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Reviews > Review: Ragley Cheeky Mountain Bike Saddle
Review: Ragley Cheeky Mountain Bike Saddle
SUMMARY: The Ragley Cheeky is a hard, narrow saddle which I found uncomfortable, however the main issue is the shape of the back. I can only assume that this saddle was designed by rampant, militant feminists intent on creating a race of eunuch mountain bikers.
+ Lightweight.
+ Cheap-ish.
– Too narrow for me so uncomfortable.
– Sharp tail and sticky covering catches testicles and shorts.
– Time will tell but looks like it’s not built to last.
In July I crashed my bike when my SRAM mech decided to take a trip around my hub, causing me to plow a furrow with my elbow and at the same time bending my Charge Spoon saddle beyond repair. Time for a new saddle, and that saddle was the Ragley Cheeky, partly because I fancied a change but mainly because I liked the design! I have been guiding in Spain on this saddle for around a month so have had plenty of time to form an opinion on how it works for mountain biking. Read on for my review.
The Ragley Cheeky is reasonably light for a mountain bike saddle, weighing in at 218g, compared to the Charge Spoon which is 294g. Part of this weight saving is undoubtably due to the narrow shape, however there is a definite lack of padding compared to the Charge Spoon saddle. All saddles, mountain bike or otherwise, are a very personal item and one man’s delighted derriere is another man’s is another man’s aggrivated arse. It was very obvious after a day of mountain biking that, for me, the Ragley Cheeky was around as comfortable as proctology. This is a very personal thing though so if you like narrow, hard mountain bike saddles then this could be the one for you.
The other think I didn’t like about the Ragley Cheeky saddle was the shape of the back combined with the material covering the saddle. It would no doubt be fine for a road bike saddle, however mountain bikers need to be able to move behind the saddle and back on easily and the combination of the sharp fins at the back of the Ragley saddle and the grippy rubberised coating had a bad habit of catching, and ripping, my shorts. In fact they had a bad, bad, bad habit of ramming right into my testicles and leaving me cursing everything about the saddle whilst crouched on the floor cradling my bruised plums. This didn’t endear me to the saddle. The coating on the Ragley saddle exasperated this effect by preventing the shorts from slipping over both the nose and the tail of the saddle.
The logo and design of the saddle looks great and there are plenty of colour options to help you match to your mountain bike, if that’s your thing! The saddle covering extends a good distance under the saddle and, in places where it could come loose, the edge is covered with plastic to protect it. The coating material is quite soft though and I have some wear on the tail and nose already so I don’t expect that this saddle is going to last as well as something like the Charge Spoon. Ultimately mine is going to last a long time though because I’m going to remove it from my bike and confine it to the spare parts box while I still have some unripped shorts!
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