Yes, the title of the post gives away the weight. What it doesn’t tell you is that Dash Cycles built this one up with their reinforced, heavier duty layup.
And it’s still just 111g.
With padding.
Dash Cycles builds their saddles by hand in Colorado, and the Strike 9 is the latest addition to an extensive lineup. You can order them to your liking, picking among various colors for the cover, logo and rails, as well as the amount of padding. They have three different layups depending on body weight, with limits up to 100kg (220lbs). The claimed weight for the standard layup and padding is 115g. Our test model, with the heavier layup, tipped in at just 111g.
So, it’s wicked light, but how ’bout that design?
The secret to getting their saddles so light is that they’re made as one piece.
The 7mm round rails are molded directly into the shell, the entirety of both being carbon fiber.
UPDATE: Measurements are 250mm long by 135mm wide.
You can just make out a few shades of black and dark blue color in the rails. They’ll also do red, orange, blue and yellow if you want. There’s no extra charge for it, but it adds a couple weeks lead time. All of this handcrafted airyness doesn’t come cheap, though. Retail is $465.
Once you’re over how light it is, the most dramatic thing about the Strike 9 is the shape. The padding and shape puts what’s typically the rear of most saddles about 1/3 of the way forward from the rear, leaving a mostly useless tail behind where you’d sit. The effect is that you’re sitting pretty far forward on the saddle, and there’s no nose sticking beyond your legs.
The idea is to provide a full range of hip movement. Monolink saddles have a similar raison d’être, with the single sliding rail allowing for a very slim nose so that it doesn’t interfere with your inner thigh and proper hip rotation. Dash’s Strike 9 simply eliminates the nose.
I’ve only had a short amount of time on the saddle so far, and it’s going to take a bit of getting used to. Mainly, I’m still trying to get it in the right position. Standard bike fit measurements for reach based on center-of-saddle distances are a little harder to nail down with this one. That said, it hasn’t been uncomfortable, just different.
The rails are really long at 90mm. That gives you plenty of room for adjustment, but my hunch is most people will end up clamping it near the front of the rails unless they have a post with lots of setback. These pics are at the time of first install, I’ve since moved the saddle back a bit, and it’ll likely go back more soon.
Close up, the saddle’s pretty unique looking. On the bike, it doesn’t look quite so odd at a distance.
First impressions aren’t bad. It seems to keep pressure off the perineum, which is one of the claimed benefits, but we’ll have to really get the position dialed to tell for sure. Positioned as shown here, I was riding a bit far forward, much like a triathlete tends to, but wasn’t slipping down off the saddle. The absence of a proper nose doesn’t seem to make you fall off the front. We’re putting lots of miles on it under several riders for a full review in the coming months.
