Pro Falcon AF Saddle Initial Thoughts

My current saddle is from a stock saddle from a Cannondale CAAD8 built bike. It was soft and comfortable that riding without padded shorts will be an enjoyable experience. My ass loved it for most of the time. The only problem is that you'll see a huge Cannondale name splashed all over the top. It doesn't quite fit in for a Giant TCR bike. If I'm going to swap the old saddle out for a different one, might as well pick one that is lighter.

324 grams for the stock Cannondale CAAD8 saddle

The saddle choices available locally are endless. I've seen brand new cheap ones from Php1,900.00 (USD 40.15) up to Php19,000 (USD 401.15) very expensive ones. The Italian made saddles are very expensive. You can get an equally good non-Italian saddle for half the price. I've never owned an Italian saddle in my life but online reviews are not leaning towards absolute heavenly greatness. There are some butts out there tend to feel otherwise. My search is now on to better valued saddles.

Today is the 10th day of the Tour de France 2016 edition. I've been following it with a little bias towards Team Giant Alpecin. I was never a fan of them before because of the ugly kit they are sporting but now I have been rooting for them albeit slightly. My bike is nowhere near anything Italian (I have mostly Taiwanese and American brands on it but everything is Taiwan made) and Team Giant Alpecin has Pro components. This made my saddle brand selection a bit easier.

If you want to view the my current bike as of this writing, click here.

PRO's saddle selector program gave me three shape options. Falcon, Turnix, and Griffon. The Falcon and Griffon are bad ass looking creatures. The turnix though, is not. If Pro has a different bad ass predator Turnix in mind other than the button quail that Google provided, then I might be wrong. The Falcon falls under the flat saddle shape.

215 grams for the Pro Falcon AF

A quick plunge down the scales yields a weight of 215 grams. Weight-wise, this goes head to head directly with Selle Italia's Flite Flow with same 316 Ti rails (210 grams on paper). But weight bears little weight on saddle talk. What's more important is the fit and comfort.

Just for comparison, this is a list of available saddles in the 200g range and their current Philippine market price. The following are arranged from cheapest to most expensive.

• Pro Falcon Hollow AF
• 215g (205g advertised) 
• Php 2,980 (USD 63.13)
• Pro Turnix Hollow
• 205g
• Php 2,975 (USD 63.02)
• Fizik Arione CX
• 205g
• Php 3,90 (USD 82.62)
  
  
• Selle Italia Flite Team Edition
• 215g
• Php 6,500 (USD 137.70)
• Selle Italia Flite Flow
• 210g
• Php 7,500 (USD 158.88)
• Selle Italia SLR Kit Flow
• 200g
• Php 8,000 (USD 169.47)
• Prologo Nago Evo CPC
• 206g
• Php 12,000 (USD 254.21)

For less than 10 grams difference, I cannot justify the huge price difference. You can buy another Pro saddle even before it wears out.

The saddle looks like a plateau.

I've only used this saddle for a couple of kilometers. Not long enough for a proper review. But my initial thoughts is that while the thin profile felt a bit flimsy, it gave a firmer and more stable ride compared to the old stock Cannondale saddle. Even though the old saddle position and angle was copied for the new one, there's still a need for some fine tuning.

I'd prefer raw finish for the rails as the scratches would be less evident. I'd prefer the blue rubber branding though.

Before fiddling with the idea of using PRO saddles, I've come acquainted with Italian brand saddles, especially those mentioned above. While I've never gotten the chance to try them all, partially because I might be compelled to buy after a week long saddle loan, I did get to squeeze the hell out of their padding. One will assume that mid to high range performance saddles, regardless of brand, felt that way. Not on this Falcon saddle though. You can really see your fingers dig in. At that point at the store I told myself I had to get it.

The white graphics on the saddle lines up nicely to the white seat post.

Don't mind the dog. He always gets in the way of everything. I'd say if he has human legs, he'd ride my bikes. I've already cycled through 5 bikes while he's around, not counting the bikes of my brothers.

My wife ain't even worried about how my balls are doing with all the hours spent riding bikes.

The "Air Flow" in this saddle, at first glance, is a bit narrow for me (he he he). But it conveniently exposes the knob at the clamp for easy adjusting. You can turn it from the bottom if you have little fingers. You might get a different experience with a different seat post.

The front faux carbon fiber trim is skewing to the right a bit. This is what you don't deal with with Italian hand made saddles.

The graphics are done tastefully in my opinion but I would've picked the latest iteration with less white color. Pro could've done away with the carbon fiber part as it is obviously fake. It does cheapens the overall package considering this is in the top area of Pro's performance range.

Now that the physical aspect of this saddle has been fairly discussed, I shall move on to riding it and write how it felt.