Hobson Easyseat Ergonomical Dual Pad Bicycle Saddle

I keep putting off writing this review because I have so many good things to say about it that it would take forever, so I'm just going to be brief and write some bullet points: Pluses: ========================== * I have tried a ton of ergonomic seats and this is the best. I use it every day and it is very comfy. The best seat I've ever used. * The two pads rotate as you pedal, so they are constantly supporting you without jabbing you in the leg. You can sit back on them or sit more forward in a racing position. They cradle your sit bones, just as they advertise. * The material is rubbery and grippy without being able to absorb water. No more wet butt after leaving the bike in the rain. * I have tried this seat in a number of configurations: high, low, angled up angled forward. All of them were comfortable. Because these things rotate, wherever you put the seat it will sort of conform to the way you are using it and be nice. I'm not saying you can't find a bad way to set it up, but they are very flexible and should accommodate a lot of different postures and bike styles. Minuses: =========================== * This seat is surprisingly heavy. It weighs significantly more than the Schwinn no-pressure, another seat I used and thought was really heavy. The rubber is quite thick and weighty. It doesn't stop me riding or anything, but it's not performance weight. * It is true that the little hand screws that maintain the distance between the two pads are pretty shoddy. They don't seem to hold it at a certain width as well as I would like. You can sort of make them work, but I could imagine ways to make it work better than what was implemented. Other: =============================== * Like all noseless saddles, this is likely to put extra weight on your arms if you use a normal shaped bike, and you have to keep both hands on the handlebar. I haven't tried any alternatives that were better in this respect, so it's par of the course. Anyone complaining about this probably doesn't have experience with alternative noseless saddles. * I tend to use this a little angled forward, so it is out behind me. In this configuration, I keep wishing my bike was a bit larger. If your bike is on the small side for your frame, you may not like this seat as much as people who have larger frames do. Just my guess. * After standing up to go up a hill or whatever, it takes a little time to get your butt situated in the right place on them again. Not a huge deal, but very true. TL;DR version: ================================= This is the best ergonomic seat ever. It is flexible enough that I think it would please many different body, bike, and riding styles. Stop letting bumps get transmitted directly to your perineum and get this.

The theory behind this seat is sound: no horn pressing on your delicate parts, so no undesired numbing or pressure on those areas. The pleasant absence of this is noticeable immediately upon mounting this seat. However, the design of the seat is so bizarre that I kept asking myself, "WTF?". The major problem is that the seat is too long. Whereas a regular seat has a middle part that sticks out forward, this seat has side parts that stick out forward. The wide part of the Hobson seat sticks out far longer than the wide portion of any regular seat, so now you have a completely different problem created. The result is that the front of the seat digs into the back of the thighs (when the seat is raised to achieve correct bicycling geometry, so as to get a full down stroke when pedaling, ie, the leg is almost straight). The only way for me to avoid the seat-in-thigh problem was to angle the seat down so steeply that I was no longer sitting on the seat, but rather *leaning* on the seat. This created the problem of no longer having something to be able to sit on. A person at Hobson suggested that I try sitting on the front, rather than the back of the seat. This created an improper geometry for riding and felt as if one were at a bar while sitting at the very edge of a bar stool. It felt wrong. An additional problem is the wobbling that is designed into the seat. Every time I braked, the seat tilted downward and I would slip off the seat. And when you pedal, you feel as if you're wobbling atop your bike. WTF! Your seat is your foundation. You don't want it to be rocking around beneath you unpredictably! Trying to ride with this seat felt like being in a comedy of the absurd. I was told by Hobson that the tilting is supposed to alleviate the problem of poking into the thigh. It doesn't fix the problem, and it just creates another one. I'm quite a tinkerer with things, but try as I might, I couldn't find a way to make this seat comfortable. Not with proper bicycling geometry, anyway. I'm puzzled by the positive reviews of this seat and why their writers didn't experience the same problem I did. I can only surmise that they have improper seat geometry positioning, with the seat set too low, so that their thighs don't angle down very far when they pedal. This is very common, I see this all the time when bicyclists pass by. I guess they don't know better. That's a possible solution to the problem, but it makes for very inefficient riding. I ride in the bent over "racer" position. If you ride in an upright position, your mileage, and geometry, may vary. The sad thing is that the problems with this seat would be very easy to fix and an improved version would actually be cheaper to manufacture. The first problem would be fixed by simply making the seat shorter. It would also save Hobson materials cost in manufacture. If you research competing products, you will see that they have seen the wisdom of doing this. Hobson even does this with their newer version. The second problem can be fixed simply by taking the wobble "feature" out completely. As they say in the software industry, it's not a feature, it's a bug! Fixing the flaws in the seat would make it simpler, cheaper, & better. Why Hobson sits on its behind and doesn't fix the design flaws in this product is a puzzle to me.

