What type of person are you ?
Are you person 1 who follows the crowd and will go with the conventional ?
Or are you person 2. who is open to new methods and potentially innovative new ways of looking to improve and do things better.
Two strange questions to start a cycling blog with but in the case of The Essax Shark Saddle its actually very important. The reason for this is that person 1 will immediately ridicule the picture below where as person 2 will be intrigued to know more.
British Cycling & Team Skys success was built by a lot of person 2s by the way.
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| The Essax Shark is available in Black & White with 3 rail options and 2 fin options |
I have to admit when I first saw the shark my person 1 was trying to come out in me,my chimp if you like to use a Steve Peters analogy but overall I was intrigued by this thing that just looked wrong on every level. It was at Eurobike that we got some serious time to sit down with Essax and have the explanations of why Essax saddles are so special. As I sat there listening to Erlin from Essax explain the features and benefits of the brands products I quickly realised that these guys are not just looking to produce pretty looking saddles. Oh no these guys are looking to push the envelope of saddle design with innovative new ideas and technology.
AF-NET TECHNOLOGY
AF-Net or Anti Fatigue Net to give it its full title is a matrix built into the shell of every Essax saddle. Its a matrix that stiffens the shell which helps get more out of your pedal stroke with nothing being lost by the shell flexing . The Essax website claims a performance gain on avg of 4.7% and 70% more resistance to dynamic fatigue across all tests. By anyones standards they are some very lofty claims indeed so I asked if Essax would commit to another totally independant test against a Fizik Arione.The Arione is the worlds best selling and most popular saddle, there was no hesitation " Give us 2 weeks " they said confidently.
True to their word 2 weeks later a testing report landed in my inbox for the models Adrenaline R and Shark against a Fizik Arione using a top professional rider from Caja Rural.
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| Essax provide saddles to the Caja Rural Pro Team who ride the Tour Of Spain every year... |
Now Im afraid I cant divulge the fantastic results of the Shark till the Spring but as boasted the Adrenaline R had a clear 2.5% performance gain over the highly rated Fizik. I have posted the comprehensive test report at the bottom of this blog where you will see that each time the rider had a lower heart rate to maintain the same power so hence he was working less to maintain the same power output on the Essax Saddle.
Now 2.5% may not sound a lot but over a sportive it adds up to a lot when your working hard for 6-8hrs and any help is good...right ?
Also its important to note that Essax has saddles in its range for every genre of cycling. Yes the Shark,Adrenaline R and 226 are geared around cutting edge performance with Af-Net,Biomechanics and low weight. The great thing is that Essax also has saddles for Sportive, MTB, An entry level saddle in the MX-R for £24.99, Urban saddles, biomechanical saddles to help with loss of sensation in the Singel and the Advance 2. They even have a family saddle in the Malmo and the great thing is that they all have the same Af-Net tech built into the shell as the more expensive performance models.
The Shark Saddle
So based on seeing the testing data for both the Shark and the Adrenaline R I decided I want a bit of this and ordered a Shark with Titanium Rails from Essax. Having made that decision ìts key that you order the right spec. What im about to say now is my advice from working with the brand and my understanding of the product which is now very detailed. The Shark comes in 2 fin sizes with the medium being the largest and the small being the next size down. If you are wanting to do any disciplines where you are sat down for the majority of the time like track, time trialling or triathlon then the medium fin is for you. If you are looking to do road riding then the small fin is the one to go for.
Setting it up & 1st Ride
The one thing that Essax make very clear is that the fitting of the saddle is absolutely crucial to getting the advantages from the design and not having any obvious problems with having a fin positioned in the wrong place. They strongly advise going to a professional bike fitter and I concur with that advice. It does come with a 4 page A4 fitting guide which I decided to use to set it up myself on the turbo trainer as I have been educated on the product.
Starting off the saddle should be absolutely flat and level so a spirit level is required. I started off by setting it in a fairly central position on the rails and got on the turbo, i didnt get very far before I realised that it was set too far forward and to quote the fitting guide the fin was aggrevating me :-/.
