Selle Italia SLR Boost TI316 Superflow saddle 2020

The Selle Italia SLR Boost TI316 Superflow is a short-nosed, very light saddle that's designed to take the pressure off your soft tissues when you're in an aggressive position and to shave a few grams off the weight of its longer-nosed cousin. It does both of these, but at the cost – for me at least – of some all-round comfort. There's also reduced margin for error in its setup because of its small size, and it's also very expensive for a steel-railed saddle.

I was riding a regular SLR Superflow on one of my road bikes – which had been set up by bike fitter Giuseppe Giannecchini at Racer Rosa and was also the L3 145mm wider version – so was able to compare them directly. The Boost version of the SLR Superflow is 27mm shorter at 248mm and has essentially the same geometry rear of the nose and the same stainless steel TI316 rails (note, TI316 isn't titanium, but titanium-stabilised steel) – but I found that taking the nose away also took away an element of comfort.

> Buy Now: Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow saddle from Merlin Cycles for £169

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The theory with short saddles is that all the pressure is borne by the ischial tuberosities, your sit bones, taking the pressure off the perineal soft tissues for both men and for women. Perhaps I am more of a fidgeter than I realised – and at this point it's useful to emphasise that saddle choice is always highly personal – but with the more static position that the SLR Boost Superflow encourages, because of its smaller size, I did suffer some sit bone ache that I don't experience with the regular SLR Superflow.

I was able to set up the SLR Boost Superflow very accurately because even though you can't measure from the tip to the centre of the bar any more, the rails are exactly the same as the regular SLR Superflow's, so I simply clamped them in the same place. Stack height is also the same. However, it wasn't so straightforward swapping it with a saddle that had different-length rails and geometry – more about that later.

With such a dramatic cutout – which works very well for a high pelvic rotator with an inflexible lower back like me – a bit of flex is welcome, and the regular SLR Superflow supplies enough. But the Boost saddle feels less compliant because of its shorter length, the padding is slightly thinner and the edges of the cutout harder. I needed to shift around on the limited space there was, and sometimes get out of the saddle to ease the ache – which somewhat defeats the object of the Boost, which is designed to enable its rider to hold an aggressive position pain-free for longer.

For low, aggressive road bike positions the shorter nose does allow the pelvis to rotate further without the rider sitting on the perineum, so if it does suit your sit bones and riding style I am satisfied it will indeed offer the claimed benefits.

Unlike other stubby saddles, such as the PRO Stealth or the Specialized Power, the SLR Boost does not have a wider nose than a regular saddle, nor does it have a split or central channel – though there is a slight central indentation. It's exactly the same width at the tip as the regular SLR Superflow's nose.

When I fitted it to my TT bike, it felt no different from a regular saddle: I found myself sitting on a narrow-feeling nose and, unlike with the road bike, it took a lot of trial and error to get it halfway comfortable. Normally I use an ISM PN 3.1 for time trialling, which supports the undercarriage via two slightly alarming-looking prongs rather than a single central nose, allowing me to sit right on the space where the rivet would otherwise be in total comfort. Selle Italia does, in its defence, have in its range time trial and triathlon-specific saddles such as the Iron Evo Superflow that work in the same way as the ISM.

While it may seem as though I'm struggling to see the point of the short-nosed SLR Boost (if you'll forgive the pun), Giannecchini the bike fitter loves short-nosed saddles, asserting that they fit the majority of men and women perfectly and that they are real problem-solvers for both novices and riders who struggle to find the right model. Proof, if any more were needed, that saddle choice is a very personal thing.

> Buyer’s Guide: 8 of the best short saddles

What can't be disputed is that the Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow is a beautifully made, high quality, very light premium saddle with a very high price tag. The Fizik Vento Argo R1 is £184.99 and has carbon rails (though it's 20g heavier) and the Specialized Power Expert is now priced at £120 and comes with titanium rails, although with a 233g claimed weight (235g on the road.cc scales) is heavier than the Fizik and considerably heavier than the SLR Boost Superflow.

In summary, the Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow is a beautiful saddle and very light, but it's got to be really comfortable to justify its high price. I found it on the hard side compared to the traditional SLR Superflow, which has a lower price of £189.99.

> Buy Now: Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow saddle from Merlin Cycles for £169

Verdict

Impressively light shorty saddle that shaves grams but also – for some – sacrifices a bit of overall comfort