I use this one on my exercise bike at home which, because I value my joints, is my main source of cardio these days. I had tried wider seats, but I was still having...issues...because of the banana section in the middle and ... how to put this ... where my weight came to rest on it. (I think we all know exactly why we've come to this listing; I personally found this item after typing "t*st*cle friendly bike seats" into a search on this site.) This truly was the difference. I've used it regularly for more than a year since I got it, three times or more a week for 30-50 minutes at a time. No pressure on...areas of concern. No numbness after long sets. It does feel quite different than what you're used to at first, but it took all of five minutes to acclimate to it and I don't notice it anymore. It really is a superior design to the banana seats. The seat is a bit hard, and chafes a bit from extended use, but nothing terrible. If I had it to do over, I may have bought the one with gel in it for even more comfort. Overall, I would recommend.

Let me start out by saying that I believe this seat does what it says. By that I mean, when I am done cycling my cheeks are mildly sore, but my tender region is unharmed. I am a big guy pushing the weight limit and I have been able to increase my ride distance every time out since I got this seat a week ago. Here is the downside. Each seat floats side to side to adjust for each individual's "sit-bones". The screws that you tighten to lock them in place are practically useless. I read some other reviews stating that the seats kept coming together. In my case the seats were sliding outward. This caused the end caps to pop off and eventually the seats were sliding completely off the bracket. I am sure this is solved better in the newer versions of this seat, but if you are 300+, like me, then those options could be risky. I personally modified my seat in a simple way. I went down to my local hardware store and purchased $12 in hardware which seemed to have fixed the problem. First I purchased a half inch bolt that was 8 inches long, 2 large washers and a locking nut for the threaded end of the bolt. This setup went through the bracket that the seats are attached to, to prevent the seats from sliding off the ends. Just remove the plastic caps. The next thing I did was install a couple (3/8"-1 3/8') screw adjustable hose clams to the inner section of the brackets to keep the seats from moving to far to the center. This pretty much keeps the seats in place where I like them. Bottom line - This seat is definitely worth it if you have sensitive tender parts and need relief. The more you ride on them, the more you appreciate the fact that your cheeks feeling a little sore is soooo much better than the soreness to your tender bits. If you are heavy like me and/or are having trouble with the seats sliding around then I suggest doing some cheap and easy modifications like I did. It will make a world of difference and keep you from stopping your ride to make constant adjustments.

