A Useful Review – The Shimano Pro Stealth Sport Saddle

I’m finding that some saddles that used to work for me don’t anymore. To prevent numbness, and even pain, I’m finding greater comfort on wider, flatter saddles, which brings me to the Shimano Pro Stealth Sport Saddle. I’ve removed my beloved Fi:zi’k Arione from my Bishop road bike in favor of the Stealth Sport. At the risk of sounding silly, I will admit that months have passed as I’ve worked to adjust to seeing a different saddle on it.

We’re seeing saddle makers introduce a new generation of saddles, ones that tend to be shorter and wider than we saw in the past. The idea here is based on some basic biological realities. First, we aren’t well-served by long saddles; sure, under a hard effort we tend to move forward on our saddle to try to increase our mechanical advantage, but a good fit will reduce that urge to negligible amounts. Also, if we want to keep bloodflow to our netherest of regions in order to reduce (or eliminate) numbness, we will keep our sit bones on the broadest section of the saddle.

Wider saddles increase the surface area that supports our keister. More surface area means distributing pressure over more of our backside, which promotes bloodflow. It’s the difference between wrapping a rubber band around our finger three times vs. a dozen times.

Flatter saddles also help us by focusing our weight on our sit bones without placing all of our weight on them. I’ve verified that this compromise works for me on long days in the saddle where I haven’t had much cause to stand.

The Shimano Pro Stealth Sport saddle comes in two widths, 142mm and 152mm. I’ve been riding the 152mm width and loving it. Construction is pretty standard: chromoly rails, plastic shell, EVA foam padding and a vegan leather cover. 

Rather than feature a consistent-width channel through the middle, the Pro Stealth Sport is designed with a channel that grows wider the farther the channel is from the nose of the saddle. The cutout is more than 2cm across at roughly where a man’s perineum would be positioned. 

The saddle goes for $120 at retail. They make higher-end versions that are lighter (and more expensive), but at 200g give or take, I’m unable to see this saddle as not light enough.

Shimano also makes an offroad version of this saddle, one that lacks the holes of this version as well as a more durable construction; we will review it in the not-too-distant future.

Final thought: Would it look silly if I put one of these on my e-bike?