saddle and this is one of them that suit my weight. |
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Submitted by
patrickson
from ny
Date Reviewed: 9/13/2002 10:50:46 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Bottom Line: | THUMBS UP FOR THIS SADDLE, NTHING TO SAY. |
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Submitted by
jeffery
a Racer
from NY
Date Reviewed: 9/13/2002 10:41:09 AM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | All |
| Duration Product Used: | 1 Year |
| Strengths: | weight,design,comfort |
| Similar Products Tried: | range of sdg product |
| Bike Setup: | f3000 connondale full xtr parts |
| Bottom Line: | I've had this seat for quite a while now and can't get rid of it. It is soo damn comfortable. Highly recomended... |
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Submitted by
johnson brick
a Cross Country Rider
from houston
Date Reviewed: 9/13/2002 8:23:04 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $47 |
| Bottom Line: | A premier racing saddle for road or mountain. Designed to minimize weight while packing in as many features as possible. The clipped ears add to the saddle’s performance while gel inserts, the pressure relieving B-dot groove and an elastomer-cushioned rail mount make the saddle more comfortable. Titanium rails make the structure last a long time while still minimizing the weight. SO WHATYA CAN I SAY =]] |
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Submitted by
johan hanson
a Cross Country Rider
from toronto
Date Reviewed: 9/13/2002 8:09:02 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Strengths: | A good seat build for race, light. Very cool designs. |
| Bottom Line: | it has it's strength and beauty that all i can say. |
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Submitted by
orion micheal
a Racer
from texas
Date Reviewed: 9/12/2002 12:08:25 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $50 |
| Strengths: | build for a racer ,comfortable(sitting posure position must be right.)Very nice designs. |
| Weaknesses: | TOO CHEAP |
| Similar Products Tried: | selle italia trans am |
| Bottom Line: | a goody and i mean it. |
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Submitted by
micheal orion
from texas
Date Reviewed: 9/11/2002 6:45:58 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Strengths: | it is a good seat perform like any other racing seat |
| Weaknesses: | must seat in the right posture position or ass sure pain. beside this is it top top top saddle |
| Similar Products Tried: | trans am |
| Bottom Line: | it rocks |
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Submitted by
kevin
a Racer
from chicago
Date Reviewed: 8/29/2002 10:49:28 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Purchased At: | stock on fuel 100 |
| Strengths: | light and well designed for technical manuverability, looks nice also. comfortable. |
| Weaknesses: | NONE |
| Similar Products Tried: | multiple selle italia models road and off road, WTB SSX |
| Bike Setup: | Fuel 100, mostly stock except CK headset,egg beaters, and whatever tire choice is for the day. |
| Bottom Line: | Saddles are personal preference IMO but I was surpised at the negative reviews here. This is a race saddle on a race bike. The best Mtbike racing saddle I have ever used. I would even buy it as an aftermarket product. Never catches on technical situtations and provides easy manuverability. It's strong with the ti rails (a tad amount of flex) and is reasonably light at 220grams. I ride this on race day and 3-4 hour epic rides. It's comfortbale to me. I can't ask for more in a saddle. For road use, will keep my Flite Trans Am though. |
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Submitted by
Brent
a Cross Country Rider
from Riverdale, NJ
Date Reviewed: 3/30/2002 9:27:31 PM |
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| FavoriteTrail: | Ringwood |
| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Strengths: | None that I can find. Well it looks good. That's about it. |
| Weaknesses: | Incredibly uncomfortable. No padding |
| Similar Products Tried: | Advocet |
| Bike Setup: | Trek Fuel 100 |
| Bottom Line: | Seat came stock on an extremely expensive Bike. I know the bike is intended for racing but good god. This saddle has no redeeming qualities other than the looks. Granted saddles are as subjective an item as they come but I have a hard time believing that many people will find this a good fit. It was so bad I put a ten year old ripped Advocet on my new $3K bike for my third ride. The level of enjoyment was night and day. I'm looking for a new saddle and already spent some serious cash on the bike. I absolutely love the bike Trek but seriously, draw the line somewhere with the home grown components. |
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Submitted by
Adam Jaffe
a Cross Country Rider
from Scranton, PA
Date Reviewed: 3/9/2002 11:54:09 AM |
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| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Strengths: | It looks good, I guess? Price |
| Weaknesses: | IT really hurts my ass. Anything over a 5 Mi ride has me sitting on pillows for days. I just got done with a 20 Mi ride and I don't think that I will be able to ride for days. The hologrammed seat pad that is sewed on not only weigs more, but it is hard and obtrusive. The gel insert does absolutely nothing for comfort. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Fizik Aliante...on order |
| Bike Setup: | Fuel 100 Lightened up |
| Bottom Line: | Bontranger is a tossed up company. They make horrible products like this and the comp crank, but then they amaze me with the Race Lite wheels and Crank. Usually the high-end stuff is reasonable, but this saddle is not. |
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Submitted by
Joe
a Cross Country Rider
from San Diego, CA
Date Reviewed: 11/21/2001 2:48:14 PM |
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| Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month |
| Price Paid: | $29 |
| Purchased At: | Performance |
| Strengths: | Looks |
| Weaknesses: | Too little padding |
| Similar Products Tried: | WTB SST.X, Specialized Body Geometry Comp |
| Bike Setup: | Standard Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo |
| Bottom Line: | I would only recommend this saddle if you spend most of the time on your bike out of the saddle, or if you have a titanium butt! I spent a few weeks with this saddle - pain, pain & more pain! There is not enough padding where the sit bones (mine anyway) come into contact with the saddle, which meant I had to take a week off after each ride to lett my butt heal. The groove does a good job of relieving pressure where it should. I also found the nose of the saddle had a tendency to catch my shorts when attempting to slide back on the saddle. Oh well, back to my WTB Speed V... |
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