The Most Misunderstood Component on Your Bike (And How to Get It Right)

Downtime - The Mountain Bike Podcast

Downtime MTB

Sports, Leisure, Fitness, Health & Fitness, Hobbies, Wilderness

4.9 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How much thought do you really give to your saddle? It’s one of the most personal contact points on the bike and yet, for most of us, it’s also one of the least understood.

This week, I’m joined by Sean Madsen, a true expert when it comes to bike fit and saddle design. Sean’s spent over 25 years working with some of the biggest names in cycling. From developing products used by the pros, to helping everyday riders find real comfort on the bike.

We get into what actually makes a saddle comfortable, why numbness and pain aren’t something you should just accept, and how things like shape, padding, and rail material all come into play. We also chat about the future, 3D printed saddles, new materials, and how often you should really be replacing yours.

So, if you’ve ever wondered whether your saddle’s helping or holding you back, sit tight, this one’s going to change the way you think about one of the most overlooked parts of your bike. So sit back, hit play, and enjoy this episode with Sean Madsen.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube here.

You can checkout the entire range of WTB products over at wtb.com.

Podcast Stuff

Episode Sponsors

WTB

This episode is a paid partnership with WTB, who’ve supported us to bring you this conversation. If you’d like to check out WTB’s full range of saddles and other products, you can find them over at wtb.com.

Canyon

Canyon recently launched the Neuron:ON CLLCTV and it’s a whole lot of fun to ride. With a gravity ready spec and the latest Bosch motor, this is an insanely good bike for £5149. Check it out over at canyon.com.

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Photo – WTB

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Human crotch is not designed to bear weight, but we're going to sit on a bike seat.
0:08.0	Hey everyone, I'm Chris Hall and this is the downtime podcast, the podcast for the true fans of
0:12.8	Gravity mountain biking, taking you deeper into the sport than anywhere else. This episode is sponsored
0:17.8	by Canyon and is a pay partnership with WTB who've supported us to bring you this conversation. Over the last few weeks, I've been lucky enough to spend some time riding the Canyon Neuron On Collective. Canyon engineers have taken the Neuron on and turned everything up at notch to make it an awesome gravity-ready e-bike. For 5,149 pounds, you get the latest Bosch motor with a removable 800 watt hour battery,
0:39.6	kit it out with a 160-mill Rockshock Zeb Ultimate. Add in Sram Maven brakes, their new Eagle 90
0:45.0	transmission and Shrollby's Magic Mary radial tyres, and you've got a bike that is ready to hit
0:49.5	the trails hard. I also don't think I've seen a better e-bike spec at that price. Riding the No-None Collective is a whole heap of fun. As with all canyons I've ridden, it's really easy to get to grits with and you're quickly hitting trails at full speed. As e-bikes go, it feels playful and manoeuvrable, but the Zeb Fork and Maven brakes inspire confidence to hit things faster and faster each run. Then you've got that insanely good Bosch motor to take you back to the top, ready to go again.
1:15.2	The Neuron Collective is available now in all sizes from Canyon.com.
1:19.5	All right, just a couple more quick things before we get stuck into this episode.
1:23.0	Make sure you never miss an episode by following the podcast.
1:25.5	Hit that button in your podcast app now or find dedicated buttons for all the major platforms at downtimepodcast.com forward slash follow.
1:32.3	You can also keep up to date with what's going on by following us on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok
1:36.3	where we're at Downtown Podcast. And if you're hungry for more downtime, then you can join the
1:40.4	newsletter at downtimepodcast.com forward slash newsletter. That and all the links I've
1:45.1	mentioned will be in the show notes for this episode on the website, downtimepodcast.com. All right,
1:50.2	how much thought do you really give to your saddle? It's one of the most personal contact points
1:54.5	on the bike and yet, for most of us, it's also one of the least understood. This week, I'm joined
1:59.3	by Sean Mazen, a true expert when it comes to bike fit and saddle design.
2:03.7	Sean spent over 25 years working with some of the biggest names in cycling,
2:07.7	from developing products used by the pros to helping everyday riders find real comfort on the bike.
2:12.9	We get into what actually makes a saddle comfortable,
2:15.5	why numbness and pain aren't something you should just accept, and how things like shape, padding and rail material all come into play.
	...

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