ASTUTE MISS LINE

£129.99 Italian craftmanship, comfortable ride?

Women’s bike saddles are undergoing something of a development trend at the moment, with brands waking up to the fact that what suits one rider may not suit another, thanks to differing sit bone widths and the size and positioning of the delicate soft tissue parts of female anatomy.

The dimensions of your saddle, and whether you prefer one with a relief channel in the middle or not, is therefore a very personal decision. Getting the wrong saddle can lead to a pretty unpleasant riding experience and if you’re attempting a longer race such as an Ironman, wearing a trisuit with an often more minimal chammy, that’s not something to be taken lightly...

So how does the design of the Astute Miss Line here fare? From the off this saddle feels high quality, with bi-density progressive memory foam giving a firmer feel on the sit bones and a softer feel towards the nose, to suit different riding positions. The saddle is based around a nylon carbon frame, which is curved into a round shape, to try and suit different sit bone sizes (the saddle only comes in one size). We like the shape and although we’d wanted more padding under the sit bones when wearing a tri-suit, that’s a personal choice. The relief channel isn’t too wide and while the microfibre cover feels good quality, it was a touch slippy against our well-used tri-suit. Titanium rails and rubber sections do a good job of reducing vibration.