You're probably considering the Easyseat because it's the least expensive nose-less bike saddle on Amazon. Presumptuous statement I know, but that' why I chose it. Now, I've only been using the Easyseat for a couple of days at this point, so while I'm still reserving judgement to a degree, I do have some observations to share. I should disclose that this is the only such saddle which I have purchased, as of the time of this writing. This seat does indeed accomplish it's claimed primary task. Despite any other issues it may have, it does relieve the pain caused by excessive pressure on the perineal area, as most other reviewers have agreed. The primary problem I'm having with the Easyseat, is it's lack of adjustability. The range of width adjustment seems adequate, although the mechanism for securing this adjustment is primitive. But that's okay with me - it's less than half the price of most any other product making similar claims. However, the front-to-back adjustment is severely limited, due to the very short rails. That's important, as one must be precisely positioned for this seat to work. Another thing to consider, is that if you are replacing the seat of a comfort bike or cruiser, your existing seat is probably much higher, from the rails to the top of the seat cushion, than this one. My seat post is already extended to the max, so I'll need to purchase a longer post, if I'm to continue using this seat. This might be a potential issue with competitor's seats as well, I don't know. Other "disconcerting" items: 1. Lateral Stability - Not the seat itself, but the rider's stability on the seat. Deeper cushioning would probably lessen the effect. (This issue is a design consideration for all nose-less saddles.) 2. Digging into the back of the thighs while pedaling. (Reported by other reviewers.) It seems that the required exact adjustment and the need to precisely position oneself on the seat are the culprit. 3. Rocking fore & aft of the seat cushions. This is a design feature. I think it might not be so bad if the movement was dampened in some way. (Maybe being lightly spring-loaded would help.) 4. Difficulty mounting and dismounting. The seat seems awfully wide in the front, and the overly "grippy" foam rubber surface catches on clothing. A seat cover might improve this somewhat. My general impression so far is that this design has some underlying goodness, but was not really developed fully. It's as if it were a prototype brought to market before the kinks were worked out. I would like to recommend the following resource for anyone trying to understand saddle design, as I have found it helpful. Plus, it has links to lot's of different saddles. [...]

I have been riding for decades. Road and mountain biking. I have always been in the forefront of trying new seats because I never thought that folks needed to feel numb after a bike ride. So I upgraded every few years, looking for a more comfortable ride, but never trying out these unusual seat designs. Last fall, I decided to give them a try. I put one of these Hobson Easyseat Dual-Seat-Pad Bike Saddles on my indoor trainer and gave it a run for the winter. I loved it. This is the direction that bicycle seats should be going. I never felt a seat so comfortable; no butt pain at the end of an hour-long workout. Come spring in New England, however, it was time to give it a road test. That is where it failed. It rubbed me raw in the back of my thighs, right where the front edge of the seat met my legs. Part of the problem, I think, is that I was wearing bike shorts, and the padding that works so well on old-fashioned seats didn't work so well on the Hobson. After healing for a week, I tried several different rides looking for a comfort zone. Never found it. So ... I decided to gamble on another seat, the Spiderflex. This seat is similar to the Hobson, but by no means identical. It felt good from the first ride, though I made several adjustments to the seat before I hit my comfort zone. To give you an idea of how good it feels, today I completed a 25 mile ride on my mountain bike, with my heart rate averaging 133 for 1:40. At the end of the ride, I was tired, as you might imagine, but none of the soreness in my ham muscles that I have been used to for so many years. I no longer have a ham muscle recovery period of a day or so before I feel like riding again. The Hobson is around $25 USD; the Spiderflex is around $100 USD. The Spiderflex comes with a generous return policy, which is why I decided to give it a run, even at $100. So the Hobson is a sure winner for my trainer, and the Spiderflex goes on my road and mountain bikes. Your mileage may vary, but I heartily recommend both these saddles over the the traditional saddles. BTW, both of these saddles require learning some new balancing skills. Not a show-stopper, but I didn't realize how much the shape of a traditional saddle played a role in how I controlled the bike. Oh, and I used to have to periodically reposition myself to relieve genital numbness, and I no longer give it a thought. Bonus value! I no longer ride with padded bike shorts, and I am much more comfortable for it. I just wear a pair of loose-fitting shorts of a very flexible material. No more paying $50 and up for bike shorts, and then stuffing myself into them! Edit 2014-01-28: As a result of a recent comment, I realized that I should revisit this review. I reduced the rating to 2 stars. I kept the seat on my trainer, which I largely use during the winter in New England. The floppy seat pads are something that my wife and I never got used to. On the road, they'd flop at just the wrong moment and throw us off balance. In addition, the seat is not that comfortable with regard to the actual seat padding. I usually use some padding on the seat (a small towel, folded). I am old enough to have lost much of my natural padding ;-( Still, I like it over any traditional horn-type seat, so I don't see a need to toss it.