I then went through an hour of making micro adjustments till it felt right. You should feel it but only as a guide making you sit properly centered on the saddle. Did it feel odd at 1st , surprisingly not at all because when your sat on a bike your not sat straight upright you are at an angle so the highest part of the fin is away from you. It felt comfortable straight away with you feeling that you are sat right on your ishial sit bones as you should be. You can feel the fin but not in an uncomfotable way, its just there centralising you on the saddle.
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With me 90 minutes into my 1st ride it began to feel very normal and its hard to put it into words,my weight left/right and forward just felt in a better place as I turned the pedals,, you feel so much more stable and you dont rock as much in fact it makes you realise how much you rocked from side to side before. Rocking on your saddle and hip rotation affects your effiency and performance massively so you immediatlely feel like your making more watts count. After another couple of rides my sitbones will get used to this position and I know then that I wont even think about the saddle again.
Benefits
The shark is pretty obviously a revolution in saddle design rather than evolution so why did I put one on my bike. Well after learning about the AF-Net performance gain I was always going to put an Essax saddle on my bike of some sort. Originally I was going to go for the Adrenaline R as its a high performance saddle that comes in a raft of colour options to colour co ordinate my beloved steed.
Over time though I started to realise that the shark had extra benefits on top of the Af-Net. This was born out by the staggering test results that the shark came back with over the Fizik Arione which will be published in the Spring.
The truth is that a very high percentage of us dont sit correctly on our saddle and favour our stronger side, in my case im right handed so I sit slightly to the right and pedal prodominately with my right leg. This is not good biomechanically on your back in particular which can lead to other muscular problems,aches,pains and its not very efficent. It also gives you a much more stable platform which prevents hip rotation and rocking on your saddle, most of us do this without realising it.
When you ride the shark for the 1st time you realise this as you feel in a different position to before but now the correct position. Now that I am sat in the correct position without realising it I am now pedalling more evenly and efficently with my right and left leg, not rocking and making every pedal stroke more efficent thus improving your performance.
The wattbike is a great piece of kit and is designed to help you to pedal more evenly as well as being a great training tool in many other ways, the shark helps you with this same philosophy.
When you put the Af-Net, the biomechanics and the peddling effiency together you have a huge gain in performance by using this product and we have the testing data to prove it, mine will be staying on my bike for a long time to come. Also its worth mentioning that one of the Caja Rural Riders rode the 2014 Tour of Spain on the Shark after feeling its benefits in training performance wise and with a medical condition he was suffering with.
If the Shark feels like a step too far then as mentioned all Essax saddles feature the performance enhancing Af-Net technology. The extensive range consists of Biomechanical, Road,MTB,Urban,Womens and Triathlon saddles.
You can view the full range
here on the distributor website.
Im convinced from working with the brand that in the coming years Essax will become the next BIG saddle brand.
People are generally scared of the unusual and its easier to go with the crowd to feel comfortable. Did people laugh at Graham Obree's style or Greg Lemonds aero helmet when they first saw it,Yes but they were not laughing when one was breaking records and the other was helping him win a Tour De France.
Right now some very influential people who's job it is to find an extra edge for their athletes have seen the data which is conclusive and are taking the next steps of investigation. If this comes to fruition then the scepticism would disapear over night because these guys dont put anything on a bicycle unless its got a good damn reason for being there.
Dont be person number 1 and dismiss on looks alone ,be person number 2 and know that every time you head out on your bike you will have a significant advantage over all those person number 1s on your club ride, sportive, time trial or race..
Ride Strong
Craig
P.S Another nice feature as well is that every Essax saddle is hand made in Spain, no far eastern mass cheap production here which trust me is very rare these days in the cycling industry.
Testing Report Essax Adrenaline R with AF-Net v Fizik Arione
Please notice how in depth this test is even quoting the temperature/humidity and be aware it is totally independent.
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