The Ground is a dedicated off-road saddle for mountain biking, adventure riding and gravel
(Image credit: Selle San Marco)
Selle San Marco has released a new range of saddles that caters specifically to off-road markets including mountain biking, adventure riding and gravel.
The new saddles are an evolution of Selle San Marco's GND saddle, which is another off-road specific saddle in the brand's range. Where the new Ground saddle differs is in its dimensions. The Ground saddle comes in two widths, narrow (140mm) and wide (155mm), which are 5mm wider than the corresponding GND widths and have a shorter length of 255mm. This results in quite a curvaceous shape to the saddle.
Short-nosed saddles have gained increased popularity in the road and performance gravel markets, with many brands adding snubbed saddles to their ranges. Selle San Marco claims that reducing the saddle length by 7mm to make it more compact improves performance and comfort when riding over technical terrain.
Selle San Marco has made some off-road specific design considerations with the Ground range to better optimise it for dirt riding. Off-road riding often involves climbs that are far steeper than you would find on a road ride - and which require the rider to stay seated in order not to lose traction - so Selle San Marco has given the Ground saddle a pronounced raised section at the tail to offer better support when pedalling up extreme gradients.
All the saddles feature a cut-out for pressure release and use Selle San Marco's Pullfoam to offer variable thickness padding for comfort and vibration absorption.
Selle San Marco will offer three saddles in the Ground range. The Sport is an entry-level saddle with carbon steel rails, which weighs a claimed 350g and will retail for €49.00. The manganese-railed Dynamic and DNA Carbon-railed Carbon FX saddles reduce weight to 290g and 215g and will cost €79.00 and €149.00 respectively.
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