I have used this seat for three years for a 30 minute round trip commute. If you expect this to feel like a conventional seat, you won't like it. It does require that you keep you hands on the bars, since you cannot as easily balance and steer the bike from your crotch, since there is no extension of the seat between your legs. But that's the whole point, you sit on your sit bones, not your perineum. The rocker action of the independent seat pads, noted by some reviewers, is a normal and necessary feature, which keeps the seat from putting excessive pressure on the back of your thighs. The seat is very strong and mine shows no wear despite high miles. The plastic parts do not break, as suggested by one reviewer who obviously hasn't actually used the seat for any length of time. The seat requires a brief break in, and then becomes very comfortable. it is important to position the saddle for-and-aft so that your sit bones rest in the cup-shaped depressions in the saddle. For mountain biking, it has the significant advantage that you can remain in the saddle for uphill traction or downhill braking effectiveness without having your perineum hammered on the bumps. This is a real advantage for hard tail bikes, and since most people don't ride hands-off on trails anyway, the requirement to keep hands on the bars isn't a problem. Overall a great product.

I don't know how anyone is using this seat comfortably. I've tortured myself for nearly a year now, trying to find the right position for the two cushions, as well as for how to correctly sit on them, but simply cannot find a good match. I'm in pretty decent shape, so it's not like I'm trying to get a 250+lb rear onto these tiny cushions. Look, this is a SEAT; it should not take you months to figure out how to use it comfortably. You should be able to set the height, sit down and ride; end of story. Additionally, if anyone is using this for commuting... you're insane! Due to the design, you cannot steer the bike with the seat (as mentioned in other reviews), which means you are extremely unstable even with only one hand on the handlebars; you can forget about riding with no hands. In turn, trying to signal with your hands is very dangerous. In fact, even looking over your shoulder is a little unstable. I've done quick 10 minute rides, as well as hour-long road trips with this seat and I'm not comfortable on it in the beginning, the middle, or at the end of the ride. I feel I've given this seat more than a fair trial and it failed miserably. I just picked up the Velo Bio:Logic Bicycle Saddle based on those reviews. Hopefully that one will be better; although, I can't fathom how it could possibly be any worse! UPDATE 12/03/2013: I hate when people don't return to a bad review they wrote and mention what they eventually found and LIKED, so I'm making sure I don't do that. The Velo Bio:Logic seat I mentioned above is working quite well so far, but I was only able to enjoy it for about a month before the weather got too cold. I'll write a thorough review of the Velo when the weather warms up and I return to my daily biking. I want to give it more time on my 50 minute commute to ensure I don't change my mind. If I can commute for 5 days straight without any pain, it will get my full endorsement. UPDATE 05/16/2014: The Velo Bio:Logic seat is working, but I don't think it's perfect. I find I need to stop and stretch after about 30 minutes of road cycling. I may try out the Spiderflex another commenter mentioned. UPDATE 08/07/2015: The Spiderflex may be expensive, but it really is comfortable. Absolutely no complaints about that one.

Malísimo NO SIRVE PARA NADA.

Pretty easy set up. Shipped when it said it would. I bought this product because I have never found standard bike seats comfortable. They always put a lot of pressure on all the wrong place (I am a male). I'm not athlete and when I ride my bike I like to sit. This seat takes all the pressure of those wrong places and puts it just on your butt. which is perfect. The only problem I could mention is that the seats themselves could be a little softer. overall great product.

Order arrived unuseable (and obviously not new). An essential bracket was missing. Hard to imagine that this item left the store accidentally in this condition. So much time and effort wasted selecting, ordering, tracking and returning.

This was not a good experience. I had to pay for the shipping back. When it arrived, there was a part missing. I think it came from Vegas. I won’t do that again.

I had reached the point where I could not ride on any conventional saddle with a horn for more than 20 minutes without being in agony. With the EasySeat I, I can ride for hours with no discomfort. Having your weight on your sit-bones rather than the nerves around your prostate does away with the pressure and pain much more effectively than a padded seat or some of the other designs that attempt to solve this problem. Ideally, prospective buyers should try both the EasySeat I and the EasySeat II before buying. For me, the EasySeat I is much more comfortable and gives a solid connection to the bike, although the EasySeat II is still far better than any conventional saddle. Aggressive mountain bikers might need a horn on their saddle for a better connection to the bike during tight turns, but for recreational or commuter-style riding the lack of a horn doesn't matter. Highly recommended!